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The last two installments were a good time. Let’s go the five-random-questions route again this week.
1. Reading is still the top leisure activity for Americans. Or at least Americans who participate in Harris Interactive polls. Let’s do an impromptu survey of our own. What are your top 3 leisure activities?
2. What would be the strangest topic for a mental_floss quiz? (If it’s a good topic, and we use it, we’ll send you a free t-shirt. Think hard and think quirky.)
3. Growing up, my family never went around the table announcing why we were thankful. But on sitcoms, this Thanksgiving tradition is often a source of humor. If this was something your family did, what’s the strangest thing a relative ever gave thanks for?
4. Back in 1996, in a shameless resume-building exercise, I ran a successful campaign for Senior Class President. The position was largely ceremonial, with two notable exceptions. First, my name was carved onto the Gavel of Leadership, a strange statue that rests proudly in the display case across from the main office. (I guess that’s pretty ceremonial as well. There was, in fact, a ceremony. Yellow roses and candles were somehow involved. I’m not making this up.)
Second, I entered into a de facto agreement to plan and execute all future reunions. In 2002, by the power vested in me, I declared our five-year unnecessary. But I had no such luck this time around. Our ten-year reunion is next week. Anyone have any good reunion stories? Anyone want crash it?
5. I know I’ve asked this before, but I’m in research mode. If you have a BlackBerry, have you had problems actually getting phone calls?
1. Reading, sewing, writing
2. What is the strangest situation that has occurred due to a piece of electronic equipment (yes, I have a bizzare story for that one!!!)
3. Prozac (I kid you not)
4. maybe
5. I have a Blackberry I use for work. Unfortunately I have had no problem receiving phone calls on it (like at 02:00am Sunday morning)
posted by JaneM on 11-16-2007 at 1:41 pm
1. Surfing the internet, reading, watchingmovies
2. Got nothing…
3. I’m not sure if it came out in a “what are you thankful for?” situation, but one Thanksgiving my uncle was somehow put in charge of saying grace, which turned into a long-rambling speech about free-range turkeys and their short (but happy!) lives.
4. Not a strange story, but I am happy to report that John Mayer did in fact come to his ten-year reunion as he said he would in “No Such Thing,” but, alas, was unable to bust down the double doors or stand on the tables before us as the reunion was being held in a bar instead of the high school cafeteria.
posted by Joopiter on 11-16-2007 at 1:49 pm
1. poker, basketball, reading
2. match the origin of certain useful office tools like staplers, paper clips, post its, white out
3. having good bowel movements that week.
4. no good stories yet, but i’m only 5 years out. and yes i would like to crash it.
5. no.
posted by kevin on 11-16-2007 at 1:51 pm
Joopiter
#4 = awesome :)
posted by caitlen315 on 11-16-2007 at 2:02 pm
#1 - LEISURE activities = internet surfing, reading, watching tv/movies
#2 - I don’t know if it would be the strangest, but a good quiz could be “does your name have an awesome anagram” (I just found out that mine does!)
#3 - we never followed that tradition
#4 - I didn’t go to my 10 year reunion - the ticket price was ridiculous, and I wasn’t all that interested anyway. A friend of mine went - we graduated with close to 500 students, and she said that less than 20 showed up!
#5 - no BlackBerry for me. Hopefully my Christmas present to myself will be a Helio Ocean :)
posted by caitlen315 on 11-16-2007 at 2:09 pm
for the quiz: microbes, and the diseases they cause…or diseases and their symptoms.
posted by Matt on 11-16-2007 at 2:11 pm
1. socializing, reading, tennis
2. What type of gum you choose v. your personality. I think there is a connection if enough research is done.
3. my mom was thankful I finally started eating meat again so she had less to cook
4. I graduated a year early and was ceremoniously informed that I am not a real member of that graduation class…therefore no reunions
5. no blackberry
posted by amy on 11-16-2007 at 2:16 pm
1. Reading, time with family/friends, watching good TV
2. Match the person to their imaginary friend (pictures only)
posted by Charles on 11-16-2007 at 2:16 pm
1: Art (painting, drawing, etc.), reading, Internet surfing
2: Match the disease pathogen to the arthropod vector that transmits it (i.e. Lyme disease bacteria -> tick)
3: I don’t remember doing that tradition too much, but I do remember memorably being asked about some research I did in grad school - something that isn’t quite appropriate for dinner conversation.
