7 Secrets About Me

This is in response to Ari Herzog’s post, “Shhh! 7 Secrets About Me“.

Honestly, he tagged me a few days ago and I haven’t taken up the challenge. But, today, a friend “reminded” me that I need to do this, so here goes.

I’ve been trying to be more transparent online, so this does fit in with that idea, although my goal has been to be open about my professional life. I’m less eager to start dishing out details of my personal life (which isn’t that exciting anyway) but here goes.

1. I lived in Israel for alomst six months in 1999. I had recently split up with my fiancee and my life was lacking focus. I decided to quit my job at a TV station in Atlanta and travel. I picked Israel because I had been there once before and knew there was more I wanted to see and it would be relatively inexpensive to go. I’m glad I did. It was one of the best experiences in my life.
2. 

   My invention: a programmable, digital thermometer to brew tea at the right temperature.

   I am a tea enthusiast. Okay, I don’t know if enthusiast is the right word, but I’ll use it. I started drinking green tea in 2005. My favorite type is gunpowder. (It gets this name because the unbrewed tea look likes old-fashioned gunpowder). I have “invented” a programmable, digital tea thermometer, to help people brew tea at the right temperature, which is quite important.

3. I have a rare condition called hydrocephalus, which is Greek for, “water on the brain.” Essentially, the passageway between the third and fourt ventricles in my brain is too small, so there’s too much fluid in the third ventricle and not enough in the fourth. Most people diagnosed with this condition lead very difficult lives. (Insert your witty retort about my mental state here… many have.). I am lucky. I only found out about it in 2001 when I got a concussion while playing racquetball. I went to the ER and the doctor said, “Your concussion is fine, but you need to see a neurosurgeon…”. I’m probably one of the few people you’ll meet who have MRIs of their brain on standby.
4. Desmond Tutu hugged me. When I was a freshman in college at Emory University, I worked on the school’s student-run newspaper. A group of editors and I had the chance to interview the Nobel laureate. He was (and is) a graceful and caring man. At the end of the interview, he hugged each one of us. It was a tremendous feeling walking to class afterwards. I felt invincible.
   

   The Nobel Prize winner hugged me when I interviewed him in college.

5. Another notable person I interviewed is Alex Trebek, the host of the TV show, “Jeopardy”. Here’s how that came about: My mother tried out, and was picked, to be a contestant on the trivia show in 1992. I was an intern at the Portland Press Herald in Maine that summer. We trekked out to LA for the taping and I wrote a fairly glib profile of Trebek for the paper. I don’t have fond memories of this however. I asked him what I thought was an innocuous question: did he get to keep the suits that filled his dressing room. “I can’t answer that,” he replied tersely. The interview went down hill from there.
6. I love to cook. I especially like to make baked dishes and stews. It’s a way for me to be creative and productive at the same time. I also have this theory that men of my generation (I was born in 1973) cook more than our female peers. I can tell you more about that sometime if you’re interested.
7. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a policeman. But doesn’t every little boy have that goal at some point?

What else would you like to know? How does knowing these seven facts help you understand me better?

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