My lovely and creative friend Aubrey has been good enough to nominate me for the Liebster Blog Award, and I decided it would be a fun way to spend some time this weekend posting about it. (To read my interview with Aubrey, click here.) Thank you, Aubrey! I hope people will click on her name and read her delightful Liebster Award post.
As is the case of such awards, there RULES.
- Give thanks
- Tell 11 things about yourself
- Answer to the best of your ability the 11 questions that are asked of you.
- Nominate 11 bloggers for this award
- Ask the above nominees 11 questions of your own, or use the questions you were asked.
So, without further ado, eleven things about myself, in no order except the order they occurred to me.
1. I love listening to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! (I listen online, through Minnesota Public Radio)
2. One of my favorite songs is “Time is My Friend” with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and music by Julie Andrews. I want it sung at my funeral. (I have the sheet music, purchased in 1972 or ’73.)
3. One of my favorite films is “Bringing Up Baby” starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant.
4. I like to eat plain unsweetened yogurt with frozen blueberries. (It’s not as good with thawed or fresh blueberries. They have to be still frozen.)
5. I’m not skilled at baking cakes from scratch.
6. At the time of the 1968 Mexico Olympics, I wanted to be just like Elaine Tanner. The fact that I was not a good swimmer did not deter me in this dream.
7. Although I usually write lyrics (for hymns), I have written the music for a couple of my lyrics.
8. I’d love to write a screenplay some day, although my director of choice is no longer alive.
9. I think hedgehogs are one of the delights of nature, although I’ve never been privileged to see one in real life.
10. I spent one recent weekend watching nearly all the episodes of Season Three of Downton Abbey (on DVD) one after the other.
11. I love calendars. I currently have six up in my apartment – there would be more if I could figure out where to put them.
And now, Aubrey’s eleven questions:
1 Why did you start blogging? I started blogging long, long ago on a blog platform so far away that it no longer exists, because an online friend twisted my arm until I couldn’t stand it anymore and I said “all right, okay, swell, I’ll start a blog.” And I promptly fell in love with blogging. Since that momentous date, I have had six blogs.
2 Do you find that you usually prefer the book or movie version? Generally the book version. So much is necessarily left out of the movie version. But it’s fascinating to see what gets put in and what gets left out.
3 Are you wearing jewelry now? Bonus points if a parure is involved. Not a smidge of jewelry at the moment, not even my watch. And I had to look up parure. (Note: if you google parure, go to the hits that are for the word parure, NOT paruresis. That’s something else entirely.)
4 Name five places you would never want to visit again. Oh, I feel so uncharitable trying to answer this question. Hmm… 1. a prison. Hold on – get your eyebrows back down where they belong. When I was in theological college, back in another lifetime, we toured a prison as part of our Church and Society 101 class. 2. The maintenance tunnels under the university where I used to work. Physical Plant gave a tour, and once was enough. 3. None of the actual “places” I’ve visited are places I’d not want to visit again. But I get the feeling that tours of unusual settings are not my style. I can’t come up with any more!
5 Ocean or lake? Ocean. Lake only if there is a private stretch of shoreline with a dock that I can sit on in complete solitude, simply listening to the sound of “lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore.” Same goes for the ocean, actually. I like to enjoy my large bodies of water in peace and contemplation, not on a noisy beach with countless others.
6 What is the first book you couldn’t live without? There were many books in my childhood that I loved, but the first that really entered my psyche/soul/whatever term you wish, was Anne of Green Gables. Discovering a character with as vivid an imagination as I had was a delight.
7 Are you one of those bloggers that believe that people resemble their icons? Do you, for instance, think that I am wearing a periwig and holding a star? I will answer the second part of the question first. Although I don’t believe that Aubrey wears a periwig on most informal occasions, I firmly believe that she holds a star. I also firmly believe that I resemble my icon so totally as to be almost indistinguishable from it, except that it is flat, and I am decidedly not.
8 If you were alive in 1902 would you be tempted to ride in one of those new car-things or would you prefer to continue driving your four-in-hand? Oh, I would definitely ride in one of those new car-things. I would be eager to try it out, in fact.
9 Which actor has provided you with your favorite rendition of Sherlock Holmes? I’m afraid Aubrey is going to find my answer sadly lacking, as I have never seen any actor, on stage or screen, portray the great Holmes. I can confess to a partiality for the character Sherlock Hemlock, World’s Greatest Detective, on the Sesame Street of bygone days, however.
