By Louise Ure
I got tagged with this Facebook-originated meme by Janet Rudolph over at Mystery Readers International. Now, I like Janet. A lot. But I hate memes. They always seem to crop up when I’ve got a deadline looming or a day that’s already so filled with crap and to-do’s that one more will truly drive me to drink and cuss and kick the dog.
But this one looks easy and hey, I was going to be blogging today anyway, right?
Okay, 16 random things about me.
1. I love puns. I love them more if they work in more than one language. “To beech or not to beech” may be Hamlet’s arborist’s question, but it works equally well in French. (être/hêtre ou ne pas être/hêtre)
2. Growing up, the sport I was most proficient at was fencing. I don’t think my knees could take it any more but I’d sure love to find out.
3. I’ve seen Dolly Parton without a bra on.
4. I like mariachi music. I know, that’s like admitting to a fondness for polkas, but there you are. I’ll eat bad Mexican food just to have a chance to request all the old rancheras from the 40’s and 50’s. Cielito Linda. La Paloma Negra. El Niño Perdido.
5. I once served a man a piece of banana cream pie with a cockroach in it. When asked about it, I told him it was a pecan.
6. My confirmation name is Bernadette. If I were choosing a name today, it would not be.
7. I got my first haircut when I was fourteen. At that point my hair was down past my butt and it would take a half a day on Saturdays (with my mother’s help) to wash it and comb out the snarls. Never again.
8. I was once sued for Loss of Consortium. That’s right. After a car accident, the other guy’s wife sued me because he wouldn’t make love to her anymore.
9. I prefer listening to a baseball game on the radio rather than going to the ballpark or watching it on TV.
10. I’m the middle child of five. That means that when we all went out to the store, my sister held my mother’s hand and I held hers.
11. Someday I want to own a house with an infinity pool.
12. I was nineteen when I first saw snow. That’s what the desert will do to you.
13. I can’t stand chocolate. If I eat any desserts at all, they’re fruit based.
14. An old boyfriend once told me I was prettier when I cried.
15. The sound I hate most is dripping water, and I’ve been known to decamp the house or the hotel if I can’t make it stop.
16. I saved this one for #16. You'll see why.
My last book, The Fault Tree, was just nominated for a Mary Higgins Clark Award. The submissions are limited to those books that have “no strong four-letter words or explicit sex scenes.” Well, I’m okay on the sex scene front, but I use the word “fuck” sixteen times in the novel. Sixteen (16) times. So I guess fuck is no longer considered a strong four-letter word. Too cool.
I’m cutting my fellow authors and bloggers some slack and not passing this meme on. I know you’re all already busy enough with writing and real life. But I’d love to hear some random thoughts in the comments section! What say you, ‘Rati? Tell me something good.
And Happy Inauguration Day! Barack Obama is President. Arizona is going to the Superbowl. All is right with the world.
Pittsburgh is going to the Super Bowl too! 🙂
” An old boyfriend once told me I was prettier when I cried.”
Okay, that’s just ill.
“I guess fuck is no longer considered a strong four-letter word.”
Fuckin’ awesome.
Congratulations, Louise!!
We’re in the middle of what passes for a snow storm here, with 4 inches on the ground and probably a couple more falling as I type. My children are ecstatic and the horses and donkeys are refusing to leave their barn, which means my day will be filled with… mucking. 🙂
Something about me:
I sang Stairway to Heaven onstage with Toad the Wet Sprocket once. I’m not a singer, but it was a blast.
I grew up near Pittsburgh, and I like polkas. I’m potentially dangerous when dancing them (as Gail Snyder can attest from our “Rhythm and Movements” class in college) but I like to listen to them. And marches.
As for Number 16, I guess the slow ascent into respectability started when a friend of a friend was upset with a business associate and sent the following note:
Fuck you. Strongly worded letter to follow.
B.G., your Steelers are probably going to crush my Cinderella Cardinals, but it’s nice to go to the dance.
J.D., that “prettier when you cry” is pretty sad, isn’t it? I left him soon after.