4: Luckily, I haven’t had to go to any reunions yet, as our class president also declared the 5 year moot.
5: I don’t have one.
posted by Katherine on 11-16-2007 at 2:22 pm
1. Goofing off online. Hanging out on mental_floss waiting for a chance to win a t-shirt.
2. Hm, perhaps something about matching a word to its original meaning.
3. We’ve never done this. This year might be a good year to start, though!
4. I almost went to my ten-year this Summer. But then I said to myself “Wait. Why would I want to pay $70 to go and hang out with a bunch of people I never really liked that much to begin with?”
5. Never had a Blackberry, happily. I work for my mother-in-law. She’s always at my house now, no need for her to have any more access than that!
posted by Bo on 11-16-2007 at 2:43 pm
1 - Baking, martial arts, watching TV/movies
2 - Match the cartoon character to the celebrity voice (i.e. Casey Kasem, Shaggy from Scooby-Doo)
3 - Potty training
4 - Refused to attend my reunion!
5 - Ain’t be gotten’ no Blackberry.
posted by Jill on 11-16-2007 at 2:53 pm
1. Playing with my son, reading, watching movies (which is rare).
2. Dunno
3. We’ve kind of done the “what are you thankful for” but not seriously. Besides, now we all know what we are thankful for: my little boy.
4. Yea, I went to my 10th, but not my 20th (oh God I’m dating myself. I’m really not that old). I couldn’t afford the 2nd time around. The interesting thing about the 10th: One guy apologized for being such an A-Hole to me (I thought he was just a loser and never gave him much thought). Said he did alot of drugs and didn’t any more. Also, no one from my class remembered the one friend I went with…I wasn’t exactly Ms. Popular, but at least everyone remembered me!
5. Office blackberry seems to work just fine…everywhere.
posted by Beth on 11-16-2007 at 2:56 pm
1. internet (I’m a craigslist forum junkie), reading, tv. I’m boring.
2. I’ve emailed and suggested lots, and alas, none have been used. my favorite are Micronations, basically when people invent a country, like Sealand (on an ocean platform), and put out their own currency and stamps and all. they tend to be a wee bit off their rocker. it’s very entertaining. wiki has a great article on micronations.
3. One year I said I was thankful that I dropped out of high school.
4. ummm…. see comment 3!
5. Crackberries bug me. I hate the idea of being that attached to work. My god, disconnect!! People work too much as it is.
posted by Jenny on 11-16-2007 at 3:08 pm
1. video games, reading, photography
2. Why you shouldn’t read mental_floss
3. n/a
4. I’m 24, and haven’t had a reunion yet.
5. n/a
posted by Jonathan on 11-16-2007 at 3:11 pm
1. Knitting, reading, and watching a movie
2. A mythology quiz where one has to match the name of the god/godess/human with what they represent/did. (ie: Greek godess of wisdom- Athena, Who gave fire to the humans- Prometheus)
posted by G on 11-16-2007 at 3:17 pm
1. socializing, socializing, socialing. (somewhere after all the socializing comes cookie/foodieism, Movie/TV watching and reading)
2. A this or that style quiz, in the tradition of “my wiki’s bigger”: Which of these people have facebook accounts?, less lighthearted but deffinitely strange: Match the Martyr to their Death. In the spirit of the recent toy recalls, “Which of these toys has been recalled?”
