Answering the Suldog's meaningless questions...

Coke or Pepsi? Coke
7-Up or Sprite? Sprite
Kool-Aid or Hawaiian Punch? Hawaiian Punch

McDonald's or Burger King? McD's
Wendy's or White Castle? Wendy's
Soyburgers or Tofu Dogs? MEAT!

Ginger or Mary Ann? Mary Ann
Wilma Flintstone or Betty Rubble? Betty
Laverne DeFazio or Shirley Feeney? Shirley
Marge Simpson or Jane Jetson? Jetson
Olive Oyl or Peggy Hill? Any of the above instead

George Reeves or Christoper Reeve? Christopher Reeve
Adam West or Michael Keaton? West
Clayton Moore or Klinton Spilsbury? How can you not love an actor so bad in his first role that he never got another? That said, Clayton Moore.

Playboy or Penthouse? Playboy
Gallery or Hustler? Is this a trick question?
Sports Illustrated or National Geographic? SI

New York Times or New York Post? Times
USA Today or Your Local Paper? Local
National Enquirer or Weekly World News? WWN

Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Donuts? Dunkin'
Jell-O or Pudding? Pudding
Ice Cream or Cake? depends on the flavors

Marijuana or Alcohol? Alcohol
LSD or Peyote? n/a
Heroin or Crack? n/a

Menthol Cigarettes or Non-Menthol? Neither
A Pipe or A Cigar? Neither
Snuff or Chewing Tobacco? Neither

Ivory or Dove? Ivory
Tidy Bowl or 2000 Flushes? Who cares
Charmin or The Sears-Roebuck Catalogue? Charmin

Alice Cooper or KISS? Cooper
Rush or The Guess Who? Rush
AC/DC or Black Sabbath? AC/DC
Deep Purple or Led Zep? Zep
The Who or The Rolling Stones? The Who
The Beatles or Chuck Berry? The Beetles
Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard? Little Richard

Baseball or Football? Football
Basketball or Hockey? Basketball
Volleyball or Lacrosse? Volleyball

Protestant or Catholic? Catholic
Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox? Reform
Atheist or Agnostic? Atheist
Big Bang or Creationism? Bang
Evolution or Devolution? Evolution

Slide, Swing, or See-Saw? Slide

Wedgie or Cup Check? cup check

Married or Single? married
Monogamy or Polygamy? monogamy
Gay or Straight? straight
Straight or Curly? bald
Curly or Shemp? curly
Shemp or Joe? shemp
Joe or Curly Joe? joe

Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly? Gene Kelly
Ginger Rogers or Cyd Charrise? Cyd

'62 Mets or '03 Tigers? 62 Mets

Superman or Spiderman? Superman
Batman or Captain America? Batman
Dr. Doom or Lex Luthor? Luthor

Carnivore, Omnivore, or Vegetarian? Carnivore
Vegetarian or Vegan? CARNIVORE
Vegan or Starvation? WHERE'S MY MEAT!?

The Three Stooges or The Marx Brothers? Marx Brothers
Laurel & Hardy or Abbott & Costello? Abbott and Costello
Martin & Lewis or Rowan & Martin? Rowan Atkinson count?

The Munsters or The Addams Family? Addams Family
Bewitched or I Dream Of Jeannie? Neither
Wife Swap or A Kick In The Nuts? A hard kick in the nuts

Boxers or Briefs? Depends on what I'm doing
Baggies or A Speedo? Baggies
Bloomers or Butt Floss? um...n/a

Sock-Sock-Shoe-Shoe or Sock-Shoe-Sock-Shoe?the first

Grecian Urn or Henway? Urn
And Don't Call Me Shirley or Take My Wife, Please? Shirley
Pie Fight or Genteel Social Satire Full of Clever Bons Mots?depends on the mood

Zombie Meme from my wife...

You are in a mall when zombies attack. You have:
1. One weapon
2. One song blasting on the speakers
3. One famous person to fight along side you.

1. An aluminum bat (I know, as a purist, I shouldn't go aluminum - however, I don't have to worry about reloading or the wood splitting).
2. Where is the Love by The Black Eyed Peas (what can I say, I'm a fan of irony)
3. Tony Jaa

I tag no one, but readers should feel free to participate in this one.

Memed...damn you wife, damn you

So, I've been memed.

Evidently I have to pick an album released for every year I've been alive. Damn pain in the ass wife. My only requirement is that the artist is someone I like. Where possible I utilized albums I particularly enjoy.

As always, the meme dies here...