Billie, my buddy Shaz over at Reviewing the Evidence would truly appreciate your Toad the Wet Sprocket appearance. I’m simply entranced by the name.
Dana, polkas make you smile. Mariachi music makes you wail. We need a little of both.
My husband and I participated in the last Inaugeration parade. Took 4 days to drive down with horses and surrey in 20′ trailer. Freezing cold the day of — it had snowed and DC virtually shut down. One of the horses stepped on my foot and I got rescued by a Marine (oh my those uniformed men!) My husband and his dad were in the parade (he can tell you what kind of guns they had from the rooftops pointed down upon everything); I had to stay with the truck in case of a “catastrophic event” and they had to be moved (like I’d ever driven the truck with horse trailer before). So I traveled all that way to see **nothing** except the backside of a monument. I had to call my mom back in MT to ask what was happening via tv. Did have the experience of driving around absolutely deserted DC streets. I do not wish I were there today. Would. never. do. it. again.
P.K., what a story! I too am happy to watch it on TV. And all those smiling faces are reaching out to me.
Louise,I’m still grinning about your nomination.
Little known fact about me?I once danced in the Cherry Blossom Parade in DC to Trinidadian steel drums.
BTW: I love Mariachi AND New Mexican music too.
Congratulations on your nomination Louise!!
Hmmm. Random fact about me? I can fake a pretty good Irish accent. (Funny, considering I’m Asian). I even helped a cast member in a play I was in with their Irish accent.
Congrats on the nomination!
Question: is that picture in Zihuatanejo, Mexico? I live there, but sadly not in that house. I love mariachi music and tried to have a band play at my wedding, but western Michigan is not known for it’s cultural diversity.
Pari, I can picture you twisting and winding down the street to the steel drums!
And R.J., that’s a great little know fact! I would not have expected it from you.
Melanie, you live there now? I’m so jealous. The photo is Mexico but I’m not sure where. I just picked the Google image of the pool I most wanted to swim in.
HAPPY OBAMA DAY AND YEA FOR YOUR NOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a fun list, and congratulations on the nomination! And, I find it terribly strange that you don’t like chocolate, but we can still be friends anyway.
Little known thing about me? One of the creators of the Superman comic is a distant relative of my father’s. (Slender connection, I know, but it’s the best I can come up with until I finish my coffee.)
Dana, I forgot to say hey to your note above. You must be a whirling dervish when you dance!
Yeah OBAMA DAY, Cornelia. I’ve been glued to the TV all day.
I like your little-know Superman connection, Tammy! We’ll have to tell my editor. He’s a classic comics fan.
Congrats on your nominations, Louise.
I’m cracking up over here over “fuck” not being a strong four-letter word anymore.
I will sit next to you, Louise, and you can give me all your chocolate desserts and I will give you all that fruity crap. Unless it’s strawberries, and then it’s a fight.
Little known facts… my hair was once neon yellow (not exactly on purpose).
Louise, in a parallel universe, the Cardinals’ coach could be the Steelers’ coach. In 2007 the Cardinals took care of business when the Steelers came to town. Super Bowl XLIII should be a good one!
Toni, o ye of neon hair! You can have all the chocolate. No wrestling required.
And B.G.? From your lips to God’s ears.
Congrats on your nomination, Louise, and yay Cardinals! Larry Fitzgerald rocks.
Random fact: I worked in funeral service for several years, and am still a licensed funeral director.
Congrats on the nomination! It’s fucking awesome! (I couldn’t resist, sorry!) See Toni, Bobbie Faye is A-okay. And you were worried that she said the “F” word 167 times . . .
Thanks Louise for not passing this on. To us. LOL on the loss of consortium. Sorry, but I have to root for the Steeler’s. AFC, baby.
One random fact about me . . . something most people who know me are shocked when they learn . . . I’ve been to 19 Grateful Dead concerts.
Rae…you are the most unlikely funeral director imaginable!
And Allison? 19 Grateful Dead concerts? Never grow up, never grow up!
Happy inauguration day, everyone!
And many congratulations on the nomination. It gives the rest of us hope.
