FAQ

A former blog of mine from years ago was part of a rather infamous community wherein often unidentified inquisitors – commonly referred to as Anon(s) – would ask random questions.

Sometimes patronizing, yet frequently sincere, these queries ended up becoming a favorite feature of the platform. In lieu of this, I’m throwing out some updated trivialities about me that are based on actual DMs from the somewhat distant past, for anyone interested.

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  • “Who’s your favorite actor?”

There’s a multitude, but Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington and Brad Pitt always deliver. Of course guys like Clint Eastwood, Jimmy Stewart, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Sean Connery and Jack Nicholson are legends. James Spader, Tom Hardy, Matthew McConaughey, Josh Brolin, Liam Neeson, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Costner and the brothers Skarsgård (Alexander and Bill) are solid as well.

  • “Who are your celeb crushes?”

I’ve had a thing for Diane Lane since the ‘80s and Reese Witherspoon since the ‘90s. Rebecca De Mornay also fits somewhere into that era. AnnaSophia Robb is ri-donk-ulous, Elisha Cuthbert is super dreamy, Kirsten Dunst is very underrated, Mischa Barton is supermodel beautiful, Leighton Meester is a classy dame, Christina Hendricks is phenomenal, Stacy Keibler is all but unsurpassable, and of course Sydney Sweeney is America’s sweetheart.

  • “You seem to like photography. Who are your favorites?”

David LaChapelle is extraordinary. Rock photographers Michael Putland and Ross Halfin are exemplars of the craft as well. Douglas Kent Hall, who snapped the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Arnold Schwarzenegger, was also exceptional, as is John Sexton, whose black-and-whites impress me. I like William Eggleston, yet there seems to be an excessive veneration for him. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it, but at the same time who am I to quibble over a guy with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEA?

  • “Are you into comics?”

I’m what you might call a passive fan because I never really fixated on minutiae in terms of what is or isn’t official canon. I suppose that aside from the same big three who everyone likes – Batman, Spider-Man and Superman – you could say I’ve had a long-held interest in Captain America, Deadpool, Gambit, Judge Dredd, Punisher, Rorschach, Thor and Wolverine.

  • “Any regrets?”

I didn’t serve in the military. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are all represented in my immediate family and it seemed inevitable at one point that I was going to enlist, or perhaps find my way to OCS, but I never got around to it for one reason or another. My preference would have been the Navy. My mom, a retired nurse corps lieutenant commander, gave me a grey shirt with NAVY inscribed across the chest that I wear almost weekly. In fact, Army-Navy is the most important sporting event of the year for me.

  • “What sports teams do you follow?”

For college, I’ve been a University of Tennessee fan from my earliest memories of life (sadly I’m not an alum), but I also have a long held soft spot for Memphis and Ole Miss. As far as pro sports are concerned, that’s more complex.

NFL: San Francisco 49ers, thanks entirely to birthday and Christmas presents from family in the Bay Area who I’ve barely ever seen. Additionally I confess to taking an occasional glance at the Minnesota Vikings because of a soccer team for which I played during my formative years – obviously we were the Vikings, even though our colors were the black and gold of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

MLB: St. Louis Cardinals, along with what I’d call a trifling interest in two other teams – the San Francisco Giants, because they were my first Major League game (June 19, 1985 @ Candlestick Park vs. Cincinnati), and the Pittsburgh Pirates, because I once played on a Little League team with the same name that lived up to the swashbuckler moniker in a Bad News Bears sort of way. Looking back, the way we acted at times was comical bordering on ridiculous.

NBA: Los Angeles Lakers, which is simply shameful.

NHL:

MLS: Philadelphia Union, and took me a while to settle on these guys, but I’ve been through the highs and lows with this squad for about 10 years and it’s been quite a journey. Doop.