EIGHT THINGS

I was reminded earlier tonight when I looked at J.L. Bell’s Boston
1775 post that I still hadn’t responded to being tagged with the
Eight Things meme by Tim Abbott.

So here it is. I have not tagged anyone else though because I’ve
already tagged people with genealogy blogs with the Thinking
Blogger, and most of the other blogs I read are not for public
consumption.

But here’s my Eight.:


#1 I once nearly ran into Richard Cardinal Cushing…literally.
Schools from the Boston Archdiocese sent teams to Boston
College for a “Catechism Bowl” sort of thing. Our team was
eliminated early and we joined the kids running around in
stocking feet on a basketball court until some janitor yelled at us.
We all grabbed our shoes and ran, and as I bombed out the door
I nearly collided with the Cardinal but some aide’s arm prevented
it. Bad enough that Sister was going to kill us for being eliminated
early, but if I’d knocked over the cardinal I would have been
DOOMED!! I don’t think I ever told my folks about that.


#2 I was known in Abington High School as “Willy”. My English
teacher kept calling me Will instead of Bill and my classmates
turned it into Willy. I was never called that before or since, so if a
middle aged person walks up to me and says “Hey, Willy!” I know
they are from my AHS days.



#3 I write. I’ve been writing off and on since high school, including
on the high school newspaper and in the literary magazine. One of
my first poems is “AN ODE TO MARGARET CHASE SMITH”
which questions if a woman could be president. Hey, it was the
`60’s and I was a callow youth who knew no better. Most of my
current writing is fantasy because I…


#4 Roleplay on line on Mirc for nearly 10 years now in a
room with mostly other older folks who were born too soon to
catch the Dungeons and Dragons experience.


#5 I read. A lot. I have six books cases of various sizes throughout
my little hobbit hole of an apartment.


#6 Because I read a lot and have worked the book business now
for about 17 or 18 years I often time can recall the title of a book
or the name of its author without resorting to the computer. One
of my coworkers once joked they should put me in a box with a
fake screen and kb. I also am very good at Trivial Pursuit.


#7 As a teenager I used to have 3x5 index card files with names
of ancient and medieval historical events, people, and myths
written on the cards with bits of information. I also copied the
royal genealogies onto graph paper especially of the Plantagenets
and Habsburgs.

and finally…

#8 When I first started in genealogy and saw some of my
ancestors might be Plantagenets, I started a bit of a running gag
at work. When co-workers I’ve been friendly with leave, I present
them with a fake proclamation in which I, as the 9 millionth in line
to the throne of England bestow a fake title on them which
has disclaimers like “Void where prohibited by law” in fine print
on the bottom. The latest recipient was proclaimed “Queen of
Quincy” with the understanding that the title doesn’t take effect
until I’m King of England….which…well….isn’t going to happen any
time soon.


That’s all. folks