A Journal of My Mid-Life Crisis

23 May 1999 - Surveying

New Times, one of the freebie weeklies out here, has their annual Best of L.A. Reader's Poll going on now. I thought about filling in the form, but when I looked it over, I realized that I have absolutely no idea for the overwhelming majority of categories. Best cheap date is easy - Friday night jazz on the plaza at the L.A. County Museum of Art is free. And the Fowler Museum at U.C.L.A. is free until mid-July. (I went yesterday with Lauren to see an amazing exhibit of Chinese silk embroidery, by the way. The embroideries are based on photographs by Robert Glenn Ketchum and many of the pieces are exhibited next to the photos that inspired them. The work is incredibly precise and detailed. If you're in L.A. through September, this exhibit is well worth seeing.) But "best place to shake the Vegas blues"? I don't even know what that is supposed to mean. "Best place to meet foreign chicks"? Geez, could you come up with a more sexist category? "Best strip club"? Ah, yes, they could come up with a more sexist category indeed.

And that's just from the "urban fun and games" part of the poll. Food and drink is reasonably normal, though the individual dishes they call out seem bizarre to me. "Best pizza" is normal enough (and the answer is Johnny's New York Pizza in the Marina and Santa Monica), "best fried chicken" is probably reasonable (though not something I can comment on as I don't think I've eaten fried chicken since I was about 9 years old), and I can even believe "best tapas." But "best eggs benedict" or, even more bizarrely, "best hangtown fry"? Does anybody eat these things often enough to have a guess there?

The nightlife and entertainment categories are fairly normal, with the exception of "best jukebox." I can even answer a few of them. "Best dance club" is Gypsy Camp, a folk dance place on Motor Avenue. "Best Art Gallery" is Every Picture Tells a Story on Beverly Blvd., which specializes in art from children's books. "Best Unsigned L.A. Band" is Sheer Pandemonium (a Celtic group). And "Best Karaoke" is any karaoke place in, say, Tokyo, or anywhere else far enough away that I won't be subjected to it.

Goods and services covers all sorts of things that I have never had any desire to buy. Okay, "best used record store" is easy, with Rhino Records virtually around the corner from me. But "best cheap car parts"? "Best used movie posters"? "Best occult supplies"? I wonder if there is any place that sells posters of occult ceremonies involving cheap car parts so I could nominate it for a triple award.

I won't even comment on the sports and recreation categories. "Best ping pong" speaks for itself.

While I am on the subject of surveys, I might as well be lazy and round out the entry with the answers to the email survey that's been making the rounds. (I already emailed this to several friends, which is why it qualifies as lazy to stick this in here.)

**ORIGINAL MESSAGE**
Okay, here's what you're supposed to do. Copy this e-mail and change all the answers so they apply to you. Then send it to everyone you know (or thereabouts), INCLUDING the person who sent it to you. You will be getting a lot of get-to-know-you e-mail and learn a lot about your friends and/or family that you maybe didn't know. Please take 10 minutes out of your day to do this. It is goofy, but fun, and interesting to see where it goes and what comes back to you.

ULTIMATE SURVEY FOR: --- Miriam

NAME GIVEN AT BIRTH: --- Miriam Heidi Nadel. I completely detest my middle name which I associate with that stupid kid's book in which a character by that name skips around the alps with goats.

NICKNAME: --- I don't really have a nickname. My brother sometimes calls me Mir, but that is about it. The "usual" nicknames for Miriam are horribly cutesy and I outright refuse to answer to anyone who attempts to call me such things as "Mimi" or "Mimsy". My high school nickname, however, was "Twinklefingers" which came about because of my obsession at the time, namely the piano.

HOMETOWN: --- Hmmm, not sure how you define this. I was born in The Bronx, NY, and grew up in Island Park, NY and it is the latter that I usually think of as my "home town". I've lived in Los Angeles for over 13 years now, though.

CROUTONS OR BACON BITS: --- Neither. Croutons are tolerable but normally I make salads with just veggies.

FAVORITE SALAD DRESSING: --- oil and vinegar

SHAMPOO OR CONDITIONER: --- shampoo, but the kind with built in conditioner

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN SKINNY DIPPING? --- yes

DO YOU MAKE FUN OF PEOPLE: --- constantly, but I make fun of myself too.

FAVORITE COLOR: --- teal

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CONVICTED OF A CRIME: --- No

BEST ON-LINE FRIENDS: ---- too many to pick a few. I'm on several mailing lists and hang out on muds. And then I use the net to stay in touch with people I've met traveling (and people at home when I am traveling). I suppose if I were to pick one person I originally met online who's had the greatest effect on my life, it would have to be Marc, since without the round-the-world travel guide he put together (and his email and telephone advice) I doubt I would have actually taken the step of taking a long leave to travel.

ONE PILLOW OR TWO: --- one (and a real flat squashy one at that) or even none. But I do sleep with a teddy bear.

