14 posts tagged “qotd”

What sources do you count on for national news coverage?  How about international and local news?

CNN is a colossal waste of time, but I watch it in the morning as the least inane of a bunch of bad choices.  CNN just has WAY too much hype and too little news.   Plus, they are constantly reporting things as "breaking news" that either aren't newsworthy to a national/international audience or the story hasn't developed yet and they're just speculating on what might happen.

I now turn to BBC for most international news.  I watch Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's Countdown as a replacement for typical nightly news.

What are your Major League Baseball playoff predictions?

As a native Bostonian, it is highly likely that the Red Sox will disappoint.

Do you have a green thumb?

When it comes to growing culinary herbs, I'm pretty good.  Maybe too good since my mint began to overrun everything else before I pulled it all out.  But, when it comes to hydrangeas, I have no skill whatsoever.  I'm to the point where I won't even buy them any more since they're just doomed as soon as they go into the ground.

What do you have, what do you need and what do you want?
Submitted by Miss Scotch.

I have a wonderful, loving wife.
I need to exercise more.
I want to win the grand prize in tomorrow's Powerball drawing.

Should driving while talking on a cell phone be outlawed? 
Submitted by Soup.  

Probably, but if we're going to do that we should be consistent and ban a whole host of other activities while driving. 

To the extent driving is really piloting a multi-thousand pound projectile through a series of obstacles, including follow humans, drivers should focus on this activity with 100% of their concentration.  That clearly wasn't happening even before cell phones.  If we're really focused on safety, we should ban audio systems in cars since they are both a distraction and an impediment to hearing dangers like trains and emergency vehicles.  And we should also ban eating and drinking in cars since those are also distractions from the task at hand.  And while we're focused on keeping drivers focused on the life-critical task of driving, we should ban roadside display advertising (billboards) since they are also designed to take the driver's attention away from what he/she is doing.

You can see where this is going...

Ultimately, regardless of the actions taken, there will be drivers who take their task seriously and those who don't and present a danger to others.  I'm not convinced that banning cell phone conversations will accomplish much at all.  Heck, I remember loud arguments with my sister in the back seat of the family car while we were kids, and I'm sure that was much more distracting to our parents than any cell phone conversations they might have had.

You could argue that tasks that involve reading should be banned while driving.  These could include dialing a cellphone (make people get/use voice-activated dialing), reading, and text messaging.  I'm not sure these bans would be all that much more effective in promoting safety, but at least they would be more narrowly targeted on tasks that are impossible for most drivers to perform safely.

Did you go to summer camp?  Which one?  What did you enjoy doing? 
Submitted by Something Else.

I did go to summer camp.  I didn't enjoy it very much, but my favorite parts were learning to sail and learning to shoot a rifle.

What are the 10 foods you must have in your refrigerator and/or your kitchen cabinet? 
Submitted by Carol.  

Tabasco Sauce
Short-grain white rice (preferably Koshi-Hikari)
Original Boca Burgers
Soy Milk (preferably Vanilla artificially sweetened)
Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal
Frozen Buffalo Chicken Tenders
Kosher Hot Dogs
Sweet Hot Mustard
Pita bread or flour tortillas (either would work)
Napa cabbage kimchi

Of course, with my wife doing almost all the cooking, she runs the kitchen now, so we have whatever she likes to cook best.

Which friend or acquaintance most influenced your taste in music? 
Submitted by Rev Stan.

My case is a tie.

The first is one of my college friends, Bill.  Bill has been a passionate music fan ever since I first met him, and he's even parlayed that passion into a job (he reviews Music as part of his job with a Cape Cod newspaper).  Bill expanded my musical horizons, tried to get me to appreciate reggae (sorry that one never took), and got me interested in the local music scene in Boston.  Even today, I always check out his column for interesting new music.

The second is my friend Leslie.  When we lived down in the Bay Area, she introduced me to groups like the Pixies, Replacements, They Might Be Giants, and Too Much Joy who remain favorites to this day.  Much of the music on my iPod today is from groups that Leslie first introduced me to (but I found Barenaked Ladies myself!).  :)

What would you consider to be your 15 minutes of fame so far in life?

Probably a recent profile on my teaching in the local newspaper (Memphis Commercial Appeal), but it might have been each episode of the sixth season of American Gladiators where my credit (Production Coordinator) showed up at the end

Who is the cheapest person you know?  (Not frugal... just annoyingly cheap!)
Submitted by kryan70.

Certainly not my wife -- HAHAHAHAHAHA!