Proustian meme
(A Vanity Fair Proust questionnaire I got via Paula, who answered far more tongue-in-cheek than I. No, I don't know what this has to do with Proust.)
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
- Believing it will remain perfect.
What is your greatest fear?
- Besides spiders, heights and cramped places? Not being missed.
What historical figure do you most identify with?
- Nixon. He screwed up the second time, and I tend(ed) to do that, too.
Which living person do you most admire?
- My boss. He's very kind and practical and supportive and has been very loyal to me.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
- Laziness.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
- Having a brain and refusing to use it, or having a heart and refusing to use it (often the two coincide).
What is your greatest extravagance?
- iTunes Store.
On what occasion do you lie?
- Never. I choose not to say anything if I can't say the truth.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
- As Paula said, the whole aging deal.
What is your favorite journey?
- Inward.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
- Uhm, what are the virtues?
Which living person do you most despise?
- I don't actually despise anyone. The person who currently frustrates me the most is George W. Bush.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
- None that I know of.
What is your greatest regret?
- Getting sick this week.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
- Me. Not loving myself would mean I was wasting skin and air.
When and where were you happiest?
- Were? That past tense is a total bummer. I'm happiest anywhere and any time I find myself totally enjoying myself without a second thought.
Which talent would you most like to have?
- OCD.
What is your current state of mind?
- Not its usual due to being sick with a fever.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
- Nothing.
If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
- Fewer dead members.
If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what would it be?
- River.
If you could choose what or who to come back as, what would it be?
- Myself.
What do your consider your greatest achievement?
- Get back to me in 20 years.
What is your most treasured possession?
- This here computer and my internet access. And my memory.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
- Seeing a non-suicidal solution to your problem(s) just as you pass the point of no return in your suicide attempt.
What is your most marked characteristic?
- My name.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
- The same I like in a woman.
What is the quality you most admire in a woman?
- Awareness, self-respect, kindness and humor.
What do you most value in your friends?
- Humor, sympathy, good conversation.
Who are your favourite writers?
- Isaac Asimov, Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Ruth Rendell.
Who is your favourite hero of fiction?
- Jean Valjean.
Who are your heroes in real life?
- My boss and co-workers; they are all an inspiration in how to be happy, whole people. Also, anybody doing his or her best in Iraq.
What are your favourite names?
- John.
What is it that you most dislike?
- Stringbeans.
How would you like to die?
- Paula said morphine overdose. Not a bad choice. My first one is "from drowning after going overboard from a cruiseship at age 92".
What is your motto?
- This too shall pass. It's the only cliché I've ever heard that gives me comfort.
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