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Last 12 opening lines/7 of anything
Two memes today
Elizabeth tagged me for an open-ended meme. It's especially difficult because I'm a narcissist and I've already told every fact and story about me that I think is worth telling—somewhere. Even here.
This forces me to think back. It's tough to make a list about me interesting. So my standard shall simply be things about my childhood that might be just a tiny bit embarrassing, but that were mostly just typical of a childish mind.
- For about 3 years in elementary school I told my friends that I was 10% blind in one eye from being hit with a bat. For no reason.
- When I was 10 I joined a softball league. I didn't really care about playing. At all. I just wanted a chance to win a trophy because all three of my sisters had: 2 of them for a fire-prevention-poster contest and one for a good-citizenship award. My team won the championship. yay.
- The chimney sweep Step in Time dance in Mary Poppins scared me. Those hooligans were getting out of control. And it was bad enough that it came right after that freaky Chim Chim Cheree song. But when Mary Poppins did that spinning thing and they focused on her head she looked like pure evil. And I hadn't even seen The Exorcist yet.
- When I was 9 the Halloween episode of "CHiPs" Rock Devil Rock gave me nightmares. Even tho it was a breakout performance for Donny Most. The three messages stick with me still: Moloch must die! then Moloch will die! and finally Moloch is dead with his fiery breath! I think this grammatically escalating threat sent me into linguistics as therapy.
- I had a sticker collection.
- When I was 7 years old I heard this song and I couldn't wait to grow up so I could fall in love for the first time. Anne made it sound so wonderful.
- When I was about 4 years old my father shaved his beard. My older sister asked what I thought and I spat out He looks stupid! My sister was shocked that I could be so brazen. But I didn't care. I knew I was speaking the truth. I was upset because I assumed it would never grow back. After all, the hair on his head never did.
The Ridger has posted a nice overview of the year in Greenbelt posts.
It's a nice exercise because looking back at my posts shows me how prosaic and uninformative my first lines are:
January:
Every year someone up at Lake Superior State University releases a list of banished words and phrases.
February:
Several months ago I put up a poll and some discussion about the midwest.
March: Bill Cunningham is "a bit of an historian".
April:
I'm still here and I'm OK.
May:
See I was alway told that baldness is inherited from the mother.
June:
I had to go dark.
July:
My fingertips need to dance on the frets instead of the keyboard for now.
August:
Blogger thinks I'm suspicious.
September:
The old brain-bender about 'how do we know that blue looks the same to everyone' is pointless.
October:
We can categorize the uses of and references to expletives and slang into several strategies and effects.
November:
On the way to Chicago Midway Buffy announced that we needed to make a pit stop.
December:
I just started listening to a podcast from last week of the Diane Rehm Show.
I love the thing about your dad's beard. I did the same thing, about the same age, only I came home from kindergarten, saw him, said, "Dad, you look AWFUL" and ran up to my room. He started growing the beard back the next day and hasn't shaved it in the 20 years since. :)
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