1970 - Let It Be, The Beatles
1971 - Electric Warrior, T Rex
1972 - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, David Bowie
1973 - Quadrophenia, The Who
1974 - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Genesis
1975 - Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
1976 - Schoolboys in Disgrace, The Kinks
1977 - Talking Heads: 77, Talking Heads
1978 - The Kick Inside, Kate Bush
1979 - London Calling, The Clash
1980 - Kaleidoscope, Siouxsie and the Banshees
1981 - Moving Pictures, Rush
1982 - Security, Peter Gabriel
1983 - The Final Cut, Pink Floyd
1984 - A Pagan Place, The Waterboys
1985 - White City, Pete Townsend
1986 - License to Ill, Run DMC
1987 - In Real Time, Fairport Convention
1988 - If I Should Fall From Grace With God, The Pogues
1989 - New York, Lou Reed
1990 - Social Distortion, Social Distortion
1991 - Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Red Hot Chili Peppers
1992 - 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of..., Arrested Development
1993 - Fire of Freedom, Black 47
1994 - Under the Pink, Tori Amos
1995 - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Smashing Pumpkins
1996 - Sublime, Sublime
1997 - Urban Hymns, The Verve
1998 - Americana, Offspring
1999 - Rock Art and the X-Ray Style, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
2000 - The Distance to Here, Live
2001 - Sing Loud, Sing Proud, Dropkick Murphys
2002 - England Half English, Billy Bragg
2003 - Throwing Muses, Throwing Muses
2004 - American Idiot, Green Day
2005 - Knuckle Down, Ani DiFranco
2006 - Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam
2007 - Learning to Sing Like a Star, Kristin Hersh
2008 - Songs From Rain, Hothouse Flowers

Yet another meme...

4 jobs I've had:
Reporter
Stunt coordinator (music video)
Martial Arts instructor
High School English Teacher

4 movies I love to watch over and over:
All That Jazz
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Princess Mononoke
Lawrence of Arabia

4 places I have lived:
Chappaqua, NY
Boston, MA
Williamsburg, VA
Frederick, MD

4 TV shows I enjoy watching:
Scrubs
Eureka
Battlestar Galactica
Heroes

4 places I have been:
New Orleans, LA
Portland, ME
Venice, Italy
Aachen, Germany

4 websites I visit daily:
si.com
boston.com/
thecoffincorner.blogspot.com
bostonherald.com

4 favorite foods:
Chicken Scarpariello
Pizza
Beer (I write about it for a brewing newspaper, I better like it)
Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 places I would rather be:
Maine
Ireland
Massachusetts
New Orleans

Memed again...

So my wife memed me. I have to come up with eight random facts about me...

1. I love football. I played and/or coached for approximately seven seasons. The same number of seasons that I ran track, and played in little league. This upcoming year will see me playing my tenth season of Australian football.

2. The only athletic endeavor which I have been involved with longer is the martial arts which I started around the age of twelve and practiced regularly until I was 31. After a six year hiatus I have started teaching Kung-Fu again on a weekly basis. All-told, I have been at it for 20 of the last 25 years.

3. Growing up I never thought I would live south of the Mason Dixon line for any truly extended period of time. Boy, was I wrong.

4. I miss Portland, ME and have been gone from the New England city for too long.

5. Every year that the Aussie rules season starts, I think "this year's gonna be the last." I've thought that for about the last four. It never seems to take.

6. My wife is a hobbit fetishist - that's how we ended up dating in the first place.

7. I have interviewed Steve Sabol, and Olympic participants Bela Karolyi, Shannon Miller (gymnastics), and Kate Sobrero (soccer).

8. Somehow my journalistic career has taken me from writing about sports to writing about beer. It's not bad work if you can get it.

As always, these things die here with me.

Nailed with a meme

My wife's friend Anna nailed me with the following meme regarding books...

Total number of books:

Easily in excess of 1000.

Last book I read:

Currently I am reading both I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The last completed was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.

Last book I bought:

Technically, Kelly bought the Harry Potter...off hand, I would say Living to Tell the Tale.

5 Meaningful Books:

Let's see...five meaningful books, and I can't repeat anything Kelly had. Well that's just a nuisance considering I'm the one who introduced her to Matt Ruff, and I know I've read the book more times than she has. Since I can't use Fool on the Hill, guess I'll have to dig deep on this one -

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez. Read this for the first time in college. Absolutely brilliant.

The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien. Probably have read the trilogy (which I am counting as one book) close to two-dozen times. It never gets old. And if you're not impressed by a guy that has created a whole world, with history, different cultures, languages with gramatical structures, then you're just not worth my time.

Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke. Brilliant piece regarding mankind's evolution. One of a handful of books that I was exposed to in high school that had an impact on me.

Zorba the Greek - Nikos Kazantzakis. One of the other impact books from high school.

God Bless You Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut. My favorite from an author from whom I have a hard time picking a favorite. In the writer's universe of dark satire, there's something I always found to be gentle and nostalgic about this book.


Not much into tagging others, so in my case, the meme stops here...