In case you missed this list on Lois Winston‘s blog a couple of weeks ago, I’m reprinting here.
Here are some of my favorite things, in various categories:
• Element of the periodic table — Polonium, #84, the first element discovered by Marie Curie, and named for her native Poland.
• Crime drama — “Ray Donovan,” because of Liv Schreiber, Jon Voight, the Boston accents, and the dark, dark mood: “You don’t want to know what really happened.”
• Scientist— Enrico Fermi, “the architect of the nuclear age,” for better or worse, and author of one of my favorite quotes.
• Favorite quote #1, from Fermi — Before I came here I was confused about this subject. Having listened to your lecture, I am still confused. But on a higher level.
• Female crime writer — Patricia Highsmith, because she gave us Tom Ripley.
• Drink — very dry decaf cappuccino with whole milk (Reminds me of that scene in “LA Story,” where no one is ordering a simple coffee.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08NkaqoOELg
• Favorite quote #2 — There are some people that if they don’t know, you can’t tell them. – Louis Armstrong. (Know anyone who fits this description?)
• Favorite animals — the lions, Patience and Fortitude, outside the New York Public Library.
• Mathematician — Countess Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter and the world’s first programmer, not because she was an addictive gambler, but because many people think she’s an acronym. ADA, the Department of Defense programming language is named after her. And so is Ada Madison, one of my pen names.
• Museum — one with a Hopper, a Stieglitz, a Wharhol, and a coffee shop.
• Sport — whatever is off season.
• Male crime writer — Stephen King, because I’m only one degree of separation from him (My first agent was his first editor. Or is that two degrees?), and because he hugged me when I handed him his Edgar for “Mr. Mercedes.”
• All-round great Author — Joyce Carol Oates, because she’s on my mind. She was featured in the NYTimes, 10/23/17, as part of the Set the Page Free project, between Xerox and the literary community. And because she’s written a gazillion books that I love, from “Them” in 1969 to “We Were the Mulvaneys” in 1996 to “The Man Without a Shadow” in 2016. She’s quoted in the article as saying “I like to write.” Really, Ms. Oates? Tell us what you don’t like to do.
Sunset lined up with 42nd Street, on a summer evening.
• Street — 42nd in Manhattan, running from the East River to the Hudson River. In between are the United Nations, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal, the New York Public Library, Times Square, and one or two theaters and eateries. Hmm, maybe it’s time for a visit!
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Dec.28,2017
