Answers to the “interview me” meme, with questions posed
by
lothie. Actually, I didn’t ask to be interviewed, but
since
she took the time to come up with questions, I figure I orta answer.
I passed on this meme the first time it came around, so I’m not
looking to ask anyone else any questions, but if you insist, I’ll
do.
What's your opinion on the Tao?
Not much, actually. It’s kinda orthogonal to Buddhism, or at least the
southeast Asian Theravadan Buddhism from Thailand and Sri Lanka that I’m
most familiar with. The Tibetan, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese forms of
Buddhism might have been more influenced by it. But aside from that, I’m
nt sure I fully agree in the whole balance idea, although there are
aspects of it that do appear in the concept of the “Middle Way”.
If you could have dinner with a famous dead person, what would you eat?
Well, they’d probably turn my stomach, being dead and all, so maybe
something very light. And they’d probably smell really bad, so something
aromatic. Dead people aren’t the greatest companions, or at least so I
believe, never having supped with one.
What is your least favorite thing about Boston?
Hmmm. Corruption. How hard it is to get some obvious things done. The
barriers that people put up and how difficult it is to meet people. The
whole car culture; there are several areas of town that should simply be
closed to motor traffic, period. The lack of light in the winter and its
duration. Those are probably the big things.
Spam: evil or food of the gods? Discuss. Give examples.
Spam is pretty useless. It’s 82% fat, and one slab is 750mg of sodium,
so it’s basically a death bomb. Fried, it’s really not very appealling.
I seem to recall my mother maybe putting it in ham salad back in the
70s, when I actually ate such things. On the other hand, it’s mostly
pork, and pork is the food of the gods; it’s just that there are much
healthier and tasty ways to get your piggy on than Spam.
Any do-overs you'd like to have?
Not many, but a few. I would like to have treated most of my SOs better.
I would like to have been more sexually active when I was younger. Those
are really my only significant regrets.