Answering Some Eclectic and Eccentric Questions
by Jenners • 02/14/2012 • Tag Chicken With Trisha • 42 Comments
Trisha over at eclectic/eccentric recently tagged me to answer 11 of her questions. Her questions were so interesting that I couldn’t resist. Of course, doing this comes laden with all sorts of rules.
Rules
- You must post the rules. (Done.)
- Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged. (Done.)
- Tag eleven people and link to them on your post. (OK.)
- Let them know you’ve tagged them. (Out of laziness, I shall skip this last part.)
So, here are the 11 questions that Trisha came up with.
1. What is your favorite piece of art?
I’m very partial to Vincent Van Gogh. I love how his paintings are just thick with paint. I love the colors. I love the way the paint strokes seem to move around the canvas. I came very close to getting removed from the Philadelphia Museum of Art after I got way too close to one of his sunflower paintings. I guess I’d choose The Starry Night as my favorite.
2. What literary character do you think would make an awesome world leader?
This might sound weird, but I’d nominate Hazel from Watership Down. Yes, he is a rabbit, but he was a wise rabbit and an excellent leader. If we could translate those qualities into a world leader, I think we’d all be better off.
3. What color do you think should be outlawed from clothing?
White. I look horrible in white. Most people do. You could use it for your wedding day (if you had to) but that is it.
4. Hats. Yes or no?
No … unless it is quite cold or your hair is a mess and you need to hide it.
5. What contemporary novel should be added to the high school curriculum?
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. (I actually hope it is already added to the high school curriculum. Do any of your teachers out there know if it is?)
6. What book featuring real people do you think could work if the characters were switched to animals?
This cracks me up since I have a fictional rabbit becoming a world leader in question 2! Let’s see, this is a tough one. How about Twilight and the vampires are vampire bats, Bella is a slug and the Jacob and his ilk are wolves? (Hey … it’s too early for creativity.)
7. Genetically designed humans. Hell yes or absolutely not?
Probably not. It just seems like it could lead to all sorts of problems. Isn’t this what is at the center of multiple dystopias?
8. What book would you like to see get parodied a la Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?
Anything that would make The Brothers Karamazov more readable would get my vote. Still, I think you could parody the hell out of the Brothers K and it would still be a miserable reading experience.
9. What book would you absolutely hate to see get parodied?
Nothing is coming to mind right now. Perhaps something that really touched me emotionally that I would hate to see get mocked? Still Alice by Lisa Genova perhaps. (How you parody such a book, I have no idea.)
10. TV. Awesome source of entertainment or horrifying time suck?
Occasionally an awesome source of entertainment but usually a horrifying time suck. I’m not a TV snob but I still don’t have many shows I think are worth watching. Exceptions are The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Dexter (though it might have jumped the shark) and The Amazing Race. I used to add The Office and 30 Rock to this list, but I think they’ve been going downhill lately.
11. What literary character should immediately jump off the page and into your bed?
Although I’m burning with shame, I still haven’t quite gotten over my Edward Cullen crush. But after listening to Divergent recently, I might replace him with Four. Or Prince Po from Graceling!
Now for my 11 questions for the poor hapless souls who choose to answer them.
- What’s the most played song on your iPod? (or CD collection if you’re old school)
- What do you miss most about your childhood?
- What is your favorite poem?
- Without thinking too much, what are 5 of your favorite books of all time? (Just list them as they come to you … don’t think!!!!!)
- What was the last book you read? Tell me about it in 5 words or less.
- Can you define irony and give an example? (This is self-serving as I’m struggling to do this with my son. I will so steal your answers if appropriate.)
- If you were forced to change your name, what would you change it to?
- What author/TV show/movie/book/celebrity, do you have absolutely despise and avoid at all costs?
- What movie was actually better than the book is was based on?
- Beatles or the Stones?
- What is your favorite quote?
I hope anyone who is interested in answering these questions will do so (and let me know so I can see your answers). I hate tagging people in posts but I will go out on a limb and tag the following people (and hope they don’t resent me for it):
- Trisha at eclectic/eccentric (just because she’ll get trapped in an endless loop of tags — insert evil laugh)
- Sandy at You’ve Gotta Read This (who I think is a hoot)
- Caitlin at It’s Spelled C.A.I.T.L.I.N. (who doesn’t blog nearly enough for my tastes)
- Jill at Rhapsody in Books (because she rarely talks about herself)
- Caite at …a lovely shore breeze (who I think might get annoyed at being tagged and will probably ignore this but who I’d love to see answer these questions)
- Michael5000 at the poorly renamed Infinite Art Tournament: The Life and Times of Michael5000
- Cath at Constance Reader’s Guide to Throwing Books with Great Force (got too tired typing out the blog name to say why)
- Kelly at My Voice, My View (if she can get more than 5 minutes peace from her kids to write a blog post!)
