10 Questions

I am taking a (justified?) break from work and I decided to do this! At the end of every Inside the Actors Studio, James Lipton asks his celebrity guests 10 questions, which, according to wikipedia, are questions Bernard Pivot used to ask on his show, and are based on the Proust Questionnaire. And it'll give newer readers (or readers who don't know me) a chance to know me, a bit. Forewarning: I am terrible at picking just one word, so some of them will have multiple answers. (And thanks, James Lipton!)

1. What is your favorite word?
Loquacious. Ellipsis. Caravaggio. Jazzed--which is really the only one of these that I use in everyday conversation.

2. What is your least favorite word?
Swoon. Womb. Munch. Hate them all.

3. What turns you on?
People who are interested and interesting. Passion. Kindness. Wittiness. Sincere smiles.

4. What turns you off?
ARROGANCE. Pretentiousness. Misogyny. Violence and cruelty, especially against things that have trouble defending themselves, like children and animals.

5. What sound or noise do you love?
Above all--laughter. Especially when you are with your friends and family and you are all laughing and none of you can stop. And your sides hurt. My little cousins have the most wonderful giggles in the entire world. Other sounds--rain hitting the roof, when dogs sneeze, the way tennis balls sound when they are served, the way shoes clatter on stone streets.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?
Sirens, not just for the noise, but because they mean that something bad is probably happening. People yelling. I get irrationally annoyed by hiccups, whether mine or other peoples.

7. What is your favorite curse word?
Thanks to my flatmates, I learned that curse words are the most effective when strung together. I particularly love: arsing hell, bleeding hell, bollocking hell. Although it is hard to beat a well placed F-bomb (and all its variations) when the need arises.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
I would love to be a mystery novelist, in a Dorothy Sayers meets art history sort of way. I would like to live in England, write mysteries, maybe work in (or own) a bookstore, preferably on the North Sea. Or learn how to bake really good bread and do that and decorate cakes. Or, since I don't really have a profession as of yet--be an art historian! If we're going completely outside any skills that I actually have, I would want to go to Africa and study gorillas. Someday I want to hold hands with a gorilla.

9. What profession would you not like to do?
I would be very unhappy working in any business that thinks of people in terms of numbers and statistics in order to maximize profit. Any job without much human contact. I would be very bad at firing people. I am also very bad at math, so I would be a terrible accountant or math teacher.

10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God(dess) say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
Welcome.