101 Facts About Me

1. I was born at the old Carmel Community Hospital on November 3, 1959.

2. My educational history:
-1962-1964 Bay School, Carmel, CA (Preschool)
-1964-1968 River School, Carmel (K-3)
-1968-1969 Liberty School, Salem, OR. (4)
-1969-1971 Cummings School, Salem (5-6)
-1971 Whittaker Jr High School From Hell, Salem (7)
-1972-1974 Judson Jr. High, Salem (7-8)
-1974-1978 Verdant Vales School (boarding school), Middletown, CA. (9-12)
-1978-present School of Hard Knocks.

3. My favorite band of all time: The Beatles

4. My favorite bands of the ‘70s: Tie between the Doobie Brothers and Fleetwood Mac

5. Favorite jazz musician: Diana Krall. My wife calls her my “girlfriend." I have all of her albums and both DVDs.

6. Current occupation: Audio/Visual technician in a hotel conference facility, nearly 9 years. I do sound for wedding ceremonies there, too. Lots of weddings.

7. Previous occupation of note: movie theater management at Capitol and Elsinore theaters in Salem, and the Golden Bough and Crossroads Cinemas in Carmel, about 11 years total.

8. Other occupations worthy of a mere footnote: Three flirtations with retail including four months at a video rental store, two years at Brintons selling hardware and one Christmas season at Suncoast Motion Picture Company; A couple years self-employed shooting portraits on location (jobs were few and far between).

9. Community activism: Fought the Hatton Canyon Freeway (our side won). Co-founded State Theater Preservation Group, served on its board as Vice President from 1990-1999.

10. Current pet political cause: Promoting improved national passenger train service and revival of rail service to Monterey.

11. Favorite Song: The City of New Orleans.

12. On June 3, 2004 I started learning to play the banjo. After several months I picked out my first song by ear. It was “Here comes the bride.” (I've been working around weddings too long!)

13. Favorite place to buy everyday clothes: Mervyns

14. Favorite place to buy sport coats off the clearance rack: Macy’s

15. Number of different addresses I’ve had in my lifetime: 10

16. Favorite flavor of ice cream: mint chocolate chip

17. First issue of Playboy I purchased on my own: January 1978. I still have it.

18. Favorite Playmate centerfold: Patty McGuire, Miss November 1976.

19. Number of states I’ve been in, even if the plane just landed there en route to somewhere else: 21

20. Most famous person in my family tree: Harry S. Toy, grandfather. He was at various times the Detroit Police Commissioner, Michigan attorney general, Wayne County prosecutor, Michigan Supreme Court justice. He died before I was born.

21. First Amtrak trip: Coast Starlight, June 1974, Salem to San Francisco.

22. Amtrak trains I’ve ridden other than the Coast Starlight: California Zephyr: Emeryville to Denver (2000), Metroliner: Washington DC to Boston with stops in NYC and Philly (1976).

23. Day I met the girl I married: my 22nd Birthday.

24. Age at which I got married: 23

25. No children, thank goodness. I remember how much trouble I was.

26. Number of siblings: two sisters, 9 and 13 years older. It was like growing up with three mothers.

27. Current pet: A female feline named Squeaky Toy.

28. Favorite sport: baseball. Not that I’m much interested in sports.

29. Most influential teachers:
-Rosa Doner, preschool director.
-Mrs. Richardson, 2nd & 3rd grade.
-Mrs. Stoltz, 7th grade social studies. She talked about real issues of the day and showed us how to think them through.
-David D’Evelyn: High school Latin, English and Geometry. We were also close friends. He was gentle, but demanded nothing less than our full focus. He later died in a plane crash. A charter school near Denver was named after him.
-Dick Morse: High school American History. He made it fun and interesting.
-Peter “Repete” Siegel, High school physics. For part of our final exam he had us build a telegraph from scratch and send a message between two classrooms.

30. Joan Baez worked as a volunteer at my preschool. She taught me to sing “Hush little baby”and “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly” among others.

