Proust Questionnaire

[Gary Freedman]

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Miami Beach

What is the best gift you've received?

The Georg Solti recording of Gotterdammerung when I was 13 years old.

What are your guilty pleasures?

Strauss and Schumann

Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?

I would like to play the piano, which I haven't done in 30 years.  But then, I would need not only time but a piano.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

A photographic memory.

What is the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?

I've probably never done a spontaneous thing in my entire life.  An immense amount of planning goes into everything I do.

Growing up, who did you most admire?

Benjamin Franklin

What was your most epic road trip?

I've never taken a road trip

What food brings back childhood memories?

Gefilte fish

Which book could you read over and over?

I don't reread books.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you ever received?

There's always someone smarter than you. --Kenneth R. Glick, Esq.

What is your idea of a perfect date?

I don't date.

Describe the most beautiful place you have ever seen.

Rome

If you could go back and relive one day of your life, which one would it be and why?

When I was fourteen years old, in late March 1968, we performed excerpts from Strauss's opera Der Rosenkavalier in my high school orchestra.  I would love to do that again.  Strauss?  How can you ask "why?"

Es sind die mehreren Dinge auf der Welt so, daß sie eins nicht glauben tät,

wenn man sie möcht erzählen hören.

Alleinig wers erlebt, der glaubt daran und weiß nicht wie . . .

There are many things in this world that you don't believe when you hear about them --

but if you lived them you believe, and don't know why. --Strauss, Act III, Der Rosenkavalier

What would you do if you won the lottery?

Move to Miami Beach

What advice would you now give to your 10-year-old self?

Don't listen to other people

What do you love most about your home?

It's seeming seclusion

What's your favorite family tradition?

I barely have a family, let alone a family tradition.

What do you most dislike?

Being told what to do, what to feel, what to think.

[D. D. Olson]

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Right where I live now, on my farm in Minnesota.

What is the best gift you've received?

When I was 8, my dad gave me a record player with a Beatles 45.  I still have both of them.

What are your guilty pleasures?

Wine and good cheese.

Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?

Higher forms of beadwork.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

To communicate verbally with wild animals.

What is the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?

It involved a party and some illegal substances in college.  I had fun.

Growing up, who did you most admire?

My grandpa.

What was your most epic road trip?

Driving through the Rocky Mountains with my mom in 2005.  She was terrified.  I was empowered by the mountains.

What food brings back childhood memories?

Rusks.

Which book could you read over and over?

Stellaluna.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you ever received?

From my dad:  "Just because everyone else is doing something doesn't mean that you have to do it."

What is your idea of a perfect date?

Wine and cheese with Lars in front of the wood stove.

Describe the most beautiful place you have ever seen.

Our valley in June.  Everything is green.

If you could go back and relive one day of your life, which one would it be and why?

The day I graduated from high school.  It was a good day.

What would you do if you won the lottery?

Keep farming until it was gone.

What advice would you now give to your 10-year-old self?

It gets better.

What do you love most about your home?

It's where I recharge, regroup, make myself able to face the word.  It's my sanctuary.

What's your favorite family tradition?

Drinking wine with my sister at her picnic table.  It's our private tradition.

What do you most dislike?

Forwarded false emails that haven't been verified on snopes.com.

[funesthememorious]

I have Remembrance of Things Past by Proust and Madame Bovary by Flaubert sitting nearby...it is a tossup which one I'll read first. Anyway:

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

Catania, Sicily.

What is the best gift you've received?

A used 1966 VW Beetle from my dad when I went to college. I was expelled 2 and 1/2 years later.

What are your guilty pleasures?

Key lime pie and searching used music and book stores.

Which hobby would you pursue if you had more time?

Harmonica and playwright.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Superman's sexual stamina.

What is the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?

A comical impromptu one man act of the Frankenstein story as my oral book report as a junior in high school.

Growing up, who did you most admire?

Yosemite Sam.

What was your most epic road trip?

Long Island to Florida in 26 hours in search of mind altering drugs.

What food brings back childhood memories?

Spaghetti and meatballs, canoli, Sugar Daddys.

Which book could you read over and over?

Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges.

What is the most valuable piece of advice you ever received?

Enjoy the spaces between rewards.

What is your idea of a perfect date?

Food, entertainment, romance.

Describe the most beautiful place you have ever seen.

Climax, NY.

If you could go back and relive one day of your life, which one would it be and why?

Junior Prom night - the couple we went with were both tripping. We sat stopped in the car a half hour waiting for a frog to cross the road in front of us.  

What would you do if you won the lottery?

TBD all expenses paid party - to make it more appealing I won't attend.

What advice would you now give to your 10-year-old self?

Girls have cooties.

What do you love most about your home?

It's paid for.

What's your favorite family tradition?

Christmas Eve feast of the seven fishes.

What do you most dislike?

Miserable puritans, struggling to change everything and everyone while interfering with every form of life on earth.