PETS: --- none at the moment. If I lived a stable settled normal person life (i.e. if I didn't travel on business constantly and for pleasure when I can and owned a house and all that) I'd have one dog (a husky or samoyed or something along those lines - the wolfier the better but not a wolf hybrid) and two cats (Siamese preferably). Growing up I had mostly small pets - turtles, a mouse named Rosie (which I got when my next door neighbor's Mom freaked at the idea), salamanders I caught - though we did have a cat for a while, despite my Dad's objections.

FAVORITE TYPES OF MUSIC: --- Anything but country or rap. I've been on a Brazilian kick lately, listening to a lot of Milton Nascimento and Tom Ze and so on. The types of music most represented in my CD collection are show tunes and Celtic stuff.

HOBBIES: --- Storytelling is my major spare time activity. I do a lot of walking but it sounds strange to call that a hobby; collecting patches and pins and other memorabilia from organized walks probably does count as a hobby though. Travel is always an obsession for me, too. As is reading. I don't collect dolls but my mother thinks I do so I have a lot of them.

TOOTHPASTE: --- whatever is on sale!

FAVORITE FOOD: --- strawberries

DO YOU GET ALONG WITH YOUR PARENT(S): --- Well, my father passed away in 1985 and, while my relationship with him was often turbulent, I'd say we reached a point of mutual respect before he died. I get along very well with my mother as long as we aren't actually in the same house for more than a day or two.

FAVORITE TOWN TO CHILL IN: --- Anywhere near the ocean. If I had to pick one place, I suppose that Sag Harbor, NY, approaches perfection. But the best I can do out here is Santa Monica.

FAVORITE ICE CREAM: --- McConnell's Turkish Coffee. They make at least 3 other types of coffee ice cream, but the Turkish coffee, which has real coffee granules in it, is the one I love. I also once had something wonderful at Tre Scalini in Rome, but the airfare would make eating it often prohibitively expensive.

FAVORITE DRINK: --- Arrowhead sparkling mineral water with mandarin orange essence. If you mean to refer to alcoholic drinks, it depends on the weather - gin and tonic if it's hot, Irish coffee if it's cold.

WHAT IS YOUR BEDTIME: --- anywhere from 9 p.m. to midnight or later. About 11 p.m. is probably typical. Sometimes I get absorbed doing something and sort of forget to go to sleep.

ADIDAS, REEBOK OR NIKE: --- none of the above. My favorite aerobics shoes are by Ryka, the walking shoes I am currently wearing are from Ecco, and my normal casual shoes are from Rockport. I think I might have had a pair of Nikes once, maybe 15 years ago, though. I really need to replace my Tevas (sports sandals) too; they are suffering the horrors of velcro failure.

FAVORITE PERFUME / COLOGNE: --- Tabu or Emeraude.

FAVORITE WEB SITE: --- my home page, of course!

FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: --- science

LEAST FAVORITE SUBJECT: --- social studies, especially 10th grade world history with Mrs. Philips. On the plus side, her obsession with Serbia has proved handy for sounding informed nowadays.

FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH: ---baseball, especially if it's the Red Sox playing the Source of All Evil in the Universe (commonly known as the NY Yankees) at Fenway Park.

HUMILIATING MOMENT: --- Ah, there are so many to choose from. The general theme involves public displays of panic, typically associated with my fear of heights. The summer at camp that we built Monkeyville had a lot of opportunities for those, for example. There were lots of ground level tasks during the actual construction of this treehouse village, but the final night we were all supposed to gather on one of the platforms. It took me about 6 tries before I could get myself to go up the ladder.

CRAZIEST PERSON OR SILLIEST PERSON YOU KNOW: --- Having actually visited someone I know on a locked ward, there is no doubt who is craziest. (She's fine if she takes her medication.) As for silliest, well, I hang out with storytellers so you can't really expect me to pick just one! And then my boss sends me things like a shockwave animation of a frog in a blender.

WHAT YOU LOOK FOR IN THE OPPOSITE SEX: --- Probably the single thing that most makes me interested in a man is attentiveness. It's stuff like just remembering little details/trivia we've talked about, for example. But it goes deeper than that - I like men who think about issues, who have opinions (not necessarily in agreement with mine), who aren't obsessed with what other people think about them.

SAY ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU AND BE SURE TO SEND IT BACK TO THEM: --- I got this from Martha Spiva, who I first met several years ago on a MUD (a sort of online game). Her title there was the social goddess and it was well earned as she was a true community builder there.

WHAT PERSON YOU HAVE SENT THIS TO THAT IS LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND:--- I censored myself from sending it to people who I didn't think would respond, but Brian seems to have fallen off the face of the planet (or maybe buying the house used up all his money so he couldn't pay for fuel and froze in the Michigan winter) so perhaps he might not.

As it turns out, Brian was one of the two people who did respond, though he didn't fill out the survey. He just got me caught up on what is going on in his life, including his upcoming marriage. John was the other one who answered and he did fill out the survey. He also asked me if there is some great American obsession with salad toppings that makes us think they are meaningful to ask about. I suppose they tell you roughly as much about someone as being able to answer a question on where to find the best petanque courts in L.A. does. (That was not a real category, but for those who care, I believe the only - and, therefore, best by default - petanque courts in L.A. are at the Cheviot Hills Rec Center. Not that I have any idea what petanque is, but I walk past the sign for them all the time.)