31. An incomplete list of my favorite movies:
-Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
-2001: A Space Odyssey
-Star Wars episodes IV-VI
-20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
-The Sound of Music
-The Music Man
-The General (silent)
-The Big Parade (silent)
-Bringing Up Baby
-Duck Soup
-Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
-When Harry Met Sally
-Manhattan (Woody Allen)
-Sirens
-Much Ado about Nothing (Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson version)
-Vertigo
-North by Northwest
-La Femme Nikita
-Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
-The first and third Indiana Jones movies
-Lord of the Rings trilogy
-Apocalypse Now
-Tora Tora Tora
-The Longest Day
-Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
-Blazing Saddles
-Fantasia & Fantasia 2000
-Lady and the Tramp
-Every James Bond movie ever made.

32. Favorite foods: hamburgers, pizza, chicken, salmon, salmon burgers, almost anything Mexican, fish and chips.

33. Favorite vegetables: broccoli, peas, salad with ranch dressing, any form of potatoes.

34. Favorite snack food: regular potato chips.

35. Food I avoid at restaurants: pasta; wine based sauces; anything trendy; anything with capers, undercooked vegetables.

36. My current car: a 1989 Buick Regal

37. First car I ever owned: a 1976 AMC Pacer. It was fun to drive but it had an annoying tendency to shut down for no reason while under way, even on the freeway. Then it wasn't fun anymore.

38. Most enjoyable car we ever owned: my wife's current buggy, a 2003 Chevy Impala.

39. Most durable car I ever owned: 1974 Dodge Dart. I bought it used circa 1980, and it lasted until 1998.

40. I prefer Beethoven over Bach.

41. Best President in my lifetime: Gerald Ford.

42. Worst President in my lifetime: LBJ, but Dubya is closing in fast.

43. Favorite writers of spiritual instruction: Mary Baker Eddy, Joel Goldsmith, Paul.

44. I like to watch C-SPAN. It’s much more interesting and important than, say, ESPN, and way more informative than the “Faux News” channel.

45. A choice between chocolate cake and cheesecake causes my brain to overload.

46. First airplane I ever flew on was a United Airlines DC-6, a four propeller piston engine plane out of Monterey. I was about 7, and I'll never forget it. It had a cool rumbling sound.

47. Number of Hawaiian islands I’ve set foot on: 3 (Oahu, Molokai, and Hawaii).

48. Most recent year I set foot in Disneyland: 1981.

49. I tried college, but it didn’t last long. I knew I was in trouble a few days before I got there. I was with a friend, and someone asked us what we were going to study. My friend promptly replied “economics and political science.” I said “I don’t know.” The person who asked screamed “What do you mean, you don’t know?!?”

50. The only foreign country I’ve been to is Canada, and that just barely, during childhood.

51. I am the only native Californian in my family. Those who came before me were all born in the Midwest. Those who came after me were born in Oregon.

52. I was a newspaper carrier for the Capitol Journal (Salem, OR) when I was 13. I watched the Watergate hearings on TV when I was folding newspapers for delivery.

53. The newspaper with the largest headline that I ever delivered said “Nixon To Quit.” It filled the entire top half of the page. I still have a copy.

54. Once I realized that, contrary to popular theology, sexuality and spirituality are not mutually exclusive concepts, my spiritual growth and my sex life both improved significantly.

55. Types of music I listen to at what time of day:
-Classical for breakfast, and sometimes in the evening
-Oldies from the '50s - '70s in the afternoon
-Classic rock on the road or to unwind after a long day
-Folk in the afternoon or evening
-Jazz in the evening
-KPIG anytime after I'm fully awake

56. Favorite TV shows: Current: West Wing, Law & Order. Classic: Star Trek (original), The Dick Van Dyke Show, Burns and Allen, The Avengers, Gilligan's Island.

