13 Random Things

You don’t know too much about me, so let’s fix that. Here are some observations, declarations, maybe even attestations, and a quote.

1. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” —Leonardo da Vinci (maybe)

2. I’m sort of in love with the em dash.

3. I’ll take His Girl Friday over any Marvel movie.

4. I wanted to be an astronaut, a newspaper pressman (like my Dad), a newspaper reporter (like Carl Kolchak), and a backup singer (for Sam Cooke in “(What A) Wonderful World” and Elvis in “Don’t Be Cruel”). I didn’t do any of those, but the backup singer gig still sounds good.

5. Artificial intelligence is a tool. I will use it for research (which I’ll always verify) and for sparking an idea and getting the writing ball rolling, but I will never never let it do the writing for me. 

6. Jazz is the soundtrack of my soul. Oscar Peterson’s solo in “Maria” will take me to my happy place posthaste. And, based solely on what he did with the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens of the 1920s, Louis Armstrong should be on the $100 bill.

7. But I’m also enamored of punk, classical, old funk and R&B — I’m enamored of music, I guess you could say.

8. Really good writing makes me tingle. I love a sentence that is so good that you have to pause to take it in, then go back and read it again.

9. I’ll take an episode of the 1969 Scooby Doo Where Are You! over any Marvel movie.

10. less/fewer matters. who/whom matters. that/which matters.

11. I have made quilts.

12. My favorite short story is “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. The last line is impossible to forget.

13. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off may be the film I quote from the most.