3. Not a relative, but a friend of mine once gave thanks for me making a dish that was his mom’s recipie at his request as we were doing the ’round the table’ tradition. other notable mentions “The person who brough red velvet cake” and “remembering to turn ON the turkey.” (my friends have a yearly thanksgiving gathering a few days before thanksgiving ;) )
4. This is will be the year of my 5 year reunion. I’m still trying to find some hunky man to drag with me to make up for the years of torture I endured at the hands of my brood-of-vipers class of girls. I will crash your reunion — if you pay my airfare.
5. No, but I’ve had enough other experience with the “crackberry” to warn me away from owning one.
posted by Ashley on 11-16-2007 at 3:23 pm
1. TV, making cahin mail jewelery, playing with the dog
2. Match the famous mis-attributed quote to the real quoter
or Match the reputation damaging rumor to the historical figure
3. Never did this; the weirdest thing we ever did on a holiday was watch Night of the living Dead on Easter–it’s all about resurrection.
posted by frumpiefox on 11-16-2007 at 3:25 pm
1) reading, tv/movies, web-surfing- Apparently I’m quite sedentary, and yet somehow not a land-whale. Go figure.
2) Nutritional deficiencies and their weird symptoms
3) We did this one year, and everyone got weirded out, so it never became a tradition. We’re not exactly a “let’s hug it out” family.
4) Missed my 10 year- actually, I chose not to go to it. I wouldn’t say I was “MISSING” it, Bob.
5) I carry a crackberry for work. I got it two years ago, so it’s not super new. I don’t think I have problems getting calls, but honestly I only get them occasionally and use it more for email. I just feel so dorky holding that big brick up to my head, and I would feel even dorkier using one of those flashing bluetooth headsets. My boss has a newer crackberry, and her phone rings all day long, so I don’t think she has any problems getting calls.
posted by Lebetho on 11-16-2007 at 3:28 pm
We usually just hit the Thanksgiving table like a swarm of starving locuts and go back to watching tv as soon as all the dinner is consumed……no time for thanks.
And I concur that I would never pay money to hang out with people I couldn’t stand in school. ( I assure you that the fact that my ex was also a fellow grad has nothing whatsoever to do with it)…. albiet I did misguidedly attend my 5th, which was a drunken beer bash in a local park….not much different from actual high school.
posted by qt314159 on 11-16-2007 at 3:35 pm
1) Crochet, Movies, Reading, sometimes at the same time.
2) Match a cult movement with a factoid (leader’s name, what they believed, how it ended, etc).
3) We always do this but I can’t remember what anyone ever said. I was probably too busy staring at mini, solid chocolate turkey my Grandmother made each year for all of the kids.
4) I ended up living with 2 people from high school 7 years after we graduated, so everyday is a weird reunion in which we threaten each other with bad yearbook photos.
5)I’ve got nadda.
posted by Emily on 11-16-2007 at 3:42 pm
2. Name that cheese!
posted by tom moore on 11-16-2007 at 3:57 pm
1. I like to watch tv/movies, talk with friends/family, play/walk with my dogs.
2. Interesting uses for weeds, for example, dandelions can be used to make wine and they can be eaten.
3. We prayed instead…
4. I stayed away from high school reunions.
5. Get a new phone.
posted by lmborgmeyer on 11-16-2007 at 4:14 pm
Here goes:
1)Television, reading low quality stuff (usually trivia oriented), reading more high-brow stuff,
2)The dark side of virtuous characters and/or the good side of evil characters,
3) “I’m thankful to God that he got me through my surgery” from a person who had out-patient knee surgery,
4) I announced my engagement at my 20th reunion (I boycotted my 10th in order to avoid seeing a former classmate and his wife- who was the girl I always had a crush on and actually dated for a while. At this reunion we all wondered why one of the Geeks brought his 17 year-old Lolita- like daughter instead of his wife. By the way, from reading the other posts, I can’t believe that there was an admission fee for the reunion. That just seems wrong to me.