I can’t get that Dolly Parton image out of my head…
Karen, that nomination should give hope to all writers … especially those who don’t mince words.
Caite, I was hoping there was someone I piqued with that image! It was … ahem … memorable.
Hi Louise
Many congratulations on the nomination. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you ;-]
I’ll second Caite – that Dolly Parton image is an enduring one …
I have to ask about that banana cream pie, though – was the inclusion of the cockroach deliberate?
Louise~First, congrats on the nomination. Second, I’m with Zoe — I want to know whether the cockroach was deliberate. Third, my condolences in advance on your Cardinals’ loss to my Steelers ;)My random fact? Also music-related. I LOVE bagpipes. Don’t know if it’s the scots-irish in me or what, but I love the pipes. They just move me — whether it’s a haunting melody or a stirring march — every time I hear them.
OK, completely forgot the random facts. (Weird that I also did a bit of fencing when I was younger and also loved it, by the way!)
I once took part in a rodeo in Lancashire. I have a phobia about feet – particularly hairy toes, ugh! I was part of a yacht delivery crew from the Canaries to the UK on which we lived almost exclusively on avocados and bananas. I used to judge competitive car stereo at international level and was Head Judge for installation at one European Finals. I did a bare-metal respray on my first car – a Triumph Spitfire – in a weekend. I have an allergic reaction to alcohol and chocolate makes me bad tempered.
Erm, will that do?
Ah, that cockroach. I was a teenage waitress in a less than classy pie shop. When the diner showed me the cockroach (well, half a cockroach anyway because he’d eaten the other half) I couldn’t bear to tell him the truth.
And I love the sound of bagpipes, too, Katherine. Thanks for reminding me of them. What a sad, but important sound!
I can’t help but wonder what Dolly looks like without a bra – in my head what I’m thinking is she’s kind of like a superhero, when she’s at home she’s flatchested.
I had my first haircut at 13 – my hair was down to my knees and I hated all the attention, people commented on it daily at school and everywhere I went…”has it ever fallen in the toilet?” “how long does it take to brush it?” “why is your hair so long?” blah blah blah
Congrats on the nomination and yay on fuck being a family friendly word, now I can tell my kids to stop getting mad at me when I say it around them. I mean. Not that I do.
I saw Obama at a rally here last year so now I kind of feel like I’ve had a brush with greatness (altho when I was 6 or 7 I saw Nixon so…). I’ve been glued to MSNBC on the TV and CNN online all day. Yay Obama.
kim
In the 70’s my grandfather wired the whole house for radio. This meant that you listened to what he wanted, day or night. Luckily, I loved listening to Yankee games on hot summer nights when I couldn’t do anything else but sweat. You’re one of the only other people I have heard say they love it as well.
I’ve been dying to participate in this meme, just because it’s fun to find out weird and different things about everyone. The reason I haven’t is I doubt I can come up with 16 things – I’ve got too big a mouth. That said:
Strom Thurmond pinched my ass when I sat in his lap for a photo op. He was in his late eighties, the old goat.
And Louise? Fuck yeah, baby!
Kim…too,too much in there to answer! Believe me, Dolly Parton is not flat-chested. She’s a true superhero.
Kim, yeah for summer nights and radio baseball games!
JT, you must do the whole 16! It takes a surprisingly short time and takes you some strange and interesting places.
I got tagged by a couple of people so I decided to do what you did, Louise, and just made it my blog for the day. But then I’m too tired to think of anything really original. Insomnia stinks.
Random fact not on my blog — I’ve been insomniac for the better part of thirty years. I’d give a lot for it to get tired of hanging out with me and go harrass someone else.
Congratulations on the nom! As others have said so eloquently, fuck yeah!
My, my, your interesting, but that’s no surprise. And fluent in other languages! The etre/hetre thing. Cool. Thanks for doing this, and congratulations on the nomination!
I just went back and read through the comments. Zoë, your random list is absolutely delicious! You’re a marble cake of a woman. Lots of stuff swirling around in there.
Fran, I don’t envy you the insomnia. Sleep is my favorite non-competitive sport.
And Janet, the meme was lots of fun, so thanks for the tag!