10 You’re getting dressed for work. You open your closet and find your clothes are not from this decade. Are you happy about this? What decade do you hope is represented? Do I get to have the body that could wear the clothes, as well? The late 1940s fashions appeal to me, as do the 1960s. Disparate, I know. You’ll note I didn’t suggest the 1970s or 1980s. Been there, done that, tossed out the tee-shirt.
11 Have you ever mixed a cocktail – for either yourself or others? And if you have, can you mix a tall Bloody Mary – now? All this writing and thinking has made Aubrey thirsty. I don’t think the few drinks I have mixed would qualify as cocktails. That’s what comes of growing up in a teetotal household.
The nominations – and here I will cheat. Rather than singling any of my readers out, I will offer each of you the opportunity to post the Liebster Award on your blog, tell us eleven things, and answer the same questions as Aubrey posed to me. If you do, please leave a link in the comments so that we can read about you!
What fun getting to know you, Beth! It’s nice to meet another blogophile. I’ve run through about 6 blogs myself…currently, I only have 2, plus one website. 🙂
Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me is the only radio program I listen to! I’ll listen to Car Talk too sometimes but given a choice, it’ll always be WWDTM. 🙂 Looove Cary Grant and Kate Hepburn! Bringing Up Baby was a riot.
Have a terrific weekend!
Thanks, Teresa! Good to know I’m not the only blogophile around. I generally listen to Car Talk only so I won’t get so distracted by what I’m working on/writing that I miss the start of Wait, Wait!
You have a great weekend as well!
Awwwww……………………Beth! Congratulations!!! You are an award-winner n so many ways! I’m glad that The Liebster Blog Award is yours now and I think that you’d win the Lobster Blog Award, too: my computer spelling thingie seems to believe you have.
So much cool info!
“Time Is My Friend” is poignant, lovely. Wow.
“Bringing Up Baby!!” WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Loved that so much! Superb dialoge and acting. Loons! LOL!!!!
Ummm, not yogurt. I can’t get behind you on that one. :: shakes head:: But blueberries? Frozen? Terrific! Grapes freeze great, too.
LOL…cake baking! Hooray for mixes!!!!
Hedgehogs?! Did you see The Puppy Bowl this year? They had hedgehogs as “cheerleaders.”
If you want to write a screenplay, you will. You’ll do it!!! And it’ll be FABULOUS!!!!
Downton Abbey! so sad about Matthew!!!!
Aubrey’s questions are really good!
I didn’t know about parure, had to look it up, too.
A prison? ::shivers:: I was in a morgue once. Never again, until I croak.
Wait. You haven’t seen any of the Sherlock Holmes? Not Basil Rathbone? He and Jonnie Lee Miller are my favs, although Miller is a modern version.
LOL!! Good answer about the clothes!!! Yes, the bodies matter. I’d love to wear something from the mid-1800’s or so but if I put on a crinoline I’d look like an armchair.
Thank you for sharing these!!
And thank you for letting us be Lobsters too!!!
:: applause::
LOVE the “Lobster Award” idea. And your answers/comments were such fun. Enjoy being a lobster!
Forgot the link and my icon didn’t pop up the way it should.
::runs::
Not a problem. I found your link in the trackback ping thingy.
Eww! It still didn’t. Oh, well. You know what it looks like.
🙂
I’m seeing the usual R with you behind it — don’t know what you were seeing.
Oh! It was that empty picture frame. Then later I came back and the purple “R” was there. But I was hoping for the big SingingTuna eye. I messed something up.
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Great facts and very interesting answers. HOW is it possible you have never seen a hedgehog? Not even at the zoo? Or did you mean in their natural habitat? My old pottery teacher used to have 2 of them as pets. Just FYI, he always wore gloves to hold them, so….
Congratulations on your Liebster award. I love the badge. I enjoyed reading eleven things about you and your eleven answers to Aubrey’s questions. It is nice to learn even more about you. Thanks for sharing. I’m not quite ready for joining in on the Liebster fun. Maybe somewhere down the line.
I LOVE Sherlock Hemlock! Interesting questions! 😀
LOVED learning more about you Beth. What great questions Aubrey asked. What did you think of season three of Downton Abby? My hubby and I have seen every epidose of all three seasons. I have become very fond of the characters, with all their flaws.
I enjoyed this, Beth. You’ve got a great sense of humor 🙂
Thoroughly enjoyed learning more about you Beth! Anne of Green Gables, Bringing Up Baby, and 40’s fashion would all be part of my list as well. You’ve even got me wishing for a little haven by a lake. Oh this was a fun post Beth! I loved these questions of Aubrey.
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Congrats!