- K at We Be Reading (because I had a very weird dream that I met her last night … remind me to tell you about it, K!)
- Alyce at At Home With Books (because I feel we might actually be related at some level)
- Jeanne at Necromancy Never Pays (because she’d have some interesting replies)
Aw, crap, you insult my awesome rebranding AND saddle me with a meme too? Really? Happy Valentines Day to you too, Dear Heart!
: )
Okay, I answered them …
http://webereading.com/2012/02/questions-meme-times-two.html
These are good questions and I’m still giggling over making Bella a slug. I have yet to read The Book Thief but you’ve reminded me that I should. Love that painting too!
I am a strange loop.
Number 6 had me laughing my butt off.
I love your answers! If you ever go to Amsterdam, there is an entire museum there dedicated to Van Gogh – you would love it!
Great questions and I love yours too. I’m off to visit the ones you tagged! Happy Saturday!
Hazel is a perfect choice! World Peace for rabbits
Love all your posts
Excellent answers. I love that your leader was a rabbit!
I love your answers! I’m with you on Dexter. I love the show, but I think it may have officially jumped the shark. Modern Family and Big Bang are so funny too! Also, Watership Down is fantastic.
Wow, talk about throwing oneself into a project with abandon! great answers and terrific questions! i love wearing white especially when I ahve a good tan and I love wearing hats but I don’t very often. Hazel is a beautiful world leader choice. I wonder who Fizzy picked?
Loved Jeanne’s answers, too.
I love Van Gogh’s art too. Though I might be biased because I really like his life story even though it’s a tragic one. He was definitely one crazy artist though which makes him interesting!
I love “The Book Thief”. So glad you reviewed and recommended it
I loved reading your answers!
I agree about The Book Thief – brilliant and moving!
Watership Down is still one of my most favorite books of all time. Love, love, love it. We also really enjoy and laugh exceptionally hard at Big Bang Theory. You favorite work of art is also my mouse pad – I knew I liked you.
Great answers Jenners
We like some of the same tv shows. I don’t think I’ll ever get over my Edward Cullen crush 
Okay, I need to know the dream. And p.s., I’m going to be in MD in a couple weeks and I am dying that I will be that close and not meeting you! Grr!
I’ll get going on my answers …
What a neat idea for a post. Your answers were great. Especially the which character should jump into your bed.
I don’t like white either, but I would say yellow is my least favorite color for clothing….oh and green and I LOVE hats.
I couldn’t agree with you more about Caitlin not blogging enough. I would outlaw beige. I despise that washed out color! And I LOVE Modern Family. I can not stop laughing while I watch it. I also love Tosh.O He is so irreverent, but not in a serious way so it’s just plain funny!
I am looking at my Starry Night print right now. I’m a big Van Gogh groupie too. Love all your answers. Thanks for the tag. I’m in desperate need of a blog idea. I can always count on you my friend
LOL – I think I liked the comments behind who you tagged as much as your answers…. this sort of stuff is fun – I will circle back and read peoples responses after work
Great questions! I loved reading your answers (I think that painting is probably my favorite too!) and I look forward to answering them in a future post! I am going to try to get a few knocked out and published ahead of time for our move, so I will add this to the list of posts!
I’m glad to read that you don’t think I blog enough- I remember one time you had a list of “dos” and “donts” for bloggers that said don’t post every day. I always think of that when I DO post every day for a while! Ha! Good advice!
those questions are fantastic! and i love the idea of Hazel becoming a world leader – i can see the rabbit on stage taking the presidential oath now…or with the British crown!
and tv – such a time suck…except when Grey’s or Revenge come on!
annoyed? me? I find the very idea rather shocking.
ok, there is an example of irony.
and, because I hold you in the deepest respect..and you don’t live that far from me..I will answer them.
maybe not truthfully, but I will answer them.
grinning…you think I’m interesting! I will think about the rest of these, but I have a ready answer about the definition of irony (one chapter of my dissertation was about how irony works).
Irony is when you say something and you mean something different than what you actually say. The difference can be anywhere from very slightly different to the complete opposite. To use irony successfully, you have to give a clue as to your intended meaning. In writing, the clue is often exaggeration. The catch is that it’s sometimes hard to exaggerate enough.
I hope you don’t mind if I answer them here. Since I’ve already discussed the poem on my blog, I don’t have a way to work them into my usual format.
