In exchange for getting YTSL of Webs of Significance to subject herself to the 5 questions meme, which she has graciously already posted about, I have offered myself up to be tagged by her for the 6 weird things meme. (Yes, I realize these are not your traditional meming behaviors. However, I don’t expect we’ll be fined by the International Meme Police. I do sometimes worry about being persecuted by the International Mime Police though. My “walking against the wind” is appallingly bad.*)
Anyhow, here is a list of 6 weird things about me.
- I was a weird kid, and had a variety of colorful fantasies. I’m sure most kids did, but somehow, I think mine may have been a bit weirder than normal. For example, when I was around 9 or 10 years old, I used to imagine that as an adult, I’d choose to regularly wear full blown Victorian-style gone-with-the-windian hoop-skirted dresses. Because as an adult I’d have full choice over what I’d wear.
- My favorite food is a vegetable. I love artichokes. Not to say that I don’t have other food loves. But artichokes are tops. I’m talking fresh, steamed, prickly, spiky, alien-looking thistle buds. My deep, abiding love for artichokes dates back to my youth, and was considered to have been
- I once lost my sense of smell. I don’t remember for how long. Might have been a couple of weeks. It came back gradually. When it first came back, I could smell only one thing: cherry scones. (I’ve been meaning to write this story, but I think I’ll save the details for later.)
- I can sing a bunch of TV theme songs for shows that I’ve never watched. For example, “77 Sunset Strip” and “Flipper”, or one of my favorites to sing, “Surfside 6“. (Keep in mind that the indented parts are sung in my best bimbo voice.):
Surfside 6
What’s that?
Surfside 6
an address?
Surfside 6
for a houseboat?
Surfside 6
and where is it?
In Miami Beach
da da da, da da da
cha cha cha
cha - My name is spelled in Esperanto. (In a way that speaks more to the
weirdnesseccentricity of my parents than of myself…) In case you haven’t heard of Esperanto, it’s an artificially created international language. Much like the dodo, it is most frequently referenced in jokes about obsolescence, obscurity and extinction.
cf:Esperanto is a joke. It’s for cranks. You can tell it’s for cranks because, on the few occasions you hear about it, you hear that it is “not just for cranks”.
cynics have mocked it as an idealistic cult for linguistic weirdos.
-
I can get quite compulsive about my hobbies. And I have a weird sense of humor. This is a combination that some people have found disturbing. For example, consider this incident from a recent visit to the in-laws. John and my mother-in-law and I were sitting at the kitchen table late at night, talking. I noticed a “Clipper magazine”, a hideous thing made up entirely of ads, with coupons to clip. When I saw the magazine sitting there, with me sitting around with my hands unoccupied, I had this overwhelming urge to clip the letters. I thought I could make a banner for the blog. When I asked my mother-in-law if I could cut up her magazine, she asked why. As I have felt it best to hide the existence of my blog from her, I had to come up with a plausible reason: “I need to write a ransom note.”
decidedly odd by other kids. When other American kids were asked for favorite foods, they’d almost universally answer “pizza.” But me, I’d answer “artichokes.” I actually didn’t even like pizza as a kid. (Yes, another weirdness. I got over it.) I remember a school project once where the kids of my 5th or 6th grade class had to put together a newspaper. As a new kid at the school, I was interviewed. The “editors” chose to put the headline for the resulting article on the front page: “Girl Likes Artichokes”. It almost could have been a Weekly World News article.
Okay, them’s my 6 weird things. Others might claim that there are additional weird things about me. John says my little toes are weird. So I suppose they could have been items 5 and 6.
Now I believe I’m supposed to tag 6 other people, according to the rules:
People who are tagged should write a blog post of 6 weird things about them as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.
Okay, this is definitely the hard part. Maybe I should just go around to random blogs and leave the “you are tagged” bit. Or maybe I’ll just go around leaving comments telling random people to read my blog. That would be oh-so-smooth. Or I could send notes with cut up letters telling people to read my blog…or else.
So, I think I’ll go with some people I haven’t attempted to tag before, but believe to have some weirdness to them. (And I mean that as a compliment.):
and
And since she’s seemed moderately amenable to this sort of thing in the past,
If any of you don’t want to play, I can untag you. Or you can just ignore the tag (which is what often happens). If someone out there does want to play (either this game or some future one) please let me know.
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*I’m trying to figure out a way to throw in this quote about miming by Paula Poundstone, who said:
The saddest thing about me talking all the time is that I am a gifted mime. I could have had a brilliant career. I just couldn’t shut up!
and
Look at me, I’m in a box!
collecting tokens 
Hi Alejna —
Thanks for getting into the spirit of things and coming up with a great “six weird things about myself” list. :)
Re item #4 on your list: If it makes you feel better — me too, sorta! I.e., I can sing the theme song of “The Greatest American Hero” — and play the tune on the piano to boot — despite my only ever having watched one episode of the show (and not having liked what I saw all that much). ;S
As for item #3: Yeah, sounds like that story should be blogged about in detail at some point. :b
Fascinating juice, alejna…or should I say “Esperanto woman”. (I only did that since I like saying “Esperanto”. Your parents need to do this meme.
I also am intrigued about the anosmia- the smell thing. Weird migraine?
Anyway, I’ll play…yes, I’m weird. Whatever. (But, how to limit to 6?)
Aw, Alejna!!
I’m flattered that you’d like to know weird things about me, but memes really aren’t my thing! I’d never even heard the word meme before a couple of months ago when that list of books you’ve read/want to read/aren’t interested in, you know the one. It amazes me that of all that did it, hardly anyone was even interested in great books like Ulysses, Catch-22, 1984, The Great Gatsby or Catcher in the rye!
