Currently making the rounds of the blogosphere are lists of Things I’ve Done That You Probably Haven’t (I got the idea from Eve Tushnet). So here goes. In no particular order, I’ve:
• Watched an opera singer drop dead on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, run to the nearest pay phone, called the city desk of a newspaper, and shouted, “Get me rewrite!”
• Taken part in a bottle-rocket duel in the middle of a bean field (I have a scar on my right hand to prove it).
• Fallen all the way down a spiral staircase.
• Stolen a city-limits sign and used it as a prop for a dust-jacket photo.
• Shaken hands with Bill Monroe, father of bluegrass, backstage at the Grand Ole Opry.
• Taken a three-hour ride in the back of a hearse.
• Read and reviewed a full-length book between nine a.m. and one p.m. of the same business day.
• Been mugged at gunpoint on New Year’s Eve.
• Barely escaped serious injury from a falling chandelier.