1. What’s the most played song on your iPod? (or CD collection if you’re old school) It’s the Last Midnight from Into the Woods
2. What do you miss most about your childhood? The time to reread books. I spent a whole summer rereading Gone With the Wind every time we went on a car trip.
3. What is your favorite poem? Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden
4. Without thinking too much, what are 5 of your favorite books of all time? (Just list them as they come to you … don’t think!!!!!) Douglas Adams, The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Walker Percy, Love In the Ruins, Shakespeare, Othello, Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
5. What was the last book you read? Tell me about it in 5 words or less. Connie Willis’ Blackout. Lost characters can’t go home.
6. Can you define irony and give an example? (This is self-serving as I’m struggling to do this with my son. I will so steal your answers if appropriate.) I’m much too busy and important to give you an example.
7. If you were forced to change your name, what would you change it to? Leita. It’s my first name, and I don’t go by it because my mother uses it. It was her mother’s name, too.
8. What author/TV show/movie/book/celebrity, do you have absolutely despise and avoid at all costs? Any reality TV show. I like everything to be scripted.
9. What movie was actually better than the book is was based on? The Prestige and The Firm. In both cases, I like the movie’s ending better.
10. Beatles or the Stones? Stones.
11. What is your favorite quote? “Don’t be mean; we don’t have to be mean.” From Buckaroo Banzai.
Trisha tagged me too but I don’t know what to answer for some of these so I haven’t done it yet. *slinks off quietly*
You aren’t the only one that likes Edward
Love how they were almost all book questions- definitely perfect for you
I like all that paint in Van Gogh as well. I don’t know what it is about Twilight that equally draws us and makes us ashamed . . .
I posted my answers: http://athomewithbooks.net/2012/02/eclectic-questions/
Terrific (interesting) post, Jenners! I agree with a lot of your answers. I LOVED The Book Thief.
Bella as a slug!!!! Wow. Just Wow!
If I were skinny and 5’9″ white would be a good color.
Such interesting questions. I adore Van Gogh as well. So much so, that my daughter gave me a reproduction that she made herself using the colored/black crayon/scratch method (you know what I mean if you have a kid). It’s frame-worthy and it’s Starry Night!
I’m working on my answers and having a fun time with them! I love The Big Bang Theory – it’s one of our favorites! We don’t watch a lot of other shows though, except some cable reality shows like Storage Wars and Sister Wives. I’m so glad you didn’t ask us to answer #11 because my answer is too embarrassing.
Nice job answering the questions. Irony is when you get a new car, but the dealer messed up your paperwork so you can’t get plates for it.
Welcome to my world.
I don’t wear white simply because the likelihood that I will spill something on my clothes increases tenfold if I am wearing white, so I agree with you! I also just say no to hats. I think I have a weird shaped head, and I don’t look good in hats, so I would have to say no, even though there are some really cute ones out there. I also agree with you about TV. I don’t watch much, and really, nobody in my family does. I have a few shows I like, and I have just started watching Downton Abbey (which I love!), but most of the time, I just say no to T.V. Great answers to these!
I loved reading this (and am so glad you didn’t tag me as I’m not sure I could come up with 11 people that would do this in return!). It was fun imagining how I would have answered them, too. Btw…I love hats, but don’t have the right haircut for them anymore.
First of all, white is a GOOD color – not necessarily for clothes, but how about for the color of the ice cream that goes well in most sundaes? Secondly, you’re supposed to come up with new things for characters, but Bella is *already* a slug. Now lastly, we must talk about this tagging and personal info thing. See, the reason I don’t do those is that people will think (as if they don’t already) that I’m HOPELESSLY NEUROTIC, and maybe even PSYCHOTIC, and I would then be embarrassed at all those anonymous people out there going eueueueueueu! (as if they don’t already). So you see, it’s very hard for me. YOU, on the other hand, are like some totally transparent person, and everyone loves it, but YOU do not answer every question with “raw cookie dough.”
Raw cookie dough would make an EXCELLENT world leader.
My answers post on Friday (I think). I also choose an animal for a world leader and The Brothers K as a runner up for the book parody question. I think that readalong scarred us for life.
Some great questions and answers though I have to say I will never think of Twilight in the same way again …… Bella, a slug? Brilliant. Oh and I have to agree with you on The Book Thief and The Big Bang Theory which incidently I have as the ring tune on my mobile.
TV can be a horrible time suck, but I’m all about it on Saturdays during college football season. I’m in withdrawal right now.
I love college basketball too, but not with the same passion as football.
Oh Lord! You know Trisha tagged me too! So maybe I can make a hybrid of the questions I want between the two of you! It is fun, but I thought Trisha’s questions were HARD! I honestly am so scattered these days, I’m not sure I could answer anything more complicated than what color underwear I have on.