Also, I don’t want my regular readers, which includes most people in my building, to know just how weird I am. Plus, I don’t want to put them on the spot and ask for their weirdness afterwards, they’re all very serious academics, you know. Have you seen TLAC? It aint a ‘meme’ sort of place.
But, I’d gladly put in a comment a few weird things about me in the hope that it will somehow recede back into the cyber-ether. Just let me adequately concoct them…
I don’t even think I can come up with 6, I’m a very unremarkable person.
Woohoo!
I’ll try, but I might not get to it for a while…visitors and all. I’ve done it before, so it’ll be interesting to figure out 6 more things.
I’m curious about your little toes. My little toes were one of my 6 the last time…
I really do have every intention of answering the questions you sent me. Part of the problem is that I keep procrastinating since I feel compelled to write thoughtful, honest, and interesting answers to them… Anyway, sorry for the delay and I hope when I do answer them, it was worth it. It could be one of my projects for the weekend.
YTSL-
Thanks for playing, too. (And I know only some of the “Greatest American Hero” song, in spite of having watched the show a bit in my youth. I liked it then. Saw it recently, and, well, it didn’t age so well…)
Jangari-
Well, I’m glad you’re not offended. And yeah, the tagging bit is the serious downside to these things. I like the self-selecting idea better, but not so many self-select. Me, I like to play games. And apparently I like to write weird things about myself. I mean, my whole frickin’ blog is more-or-less weird things about myself. Anyhow, I’d love to get your own weird things even in comment form.
NotSoSage-
Ah, didn’t realize you’d been tagged before. You must be one weird individual. I’ll have to go digging through your archives. Especially to learn about your toes. Mine mostly have a funny shape. Also a bit of a funky extra nail.
erica-
Bad alejna. I didn’t mean to nag! I just like linking to people. I’m a link slut, I guess. I also was meaning, by linking you, that I wanted to tag you for this one. But wasn’t sure you’d be interested. Anyhow, I do look forward to your 5 answers. (I’ve missed your blogging!)
I was just teasing back and later, I realized you gave me a link. Thanks for missing my blogging. You’re not the only one who has said this to me, so I may have to get back on the ball. We’ll see.
erica-
Ah, good. Teasing’s OK, then. And I’m glad you’re considering getting back on the ball. It’s good for rolling, you know. The ball, that is.
Oka Alejna, you asked for it:
1. From the moment I was musically conscious, I only liked one sort of music; Metallica, everything by them and nothing not by them. I grew up of course, but not until I was about 14. Now I have one of the most eclectic musical tastes of anyone I know.
2. I’m monolingual. Matjjin-nehen in fact means ‘without language’, which is a bit of an indigenous Australian in-joke for not knowing your own language. This is ‘weird’ because most people on the planet are bilingual at least, so in being monolingual I’m in the vast minority.
3. Due to my having a very healthy head of hair (meaning it is too thick), I’ve been shaving my head since I was 10. And I’ve only been called a skinhead once (as far as I know).
4. I have a minor lisp. My /s/ and my /z/ are slightly interdental. The weird thing is, I didn’t know about this until last year.
6. I can’t count.
KC-
Oopsie–I skipped right over your comment before. Shocking, shocking. I’m thrilled that you are willing to play. I eagerly await your answers. (And thanks for the term anosmia. I must know. Does one pronounce it with “nose” in the middle?)
Jangari-
Woohoo! Weirdness. Thanks. I’m glad you recovered from #1. As for #6, you are funny.
AY-NOSE-MI-A
Meme is coming.
KC-
Excellent! A nose in the middle! And thanks for humoring me with the meme business…
The full line of Ocean Mist premium, artichokes and other fresh vegetables are grown year-round in multiple growing regions.
1. I can hand-jive. I started trying to do it as a kid and I perfected it after about a year.
2. I can actually wiggle my ears at will. The only other person in my family that could that was my grandfather. He had wildly large ears. I don’t, have large ears, nevertheless the movement is seamless and effortless.
3. I danced the japanese “fan dance” (Tachikata) at the Nisei week parade in Los Angeles in 1974. I an not Nisei nor am I Japanese! As child I loved Japanese people, Japanese culture and had learned some of the Japanese language. I danced in full kymono and geta. We have a weird “super 8” movie of this tall caucasian girl moving with the other girls down Second Street downtown. I was quite proud and didn’t notice the weird looks. I was an idealistic kid. I later married an asian man.
4. At 5 years old, my mother discovered that I loved High diving at the local high school. I dove off the highest of three dives for a year or so. Then one day I decided I was scared and never did it again.
5. I took accordion lessons when I was nine and was baited by my mother to do so, with the promise of winning a large radio in the motif of a Panda. I promptly enrolled learned two songs grabbed the Panda radio and refused to pick up the accordian again.
6. As a child I dug a hole and placed my “secret novel for all time, entitled: “fortelling a very bad time that would change the entire world and make a grasshopper named Petey king of New York.” It was tightly encased in a yellow “Whitman’s Sampler” box that had been freshly rid of candy by my chocolate loving, Barry Manilow loving grandmother had polished off. She didn’t hear well and frequently called him, “Harry Antelope.” I was raised thinking his name was really “Harry Antelope.” I worked on my novel for about 2 years. Not sure what happened to it. I may still be buryed at 6561 Fulton Avenue, Van Nuys, CA in the planters in front of the apartment building for all I know.