57. I prefer Dave over Jay, but neither comes close to Johnny.

58. I still think Roger Mudd should have replaced Walter Cronkite.

59. Favorite member of the Rat Pack: Dean Martin

60. First year I voted in a Presidential election: 1980.

61. First and only Presidential candidate I saw in person: George H. W. Bush in 1980. He walked past the theater I managed in Salem. I followed him around downtown. All he did was shake hands with the crowd, and bought a hot dog from a street vendor. He didn’t say much at all.

62. First and only President I saw in person: Bill Clinton at the Monterey airport.

63. I registered Republican when I turned 18. I gradually became disgusted with the party and became an Independent after the Clinton impeachment. I later registered Democrat to simplify voting in primaries, not because of any particular ideology. I vote every chance I get.

64. I usually go to bed around 2:00 am, except when traveling when I go to bed around midnight.

65. I've never been motivated by money, beyond what is needed to meet my financial obligations. I've always had everything I've needed by observing Matthew 6:25-34.

66. Publications I read regularly: Monterey County Herald, Carmel Pine Cone, Monterey County Weekly, Christian Science Monitor, The Week, Popular Science, Popular Photography, Christian Science Journal, Via (AAA auto club magazine).

67. Publications I read occasionally: USA Today, National Geographic, Playboy, Trains, Model Railroader, Imprimis, Christian Science Sentinel.

68. Publication I have subscribed to the longest: Popular Science, since about 1973.

69. Favorite porn star: Raquel Darrian

78. My first bicycle was a red one speed, my second was a black 3-speed, my third was agreen 10-speed.

79. Hobby I have engaged in longest: Photography, from my pre-teen years to the present. Now and then I'll sell a picture.

80. Hobbies I once engaged in but have since dropped: coin collecting, kites, model airplanes.

81. A couple times a year I get inspired write poetry. Some humor, some political satire, some sentimental, some erotic. They all tell stories.

82. Age at which I first saw snow: 3

83. Years I experienced a white Christmas: 1962, 1983.

84. I remember when Pop Tarts first came on the market back in the '60s. I even remember the commercial jingle “Pop Tarts, great new treat, NEW-ew-EW-ew-EW from Kellogg’s, Pop Tarts.” I have no idea why they've lasted this long.

85. I am a sports widower. I grew up with sisters and learned to cook. My wife grew up with brothers, learned to watch football and say “What's for dinner?”

86. I played trombone in the Jr. High band.

87. I have an HO scale train running on a shelf around the upper perimeter of our dining room. Sometimes I run a freight train. Sometimes I run a passenger train. I have four different passenger train consists: 1. Southern Pacific Coast Daylight 2. Early 1970s Amtrak; 3. A modern Amtrak Superliner trainset; 4. A 1920s era Union Pacific.

88. Year I first bought a computer: 1995.

89. Number of computers I’ve owned: 2

90. I like to take common words and alter them to make them more fun to say. For example: Good Mornding, Chicky Doodle Soup, Chickenen (as in Chickenen Dumplings, Chickenen Rice, Chickenen Mashed Potatoes). Sometimes the weather will be damp and froggy.

91. First thing I notice about a woman: her smile. If a woman doesn’t have a nice smile, what lies below it isn’t particularly interesting.

92. Period of history that most interests me: WWII, probably because I grew up hearing my parents talk about life “during the war.”

93. When I was about 19 I thought I would like to marry a musician. By chance it worked out that I did.

94. My wife and I collect stuffed animals. When nobody is looking we play with them.

95. After 22 years of marriage, we still make out.

96. Favorite breakfast cereal: Life. Second favorite: raisin bran.

97. I can’t stand the taste of coffee, but I love the smell.

98. I don’t drink alcohol. I never understood the appeal of ingesting something flammable that inhibits one’s comprehension of spatial relationships.

99. Favorite comic strips: Peanuts, Mutts, Zits, For Better or for Worse, Doonsbury, Dilbert.

100. I started my website in 1997 just to see if I could do it. I did my initial HTML coding by hand. The site has since taken on a life of its own.

101. Personal quote: “Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.” I made it up when AOL’s profile form asked for a personal quote.