From Jeanne comes the “6 unknown things about me” meme, which is quite difficult, because I am constantly scouring my brain for interesting parts of my past to use for blog posts. In fact, I just used one of them, and got a lot of comments. Not as many as dooce gets, but what the hey. So, let’s see. . . I reserve the right to post on these things separately without having the feeling that I’m repeating myself.

1. I’ve taken one transoceanic trip on the Concorde, and two on the QE2. Granted, I was a pre-teen, but I do remember them. My family was moving to England (corporate relocation) and my father convinced the company that the cost of going steerage class on the QE2 would cost less than putting the family in a London hotel for a week. So, it was a win-win. The Concorde was underwhelming, mostly because I was 12 and any trip over an hour seemed like forever; the difference between 3.5 hours and 7 hours was marginal. I also remember the digital readout in the cabin which gave the plane speed in Mach incremements.
2. I’ve never broken a limb, spent a night in hospital (where I was the patient), had braces, or had chicken pox. So, if I don’t post for a while, you’ll know that I had it coming to me. Really badly. I have had my wisdom teeth removed as an out-patient procedure, and the summer before I went off to college, my dentist’s assistant suggested that I have plastic surgery to make my chin less prominent. I decided not to, because I didn’t want to start freshman year with a huge bandage on my face.
3. I’ve performed in Alice Tully Hall. Granted, it was a high school choir trip. The coolest thing was that we also sang the Rutter Gloria in St. Bart’s Church in New York, under the direction of Sir David Willcocks. For those of you hip to the English Choral Tradition, that’s like having a private audience with God. I had brought along a book of Christmas carols that he had edited for him to sign, which he very graciously did, but not before drawing a musical staff, a treble clef, and the words and music of “We wish you a merry Christmas”. A wonderful man.
4. I was a ferociously underperforming high school student, probably best summed up by an event that happened freshman year in my English/History class (yes, two classes as one and team-taught.) I was re-enacting something or other from the Greek period. I meant to say either, “I came to this meeting with an open mind” or “I came to this meeting with a clear head.” What came out was, “I came to this meeting with an open head.” Jocularity ensues, and I hang my head in shame for the next three-and-a-half years. In fact, at my recent 20th high school reunion, no fewer than three people came up to me, separately, and apologized for their behavior towards me during that time. 
5. I ate vulture feces as a toddler. In Jamaica. On a related note, I am famous in my family for eating horrendously. The phrase is something like “Hugh’s having Pez and Fanta for dinner.” most of this dates from a time the Wife was away. I was lazy and didn’t want to cook, so I ended up having Scotch and white Pillsbury frosting for dinner.
6. My most famous ancestor was a woman named Mary Grossman, who was the first female municipal court judge in the United States. From the online Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: As a judge, Grossman earned a reputation as, according to her obituary, “a severe, rigidly honest jurist, sometimes irreverently referred to as Hardboiled Mary.” When she took a day off to observe a Jewish holiday in 1927, 39 bail jumpers reportedly turned themselves in so they would not have to face her.

Um, anyone who wants can consider themselves tagged. I’ve many fewer blogging friends than I used to.