Are You Talking About Me?

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I`ve been tagged for the About Me Meme by Sanctus Belle who blogs beautifully at Our Lady's Tears and here goes. I'll get back at her later.

1. Male or Female: Male

2. Married or Single or Religious: Single

3. Dream vacation: A Personally guided tour by the directors of all the Vatican Museums of their facilities, concentrating on the best, and the "secret" exhibits.

4. Birthplace: Duluth, Minnesota, Zenith City of the Unsalted Sea (Lake Superior)

5. Area I live in currently: Minneapolis, Minnesota, Erstwhile Flour Milling Capital of the World. Regularly, I wonder at how much power could have come from the puny St Anthony Falls in Minneapolis. The real marvel must have been the inventions and innovations of the engineers and builders. But I suspect so much power could only have come from positioning the mills in a line along the banks of the river and re-using water. The invention of the electric motor was what sounded the death knell for "The Mill City."

6. Someone you wish you could meet: Leonardo da Vinci. But I'm not sure what I would have to contribute to the conversation.

7. Biggest "pet-peeve": Have you got an hour or two? Let's start with "priests who experiment" with the celebration of Holy Mass.

8. Favorite Religious devotion: The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

9. Favorite Saint: St Faustina Kowalska, the Apostle of Divine Mercy

10. Favorite sport that you play: Golf (not so much any more)

11. Favorite food: Any "hot dish"; the things you can't find on restaurant menus that Mom loved to cook.

12. Tridentine or Novus Ordo: A good Novus Ordo (with the corrected English translations desired by Pope Benedict) with Latin Gregorian Chant would suit me just fine. I'd even sing along.

13. Would you (or are you) home schooling or public school: Twelve years of a fine Catholic education received from the Sisters of St Benedict. It wasn't their fault that I dropped out for a while. But I dropped out because of spiritual laziness, not because I thought the Church was wrong. I knew I was wrong. But like all young people, I felt I was "immortal." Fortunately, I was somewhat right about that.

14. How many kids do you have: None

15. Ever been in an auto accident: Three. Two of them my fault in the early 70s when I had been drinking heavily. I thank God regularly that no one was harmed, including me. There were plenty of others times that I used to drive while impaired by alcohol and fortunately did not have an accident. I am grateful to god for that also. The third time I was stopped properly at a traffic light and someone hit me trying to make a left turn and drove right into me.

16. Ever seen a Pope in person: No. My Mom and Sister went up to Winnipeg when he visited there and I never thought to go with them. When they told of their trip, I had the impression that they never got close to him, but I just found a year or two ago that he drove within fifty feet of them or so in the Pope Mobile. I really regret not going now.

17. Languages that you know fluently: I can read German passably and was trained to be a Farsi (Persian) linguist in the Army but never used it so most of that is gone. And I can still remember the Tantum Ergo and O Salutaris Hostia hymns from all the Benedictions I attended when in grade school. Of course, I never did know what the words meant.

18. Last movie you saw in theatres: Into Great Silence, the four hour movie about life in a French Carthusian monastery which was such a popular hit in Europe but which seems to have sunk into a deep abyss in this country.

19. Favorite Blog: Is it possible to plead the "Fifth Amendment" on this question? I have some very good blogging pals who would be aghast to find out that I can't start each day without reading Doonesbury. They all think that I have them at the top of my "must read" list.

20. Your thoughts on Barney, the Easter bunny, and Santa Claus: I must admit that I have logged an hour or so of "Barney time", being both fascinated and yet repelled. Something evil within us must find him attractive. I pretty much gave up on the Easter Bunny at a young age after I ate an entire chocolate bunny in one sitting and got quite sick. Santa is a wonderful custom. It makes one wonder, though, about families whose kids get to age ten or twelve or so and still "believe." In what other ways are those families unique?

I will tag Georgette of Hyderabad, occasional blogger these days, Terry-of-the-many-blogs and Adoro of the incomparable Adoro-Te-Devote blog with the About Me Meme!