5) I do not have a Blackberry currently, have not had one in the past, and do not plan on having one in the future. I think that they are like annoying little ankle-biting dogs that you can’t get away from.
posted by harold on 11-16-2007 at 4:25 pm
Amy…that’s awful! What a bunch of jerks. Tell you what…you’re welcome to come to my reunions if you want to. Are you near Merrimack, NH?
posted by Dave on 11-16-2007 at 4:29 pm
1. Stealing music from the internet
2. Stealing porn from the internet
3. Drinking beer
posted by Scooter on 11-16-2007 at 4:35 pm
1. Cooking, Mental_flossing, exercising.
2. Chinese Food Buffet (Match the name to the picture of the dish)
3. n/a
4. n/a — I hated all the people I went to school with and had/have no desire to reunion with any of them.
5. n/a
posted by Cyndi on 11-16-2007 at 4:59 pm
1. Reading, knitting/crocheting, and then a tie between curling up on the sofa with a mug of cocoa and watching movies… or dressing as a samurai and beating people with swords- er, doing kendo.
2. Matching celebrities with their elementary-school yearbook photos?
3. Sadly, Thanksgiving in my family’s household always ended in tears and someone accusing someone else of being ungrateful for something or other…
4. Our class officers were never really good at planning things, apparently. Our prom (which cost $75 a pop in 1994) had food that could have been outdone by Applebees, and a DJ who refused to play our class song because he thought Billy Joel was “lame”.
So, when it came time for our 10-year reunion, I wasn’t expecting much. I wasn’t surprised. They posted it on Classmates.com, and I only found out because a friend of mine had received an email from another friend, who’d received an email from yet another friend, who’d been curious and clicked on that stupid ad in his yahoo mail.
The event was somewhat cheaper than our prom had been - only $40 a person! It was held at a club in downtown Cleveland, and we were supposed to have had the one whole floor until midnight, but the bouncers started letting people up there around 10:30. There wasn’t music that we could request - as it was the house mix piped in from downstairs. There was also this very large drunk guy in sweatpants who kept trying to “touch” people. I was almost disappointed that he obeyed when I told him to get lost, because I was secretly hoping that he’d try to grab me, so that I could take him down and pin him to the floor until security arrived, in a nifty martial arts move and impress everyone with my 5′3″-in-heels might.
5. Blackberry? Heck, I just got my first real grownup cell phone, last year!
posted by Mel on 11-16-2007 at 5:14 pm
1. reading, internet surfing, working word puzzles
2. match WWII nicknames the various airplanes - not so strange
3. happy to be at Grandma’s house
4. Don’t faint! I attended my 45th class reunion this summer. Our most famous classmate is a college football coach. When he sent in his survey, he asked the organizer to proof it for him. She did, but she also joked about it at the reunion. His blush could have lit the whole banquet hall! We had a great time!
posted by JL on 11-16-2007 at 6:06 pm
1. vegging out in front of the TV, reading trashy magazines like US weekly, sleeping.
2. my brain hurts too much to think of a really good one.
3. we never really went around the table saying things we were thankful for. i think we probably did that in class in 2nd grade and everyone probably said they were thankful for some new toy they got.
4. my 5-year reunion is coming up and i don’t think i’m going. i went to a private school with a lot of really smart/successful/stuck up people and i’m still getting my bachelor’s so yeah…embarrassing.
5. i don’t know enough people to own a blackberry. but i hope you figure out what’s wrong with yours! just call up the company and threaten to switch. they’ll be sending you a new one before you can say “verizon”.
posted by Leah on 11-16-2007 at 6:26 pm
1. My favorite leisure activities are pure nerd: crossword puzzles, reading, and napping (I have 3 kids under 11).
2. It’s the weekend, so my brain is on autopilot, but how about a quiz about baby foods - popular flavors, why carros have to be specially grown, odd colors, history, etc.
