7 Things You Didn't Know About Me

Pete Wann at Cowtown Chronicles has tagged me with an online meme called "7 Things You Didn't Know About Me". He's written a list of 7 things we didn't know about him, he's linked to 7 other bloggers who are supposed to do the same. Then I'm supposed to link to 7 other bloggers, and next thing you know, we've got this Amway pyramid of links and traffic going back and forth to each other.

Here are my 7 things.

1. On the top of my left ear, I have a feature called "Darwin's Point". According to The List Universe, "Darwin’s point is found in the majority of mammals, and humans are no exception. It is most likely used to help focus sounds in animals, but it no longer has a function in humans. Only 10.4% of the human population still has this visible left-over mark of our past.

My grandmother called it "The Howard Mark", after the branch of the family that all had wolf bumps on their ears.

2. I played acoustic guitar for an earlier incarnation of this group while I was in college, and we were able to do a European tour every couple of years. One night in an Austrian restaurant, I stood up and loudly sang "Dixie" for a group of bewildered locals. There was a very well-dressed couple being honored in one of the back rooms, and they and their friends were not amused by my performance of a Minstrel Show Battle Hymn from The War Of Northern Oppression. The next morning, I discovered that the Guests Of Honor in the next room were the Prince and Princess of Liechtenstein. All I can say is that alcohol was involved. (But I've sung "Dixie" for royalty !)

3. In Pete's list of 7 things, he mentions that he once made an ass of himself in front of noted Fort Worth actor Bill Paxton. I've never done that. But I once accidentally set someone else up to do so. Yes, with noted Fort Worth actor Bill Paxton. What are the odds? It's a long, long story.

4. I was born with an undescended testicle.

5. I don't smoke, except for the occasional cigar with the Libertarians at Pop's. But I once had a group of nicotine-addicted employees who claimed they needed more than two minutes for a "quick smoke break". To prove them wrong, I once smoked a Marlboro Light down to the filter in less than 15 seconds. Not recommended.

6. I've made five work-related trips to China. Thanks to multiple sets of flash cards, at one point I could recognize more than 500 characters in Mandarin Chinese. Now that we have another manager over there full time, I've forgotten almost all of them.

7. Thanks to the mind-expanding trips to Asia, I can eat or drink almost anything and enjoy it. The only two things I don't like and refuse to consume are pickles and iced tea.

And now I'm supposed to tag 7 more people with this thing. (The goal is to send traffic back to Pete's site, via my link, and then I'm supposed to go whoring for 7 more links back to my site.) Since I tagged all my Usual Suspects via an earlier meme called "The Anti-Library", I'm going to try something different.
I'm going to tag the bloggers who, according to Google, have made the most popular use of the word "antidisestablishmentarianism". Just to see what happens.

1. I'm tagging the good people at "Flippin' Kites", who marvelled at seeing antidisestablishmentarianism used in a real live sentence....

2. And I'm tagging the Atheist Bible Reading And Forum. They have an actual video about antidisestablishmentarianism, and once you've watched it, you'll never, ever forget it. It's incredibly effective. (heh, heh, heh...go there. You'll be glad you did. Seriously. Go there. Watch the video. Let me know if you watched the video. You'll walk away knowing EXACTLY what antidisestablishmentarianism means.)

3. For something completely different, Reconciliationtalk.com asks the question "Antidisestablishmentarianism, or not?"

4. A Staunch Calvinist at Reformation 21 has a post simply titled "Antidisestablishmentarianism". It seems that Rowan Williams, an archbishop in the C of E, is actually contemplating disestablishmentarianism.

5. David Keen at The Wardman Wire has the most in-depth analysis of Antidisestablishmentarianism you'll ever surf through. No stone is left unturned.

6. Andrew King, of Downed Robin fame, has yet another post entitled "Antidisestablishmentarianism". This guy's pretty entertaining, stating that "That old tease, Archbishop Rowan Williams, has titillated New Statesman readers with the enticing prospect of thew Church of England finally getting its lardy butt off the gravy train and being disestablished, not before time."

7. Finally, Boondoggle has a short piece entitled "Antidisestablishmentarianism Out Of A Beard". Polly Toynbee, states Boondoggle, knows what the longest word in the English language is.

So there are 7 bloggers tagged, and all 7 bloggers have written pieces about whether England should or shouldn't have an established church. If any of them link back to me with their 7 things about themselves, much less blogroll me, I'll be amazed.

Oh, one other thing I should've put on my list.....

8. When I was very, very young, my mother taught me how to spell and define "antidisestablishmentarianism".