Four Tags (will this meme ever die?)

Robert French tagged me, leaving me with the choice of ignoring the Four Things thingy or inflicting it on helpless others. Naturally, I choose "inflict".

Four Jobs I've Had

• Car wash salesman. Back in the '70s, you'd pull your car in for a fill-up and a quick wash. You left with a hot-wax, side-wall rinse, air-con vacuuming, and really smelly air freshener. Who did that to you? I did, and I got 10%. Suck it up.
• Community center manager. What a sinecure that was, and I don't remember how I got it. I worked about an hour a day, then the ceramics instructor and I would go out and shoot pool or go swimming.
• Hamburger flipper at Burger King. Have it your way.
• Cryptologic technician in the US Navy. Very hush hush. Sorry.

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

• The Big Lebowski
• Annie Hall
• The Thin Man (actually, any of the Thin Man series)
• Lorna (or any mid-1960s Russ Meyer)

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch

• The West Wing
• David Letterman
• The Office (UK version)
• Especially tacky tele-evangelists. Give me a bowl of popcorn and a six-pack and I am saved.

Four Favorite Cities

• New York. What doesn't it have?
• Berlin. Design, history, fashion, cafés. Paris is boring.
• Bangkok. I was on a business trip, with down-time in Singapore. My then-wife calls me and says "You got the weekend off? Man, you should go to Bangkok!" I'm probably the only man in history whose wife has said that.
• Sydney. Friendliest city in the world? It's in the running.

Four Favorite Dishes

• Crawfish etouffee
• Foie gras. Yes. it's animal cruelty. Now, get out of the way.
• Duck confit with cassoulet: "You must have been in the kitchen all day!" "Nah, it's leftovers from a few months ago...."
• Smoked eel. When there's no foie gras or confit d'and, you can always turn to it.

Four Websites I Visit Daily (or pretty close)

• Google News
• Slate
• Arts & Letters Daily
• Amazon

Four Places I'd Rather Be

• The Monkey Bar, Manhattan, where my cousin Tallulah used to drink naked.
• The dining verandah of the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok at 8 am as the sun rises over the Chao Phyra.
• The back seat of that car, back when I was 16
• My father's back porch, from which you can see 60-70 miles on a clear day.

Four Bloggers I am Tagging

• Lee Hopkins, who occupies the Futon of Antipodean Communication here at Desirable Roasted Coffee
• Donna Papacosta, who gives great podcast. She is a is a candidate for the Chaise-longue of Canadian Communication at Desirable Roasted Coffee, were we so minded to create one, but we aren't.

Ooops, Donna was already tagged.

• Eric Eggertson, another candidate for the C of CC at DRC, were we so minded to create one, which we aren't.


• Dale Wolf, of ContextRulesMarketing, because I liked his article about climbing every mountain.


• Erin, one of Robert's students, who should really, really link to Desirable Roasted Coffee if she is going to link to Shel and Neville. (Erin was already tagged).
• Ron Kattawar, novelist and owner of the In Search of Robert Sillerman blog.

Ookeee...off to the races.

Tagged as: Humor