The genial Harold Jarche discussed the “five things” notion (I just hate the word “meme,” mostly because I don’t have all-black outfits). The idea is to share five things people might not know about you, then to extend the invitation (or pass the infection) to others.

I’m extending it to myself, first, but what the heck:

• Around age 18, I was visiting high-school friends in Boston, who took me to see The Horse’s Mouth, starring Alec Guinness (who won an Oscar for the screenplay). I was so taken with the story that at the end one friend was compelled to say, “You know, in Boston we don’t applaud at the movies.”
• I spent six days in Edinburgh without having any whisky. This wasn’t a plan; things just turned out that way. I did manage tattie scones, shortbread, and a pint or two at the Sheep’s Heid Inn, but nae a drop of uisge beatha.
• As far as I know, I coined the term grandboss. My years in corporate settings have proven that people instantly grasp this term in context. (“I was reviewing the plan with Irene when her grandboss interrupted.”)
• Sir Tyrone Guthrie once bought me dinner. He was renowned in theatrical circles for, among many other things, helping launch the Stratford Festival in Ontario and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Guthrie was in his late sixties, as was the twentieth century, teaching two courses at the University of Detroit while directing Julius Caesar at the same time in Minneapolis. I interviewed him for the school paper, and he responded by buying me dinner. (When I asked why he’d come to U of D, of all places, to teach his first-ever college courses, he said, “They were kind enough to ask me.”)
• I can sing the national anthem of Liechtenstein, no small feat since I don’t speak German. If you had the lyrics, you could, too, because the tune is the same as God Save the King, though that anthem lacks the line about “dauntless Liechtenstein.” My tenth-grade boarding school had a mandatory hobby period. Things like stamps or coins didn’t appeal to me (a 1909 S VDB penny can cost thousands), so I invented fenwickology as a hobby and collected small countries.

Now to choose five people for their five things.  Some won’t have blogs (I’m not that early an adopter), but this is more about message than medium.