The Interview Meme

Thanks due to Julie D. for the interview questions! Here are my answers:

1. The South makes me think of hound dogs. Also you seem to have a fondness for dog stories and jokes. Do you have any dogs?

Yes, we have one. She’s a shelter dog. We got her via an “underground railroad” of sorts that transports pets from a shelter to an adoptive home in a faraway place. We used to have purebred terriers, but we got her because one of our terriers died, and her surviving sister was pining for her.
The new dog loves to play with her squeaky toys, and she’s helped me quit swearing. How, you may ask? When we first got her, if we said a bad word, she would cringe and/or run. Apparently in her former home that sort of language was a harbinger of worse things to come. So now the dog trains me, rather than the other way around.


2. What is your favorite place in the South?

Boy, that’s a tough one. I can’t give away my location, but I can’t resist naming Wilmington, NC as at least one of my favorites. It’s a wonderful Low Country city, much like Charleston but less snobby. Plus, they make that terrific vinegar-and-pepper barbecue and the yummy fried shrimp.


3. If you could see one musician/singer in concert, who would it be?

Also a tough one! I’ll hedge and pick six, broken down by living/historic and pianist/singer/pop act.



• Living pianist: Andrei Gavrilov. His was my first recording of Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto, and I've rarely heard another pianist who could give the work the breadth and grandeur it deserves.


• Dead pianist: Sergei Rachmaninoff (he played two concerts in my hometown, but I was not yet born)


• Living singer: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (although I would rather have heard him when he was a good bit younger)


• Dead singer: Also a tossup; I’ll hedge some more and say Jussi Björling and Lauritz Melchior.


• Living pop act: Probably Alison Krause and Union Station. But I like so many it would be hard to pick.


• Dead popular act: Definitely Johnny Cash. Being the depressive type, I really “got” his writing and his worldview.



4. What is your favorite dinner dish?

More hedging -- what a surprise!
To make: Sweet and Sour Pork (taught to me by a friend from Singapore).
To eat: capellini or vermicelli with marinara sauce, mushrooms and spicy Italian sausage.


5. If you could magically appear in a movie, which one would it be and why?

Probably Gone with the Wind. I’d like to talk some sense into Scarlett, a good southern catholic girl gone wrong. And maybe I could talk my fellow Southerners into ending slavery before we shot up Fort Sumter.

To keep the ball rolling, let’s continue in this fashion, as Julie D. requested:

• Leave me a comment saying “interview me.”


• I will respond by asking you five questions.


• You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions.


• You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.


• When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. (Write your own questions or borrow some.)