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9-12-03 // 9.07 pm prime minister's questions As per that thing that's going around at the moment, Christian asked me five questions, and now I shall answer them. Apparently the way this works is that after I make my answers, I'm supposed to ask five questions to two other people. So, if you'd like to be asked some questions, sign the guestbook. First two to sign get it. 1) Name one place you'd like to live before you die A tad predictable perhaps, but Britain. I am an unrepentant Anglophile, and my travels in England and Scotland last year only reinforced my affinity for the island. Of course, visiting a place and living there offer two different perceptions of it, and for that reason I would love to truly experience the UK as a resident. Plus, reliable access to proper curry, beer, football and CDs only available on import in the States would be a dream come true. To be surrounded by that wealth of accents, by the palpable sense of history and age, and by people who seem to share with myself a reserved, almost stoic personality would be a great thing to experience. I don't think I could ever permanently abandon my homeland, but for a while...oh yeah, it'd be a hell of a time. 2) (obligatory St Louis question)Cardinals or Blues? Cardinals, I don't even have to think about it. They say baseball runs in the blood of St. Louisans, and I suppose I'm no exception. I have vivid memories of being 7 years old, newly aware of the joys of following National League ball, and being too little to stay up to watch the Cards and the Twins play in the 1987 World Series. The morning after each of the series' seven games, my dad would put the newspaper clipping and box score at my spot at the breakfast table so I could at least see how things turned out. That summer of '87 my dad would also bring me packs of baseball cards that he'd pick up at various places along his beer delivery route. The Topps set of that year was well cool, all wood-style bordering and loads of stats. I remember tearing open pack after pack looking for that elusive Jack Clark card. In the spring of '88 I attended my first Cards game, a rainy, miserable afternoon game against the Astros and it was then that I fell in love with Busch Stadium. The summers of 1988-91 were spent listening to Jack Buck call games on KMOX radio. The warm summer breeze would blow in through the windows as I lay on my bed, and I would listen to Buck tell stories and paint pictures of games with nothing but words. I'm pretty sure that during those years I could tell you any stat of any Cardinals player. I played ball in my backyard or on sandlots fantasizing that it was me out there at Busch. Several times a season my dad and I would take in a game in person. It was always a massive treat, especially if for some reason we'd scored especially good tickets. I saw Ray Lankford hit for the cycle one Sunday afternoon in 1992. I saw Ozzie Smith make countless acrobatic lunges, catches and throws at shortstop. My teenage years lured me away from the Cards -- I succumbed to the lure of great Blues hockey teams (a new set of friends who introduced me to street hockey had something to do with that) & music. I still followed the Redbirds, but it was a secondary interest. In 1997 I went away to college and for some reason, I reconnected with the sport of baseball, and along with it, my team. Those late '90s years were the years of Mark McGwire hitting jaw-droppingly long home runs and Tony La Russa making a division champion out of a team that hadn't done squat for more than a decade. I remember sitting in my dorm room watching McGwire hit his 62nd home run, breaking Roger Maris' record...the entire tower exploded in a roar when that ball barely cleared the left field wall. The past three or so years have found me following the team with an even more renewed sense of passion. Other sports are wonderful and variety is the spice of life, but there is nothing like baseball and nothing like watching my Cardinals. Even if all they ever do is break my heart. 3) Should George W.Bush be president? No. It's questionable whether he was truly elected in the first place, depending on how you view the Florida electoral debacle. However, no, George W. Bush should not be president. He does not have the acumen for the job. There have been past presidents I disliked (Reagan for one) that I could at least respect because they were eloquent, they at least acted like they knew what they were doing. Bush seems almost willfully ignorant, and I sense that he never truly outgrew the alcohol and cocaine filled party days of his youth, that he never really developed a sense of responsibility. Bush approaches problems, both domestic and international, with a cowboy mentality. Yes, it's a bit of cliche, but it's so appropriate. There is only black and white in his world, which clashes quite a bit with the actual world, which is nothing but shades of gray. All of this would be forgivable had Bush at least had the sense to surround himself with cautious, responsible handlers and advisers. Sadly, this is not the case. From Dick Cheney to Donald Rumsfeld, to Condoleeza Rice and Ari Fleischer...Bush has surrounded himself with harsh, power hungry men and women. The fact that Rumsfeld and his "New American Century" cronies have had such a profound influence on the Bush presidency's foreign policy speaks volumes for George W. Bush's capability to be an effective president. Sadly, Bush quickly went from a president I didn't much care for but could tolerate to a president that I found dangerous and incompetent. It's not that Bush is a Republican, either. I'm equally wary of Democrats, independents or third party candidates. But I'm certain that none of them would resonate on such a sinister level than GW Bush does. 4) How good of a tool do you think the internet is for meeting people? Not to speak in hyperbole, but the internet is probably the greatest tool for meeting people in the history of the world. It is not only possible, but incredibly simple to meet people who share even the most arcane of interests. Of course, the fact that all of this "meeting" occurs without genuine face-to-face interaction would seem to suggest that bonds forged online would not be nearly as strong as those formed "in the real". However, at least by personal experience, you can form strong, real relationships with people met online. A face-to-face meeting always helps to reinforce this, and I relish the infrequent chances I get to visit in-person with my good "net" friends, though I have friends made online that I have never met in person that I feel no less close to because of this fact. 5) Do ghosts exist? I say no, though I am generally a very unsuperstitious person. I don't question the existence of unexplained phenomena, though I tend not to associate such things to the supernatural. I would agree that some places seem to have a "ghostly" energy or feeling about them, though I tend to attribute said feelings to my imagination, or to the power of suggestion. Of course, one cannot scientifically prove or disprove the existence of ghosts, so it's down to faith. I don't believe, but others are welcome to do so if they'd like.
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