3. It wasn’t at Thanksgiving, but during a church group I once had an 11-year-old boy announce he was thankful for nuclear explosions.
4. That’s why I ran for Student Body for the resume, instead of senior class (that, and the fact I knew I couldn’t win if only my class cohort could vote). I don’t even know if I had a five or ten year reunion - wasn’t invited I guess. BTW, I remenber some honor society induction, maybe even AED in college, I went to that also included yellow roses, candles, and the word “neophyte.” What’s the deal with that?
5. Hah. I’m probably the only person in civilization who doesn’t even have a cell phone yet. Even third world countries use cell service!
posted by aTribe on 11-16-2007 at 6:49 pm
1. smoke weed in the morning, smoke weed in the afternoon, smoke weed at night.
2. presidential penis sizes (hint: clinton wins)
3. james cameron (dont know why)
4. no reunions yet - still in college
5. blackberries suck (the phone, not the actual berries (which taste pretty good))
posted by ryan on 11-16-2007 at 7:00 pm
1. Reading, Writing, and World of Warcraft (What? I’m not ashamed). 4th would be watching TV, which I do while doing the above three mentioned things.
2. Match the strange custom with the cultural group.
3. My family never did this. Usually, we’re too tired from a full day of cooking and arguing about cooking to feel thankful about anything beyond how thankful we are that we finally get to eat.
4. I’ve skipped all my reunions. I keep in touch with a lot of my friends from school and the ones I don’t, I don’t really want to talk to them anyway. Besides, there’s some kind of fight going on whereby we have two Alumni groups from my “special” high school and nobody’s sure which one is in charge. *shrug* I avoid that kind of drama.
5. Most of the folks in the company I work for, (*cough* Sprint *cough*) have switched to the Treo. It’s pretty nifty.
I’m sorry you had so much trouble with customer service. :( I don’t work in that division, but it always pains me to read about things like that.
posted by Stephanie on 11-16-2007 at 7:14 pm
1. In no particular order because I usually do all at the same time: watching tv, reading, mental-flossing.
2. There are so many that would be ineresting and fun. How about penis and the animals they’re attached to? Odd foods and the part of the world it comes from? The origins of strange sports customs (the wave or dumping gatorade on the coach for example). Any kind of odd trivia would get my attention.
3. No thankful announcements that I can remember.
4. I did not keep in touch with anyone from HS but I went to my 10 year reunion and as predicted it was lame. Most of my small town classmates had never traveled much father than 100 miles from home. I moved to a large city many states away and have done some considerable traveling. I’m single, just about everyone there was married. Not much for us to talk about. Everyone looked the same except most of the guys had lost their hair and the gals got fat. The food was lousy but at least the beer was cold. This past summer we should have had our 25th but I don’t think anyone cared enough to even try to pull it together. Just as well.
5. No crackberry for me.
posted by lynne on 11-16-2007 at 8:03 pm
1) a)reading b)community theater c)my elder grandson (I know I’m weird but Teenagers are my favorite bunch)
2) since several of my friends are ready to or have recently delivered a baby, how about various animals and the gestation period. I had to look up a lot of info on this several years ago and it’s not as easy as you might think (larger does not necessarily mean longer)
3) we took our three grandchildren (aged 15, 8 & 5) on vacation with us last Thanksgiving. When asked what he was thankful for, the 5-year old thought for a while (can’t hurry this guy) and then announced firmly, “Bears!”.
4) Graduated in a class of more than 820. Todd Runion was in several of my classes but the reunion committee could never “find” him-guess they were “easy listeners”. Anyway, why spend money to see people you didn’t know or didn’t like. I don’t have that much time (or money) to waste.
5) no Blackberry. I’m still figuring out my cell phone.
posted by Catherine on 11-16-2007 at 9:42 pm
How about a quiz:
Kama Sutra Position or Kung Fu move?
posted by qt314159 on 11-17-2007 at 9:08 am
1) drinking beer, web-surfing, and watching Star Trek:Voyager re-runs (and I’m a woman. Reading that list I’m starting to get a clue why I haven’t had a date in 5+ years).
