Five Things Meme

Dave Cormier has slapped me with a meme, kind of like a chain letter, to write 5 things that you may not know about me.

Memes can be very powerful and some can actually be dangerous, and if you want to know more about memes and memetics, listen to Sue Blackmore’s presentation at Pop!Tech. This meme is fairly safe, even though there is some (friendly) coercion that if I don’t pass it on I’ll not be part of the group. Interesting things, those memes.

So here are 5 things that you may not know (or don’t want to know) about me.

First of all, Dave, I don’t have a secret love of armadillos; sorry :-(

In chronological order (drum roll please):

1. I played Frosty the Snowman in the school play in grade 2 and was a celebrity for the rest of the year
2. I was on our school team on Reach for the Top (we lost)
3. I played piccolo in a military marching band during university (it was easier than carrying a rifle on parade)
4. I met Pierre Trudeau one evening in 1977. I had a blind date for a dance in St-Jean sur Richelieu and my date was a personal friend of the Prime Minister. My French at the time was very poor while my date’s English was passable. Trudeau told us this was a great example of his vision for bilingualism; an anglophone trying to speak in French to a francophone speaking English. Vive la différence!
5. I was an amateur vintner in Germany, after a friend passed on a very small plot of about 200 vines on the local hill that was covered with “real” vineyards. It cost me about $10 a year to lease it from the town. All I ever made was bad vinegar, but the grape-pressing party was great.

I’ll pass this along to another five people, but don’t feel guilty if you decide not to reply:

Hal – I’m certain that you have done some interesting things

Jay – because you have lots of spare time ;-)

Jon – to know more about you

Karyn – to get a different cultural perspective, from across the pond

anol – for another cultural perspective, across a different pond

If you’ve already been tagged, then of course you’re off the hook :-)