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January 2007 
five things
Posted on Jan 5th, 2007
by 
Noah
Noah
Thanks to Crow for finally getting me off my butt and posting a blog entry. I'm figuring this out as I go.....
Here are my five things:
1. I have a fully developed life history, not a word of which is true. It involves me growing up in a small fishing village on the south shore of Nova Scotia, between Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg, with my parents migrating to the states after the fishery declined. Occasionally I forget to tell people that it's just a tall tale. It's a relatively harmless way of engaging my not-so-secret desire to be a Canadian.
2. My book collection is out of control. I buy books by the shopping cart load at used book sales and they number between 6,000 and 7,000 at this point. I once found out that I had inadvertantly picked up 5 copies of Khrushchev's memoirs over the years. My efforts to dispose of them only got rid of two copies. Two others go to anyone who asks....please!!
3. At age 7, I locked my brother and two of his friends in a room and told them they couldn't leave until we all learned 10 words in Spanish. (Since one of the friends was about 2 at the time, I'm not sure he knew 10 words of English at that point.) I was obviously desperate to find some cultural diversity at a young age!
4. I lived for 2 1/2 years without a car in Ohio. I learned quite a bit about others who have no car but who also have no choice in the matter. The buses at 6:30 on a Sunday morning were full, and when the bus didn't come on time -- which was often -- it sometimes cost these folks their jobs since their employers dinged them for being late. I took to carrying plastic bags with me to share with those whose paper bags would start to disintegrate when it rained. It was an eye opening window into an often invisible culture.
5. I was an alter boy .....a long time ago and probably in a different life.
Here are my five things:
1. I have a fully developed life history, not a word of which is true. It involves me growing up in a small fishing village on the south shore of Nova Scotia, between Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg, with my parents migrating to the states after the fishery declined. Occasionally I forget to tell people that it's just a tall tale. It's a relatively harmless way of engaging my not-so-secret desire to be a Canadian.
2. My book collection is out of control. I buy books by the shopping cart load at used book sales and they number between 6,000 and 7,000 at this point. I once found out that I had inadvertantly picked up 5 copies of Khrushchev's memoirs over the years. My efforts to dispose of them only got rid of two copies. Two others go to anyone who asks....please!!
3. At age 7, I locked my brother and two of his friends in a room and told them they couldn't leave until we all learned 10 words in Spanish. (Since one of the friends was about 2 at the time, I'm not sure he knew 10 words of English at that point.) I was obviously desperate to find some cultural diversity at a young age!
4. I lived for 2 1/2 years without a car in Ohio. I learned quite a bit about others who have no car but who also have no choice in the matter. The buses at 6:30 on a Sunday morning were full, and when the bus didn't come on time -- which was often -- it sometimes cost these folks their jobs since their employers dinged them for being late. I took to carrying plastic bags with me to share with those whose paper bags would start to disintegrate when it rained. It was an eye opening window into an often invisible culture.
5. I was an alter boy .....a long time ago and probably in a different life.
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