2) 20 famous shipwrecks; match the name of the ship with where it went down.
3) n/a - we’re too busy stuffing ourselves
4) I couldn’t STAND anyone I went to HS with. Annoying part is my MOTHER keeps sending donations to the school and RSVP’ing for me. I never go, but she won’t listen and I’ve given up at this point.
5) n/a - cell phone is bad enough.
posted by kary on 11-17-2007 at 11:01 am
1. Crafts, internet, television
2. Match up celebrity faces to celebrity “leisure” activities.
3. I was thankful for dirt, one year. Really. I was.
4. N/A
5. N/A
posted by buddz on 11-17-2007 at 7:27 pm
1. At this time of year it is HOCKEY, HOCKEY, HOCKEY. Other times, reading, web surfing, road trips, watching TV and movies–too many to remember.
2. Something along the lines of different words used to describe the same thing–I’m thinking of how things are referred to differently depending on where you are in the country. Example: soda and pop.
3. Never something we did in our family. However, when asked in Sunday School what she was thankful for, my youngest said, “Grapes.” To this day, she doesn’t know WHY she said it–they aren’t her favorite fruit.
4. I went to both reunions we had–the tenth and twenty-fifth. Bleh! I keep in touch with the only two people I care about from my class: my husband and the friend I have had since fourth grade.
5. Never had one.
posted by cmk on 11-17-2007 at 7:51 pm
1. Working out, watching trashy reality TV, reading a variety of magazines and newspapers
2. Match the cheesy early ’90s sitcom to the contrived, overly dramatic plot line used for an episode that was meant to teach some kind of moral lesson. I’m thinking specifically of the episode of Saved by the Bell where Jessie gets hooked on caffeine pills. “I’M SO EXCITED…I’M SO EXCITED…I’M SO SCARED!” Hahahaha!
3. I was never a fan of this tradition. I don’t like being put on the spot to say something insightful and touching. Usually, everybody just says something nice but boring about how they’re thankful for family or something.
4. I graduated from high school last year in New York, and I am currently attending college in Texas. I’m the only one of my former classmates in this whole state! I’ll probably never see a single one of them again, and I can’t say that makes me sad at all. No reunions for me.
5. My dad has one of those things, and it’s pretty much his best friend. He’d probably cry if he had to go a day without it. As far as I know, it functions properly. I’d love to have one myself to facilitate text messaging. It’s become my choice form of communication in recent months.
posted by Sandy on 11-18-2007 at 2:59 pm
As for my #2 above - sorry didn’t see the word ‘quiz’ but mine would be a good topic of discussion ;-)
And I love qt314159’s idea for quiz!!! Too funny
posted by JaneM on 11-19-2007 at 2:26 pm
Better late than never.
1. Reading, soccer, and Wii.
2. I like the ideas about disease causing microbes and shipwreck locations.
3. We never give thanks. Plus, we aren’t a religious family. However, one of my dreams is to have a “Cheers” Thanksgiving where everyone gets in a food fight. Probably one of the best episodes in the history of TV.
4. I’m one of those guys who can get along with almost anyone. My high school’s 10 yr reunion was held at a local bar ($25 or $35 for appetizers and all you could drink beer and wine). The reunion was pretty good but poorly attended due to no publicity (I found out on Classmates.com too). All the popular people were there (they organized) and stayed in their little clique by the bar. Everyone else mingled and I got to talk to people I didn’t talk to in school for whatever reason (surprising how life’s ups and downs erases the BS from high school). I was taken aback that everyone knew my name (class of 325). I guess my deep sarcastic voice was noticed ;)
5. No blackberry for me.
posted by Dusty on 11-19-2007 at 3:35 pm