My Interview Questions, from HistoryDetective

1. If you were stuck on a desert island, which two books do you want to have with you?

Well, one would have to be a really long, engrossing, thriller novel by one of my favorite authors - so The Stand, by Stephen King. Frivolous perhaps, but such darn good fun. The other book would be the biggest, fattest, unabridged etymological dictionary I could find! Full of info and snipets of stories, poetry and quotations. I love reading from huge dictionaries. I could find something new every day of my life.

2. If you could be a contestant on any reality TV program, which program would you choose?

The Amazing Race, because it is exciting, thoughtful, and you get to do such an assortment of amazing things all over the world - things nobody else gets to do! And you do it all with your Best Friend (by whatever name you call your best friend.)

3. What is your favorite gift that any of your children ever gave to you? (You can choose one per child if you wish.)

My oldest daughter once gave me some trinket jewelry gift - I don't even remember what it was - but I still have the decorated box she made to put it in. It's quite small, about 3 x 5 x 1&1/2. She made it from 2 sheets of construction paper which she figured out how to fold into a bottom and seperate, lift-off top that fit perfectly! She used no tape, no glue, just clever folds to construct it. There were no loose edges of any kind; it was perfect! I was quite blown away by the combination of artistry, engineering and execution. She was 10 years old.

My youngest daughter was given the materials to make a clothespin Rudolph Reindeer tree decoration as a parental gift when she was in 4th grade (most parents will know more or less what this looks like.) She made a lovely little Rudolph with two additions: 1. Sticking our below his little nose are two huge white enamel-painted fangs. And 2. he has a flowing red felt cape. It's Vampire Rudolph!!! I love that thing so much. The teacher apologized for it but I just said "That's my girl!"

4. If you won the lottery and could afford to move anywhere in the world, where would you choose to live?

I would live on the Big Island, Hawaii. I love the gentle open-mindedness of contemporary Hawaiian culture. It is a cross-roads for the best of Eastern & Western culture. The climate is fabulous, and the Big Island has it all--rain forests to deserts. It has Mauna Loa, the earth's most massive volcano (now dormant) and Kilauea, the world's most active volcano. I love Hawaii.

5. Which historical figure, living or dead, famous or not, do you most admire?

I have always admired Margaret Mead, an anthropolgist who was just such a shinning light to me from my college years until the day she died. I have read so many of her ethnographies and scholarly papers. I loved her autobiographical novels - especially Blackberry Winter. I loved that when most women of her age were living lives so tightly bound by convention they seemed smothered, she was running around the globe and reinventing anthropology. Coming of Age In Samoa, one of her first full-length ethnographies was so excellent it became a mainstream Best Seller. She exposed the male-centered viewpoint that so many thoughtful anthropologists had not even known they possessed. She was an out-spoken free-thinker her whole life and I loved her for it.