Mother's Day Minutiae

First, happy Mother's Day - and a "get well soon" wish to Scott at Polite Dissent.

Brian decided to meme me, and we all know how painful that can be. So, without further delay, here are seven things you may not know about me.

1. My life shares several parallels with Bob Newhart: He and I attended the same high school and college; he became an account, and I took an accounting class; I became a psychologist, and he played one on television. There's many more similarities, but I won't go into them. (And here are some other famous alumni from my high school)
2. As a child, I took Polish language and folk dancing lessons: And "folk dancing" meant that I wore a goofy blue vest, red ribbon for a tie, and puffy white and red striped pants. Those pictures were destroyed. You'll thank me later.
3. I was this close to inventing Veronica Mars ten years early - In college, I wrote a screenplay and several unpublished short stories about a wisecracking, hardboiled college student whose father was a cop and whose mother was a lawyer. Had I but known, I could have sold those as spec scripts in the present.
   
4. I once introduced John Cleese to my "old, decrepit" mother - It was for a fundraiser for this theater company. And yes, it was that John Cleese, who remarked "Decrepit is such a wonderful word"
5. My last name, in Polish, means "smoker of meats" - As in "person who smokes meats over a flame" and not "person who smokes meats like cigarettes"
6. I once went out for drinks with the then-script editor of Touched By an Angel - no nothing happened; get your mind out of the gutter.
7. I was once in the audience for a taping of Bozo's Circus - When I was in fourth grade, my best friend's family received tickets for a taping of Bozo...and they had one extra ticket. No, I didn't play the Grand Prize game...but my friend and I hogged the camera during the ending march. Yes, I played hooky with my mom's permission, and I don't regret it. Of course, I don't know my multiplication tables, but hey, math is for losers.

No, I'm not going to tag anyone, but knowing the blogosphere, I can predict at least one person will pick this meme up.