:eek:
I think I would prefer the mugging again.
I have played elephant polo in multiple tournaments.
I have survived dengue fever.
- Sang “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” (a.k.a. the Queen of the Night’s aria, though she has an equally challenging one, “O zittre nicht,” a little earlier in the show) to the adulation of 150 cheering opera fans, in a metro station, at 2 in the morning. And I’m a low tenor/high baritone.
I’ve been face to face with an angry rattlesnake in the wild. (about 1 foot of air separating my nose from his)
I’ve dressed in drag for a comedy bit performed in front of a crowd of about 600.
As a stunt/dare, I’ve rappelled down the outside of a football stadium in the middle of the night with a couple of Navy SEALs (one of them is a buddy from high school). We each made the descent twice before we had to flee when the police came looking for us.
I once found a scorpion in the underwear I was about to put on. :eek:
I’ve…
Written a computer program that competed in trivia competitions
Smuggled drunk Australians across the Mexico-US border
Lived on the campus of an all-women’s college
TruCelt, did I read correctly that it was 12 marriage proposals, but 14 different people? As in, more people than proposals?
Geez, of all the cool things I’ve done in my life, this is the one everyone’s interested in? 14 guys, 14 proposals, 12 refusals, twice wised up later in the process.
And no, I wasn’t a heartbreaker, quite the opposite. I was a walking Barbie Doll. I just kept trying to find someone who was interested in my brain; and kept finding only liars who wanted to play on my jungle gym. :rolleyes:
Given hotel wake up calls to:
Bad Company (They came down to meet me! They all said I had a wonderful voice. I swooned.)
Ozzy Osbourne
Jim Varney
Loretta Swit
Gary Collins and Mary Ann Mobley
And best of all, Karen Martin. She was a crewmember on AA flight 11 that crashed into the WTC on 9/11. She was always so sweet, even at 4:30 in the morning.
[ul]
[li]Met Al Gore.[/li][li]Met Penn & Teller.[/li][li]X-rayed the body of a crime victim to help in finding a bullet.[/li][li]X-rayed the body of a small plane crash victim that had laid in the woods for days. (Worst thing I have ever smelled.)[/li][li]Wrote software for NASA.[/li][li]Got a marriage proposal from a stripper, whom I had never met before.[/li][li]Lost a job with a business that was raided by the FBI and the SEC because the owner was running a ponzi scheme.[/li][li]Shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. Oh wait… that wasn’t me.[/li][/ul]
Ok, I might as well fill in everything else:
Played scrabble with Ayn Rand.
Urinated into two oceans on the same day.
Almost died, hiking Horseshoe Canyon in Utah.
Had my wallet stolen in Madrid, and spent time on 4 continents to get home.
In the Madrid airport when a plane crash occurred (I was not on the plane).
Had sex with a very famous Jeopardy! champion.
Helped Barbra Streisand choose her bath towels.
Decided I was an atheist . . . during my Bar Mitzvah.
Almost died from a botched appendectomy.
Established kerning/tracking values for over 6000 fonts.
Invented a method that enabled computers to set type with “optical” kerning.
Almost rolled my car off a cliff on the island of Guadeloupe.
Seen several total solar eclipses, plus the Transit of Venus.
Shared the stage with Linda Eder, Michael Feinstein and Bernadette Peters (not at the same time).
Was accosted by a very drunk and very obnoxious and very horny Paul Lynde.
Had a complete set of upper dental implants . . . fail.
Been told a joke by Mickey Spillane.
Have eaten bear meat, crocodile meat, grasshoppers, bees and ants.
Played violin. solo, on TV.
Had a loaded pistol pointed at my head, by a Hells Angels guy, tripping on acid.
Was in a TV mother/son spelling bee (made it to semi-finals).
Called a cop a “fucking douchebag” (had to go to court and pay a fine).
Chatted with Sir Edmund Hillary.
Sat with both parents as they died (not together).
Had a heart attack on the “Cyclone” roller coaster at Coney Island.
Came out as gay in 1963 (nobody was out then).
Walked in on Alan Greenspan, as he was sitting on the toilet in Ayn Rand’s bathroom.
I have:
[ul]
[li]piloted a hot air balloon[/li][li]met Arie Luyenduyk and shook his hand[/li][li]saved several lives, but none by CPR[/li][li]seen several people die. Most were strangers, except for my mother.[/li][li]worked for NASA as an engineer[/li][li]fired a steam engine, and operated several different diesel locomotives[/li][li]wrecked 5 different cars, totalling one[/li][li]met Ted Nugent and Rush Limbaugh at an NRA Convention[/li][li]squandered an inheritance[/li][li]been shot at on two different occasions[/li][li]fought several fires as a fireman, and survived a ceiling collapse[/li][li]walked through all of the rings of the Pentagon[/li][li]broken my right foot kicking someone’s elbow[/li][li]eaten rattlesnake, alligator and zebra[/li][li]killed a dog with a bicycle tire pump[/li][li]seen the shuttle Atlantis inside the Vehicle Assembly Building being prepped for it’s maiden flight[/li][li]pulled a gun in self defense[/li][/ul]
Done. In either '91 or '92, a friend and I sprayed his BMW 2002 a lovely shade of purple. We did a fine job of it too.
I got to thank him for being late to a plane in Toronto. If they hadn’t been holding the plane for him, I never would have made the flight due to an accident on the airport entrance slip road. I got to spend the flight chatting with Dick Simon and crew members about the race just past.
Sometimes, flights from Toronto to Detroit are way too short. 
I’ve also been able to share words with Nigel Mansell, Gerhard Berger, David Coulthard, Phil Hill, Shelby Carroll, and many more. I am lucky!
I’m envious of all of you. I’ve only
[ul]
[li]Eaten a large quantity of assorted larvae in one sitting, on purpose.[/li][li]Been knocked unconscious by a croquet mallet falling on my head from a clear blue sky.[/li][li]Had an intense romantic relationship with someone involved in a project that eventually led to internet communications as they exist today.[/li][li]Fallen backward from the railing of an escalator in a department store, only to be picked up, dusted off, and have my large bag of shoplifted gew-gaws retrieved for me by a passing security guard.[/li][li]Spent time in jail for inciting a riot.[/li][li]Taken a live statement from a child who had accidentally killed his best friend with his father’s gun.[/li][li]Signed papers surrendering what would turn out to be my only child to strangers.[/li][/ul]
I’ve met Al Gore twice, once before he was VP, and last year.
I’ve eaten crocodile, alligator, grasshoppers, and ants.
Also:
Helicoptered into remote valleys in New Zealand’s Southern Alps in search of nearly extinct giant flightless nocturnal parrots.
Gone net-hunting for forest antelopes with 20 pygmies in the heart of the Ituri forest.
Stood behind a loony French guy as he tried to get a silverback male gorilla to charge him by beating his chest and growling. (Fortunately the gorilla was chicken.)
Been tear-gassed.
Dated an astronaut.
I:
have been bitten by a tiger.
have been kissed by a skunk.
have petted a cougar (Puma concolor).
also was on a murder trial jury. The defendant was found guilty.
California Jobcase- I too have been bitten by a tiger, just forgot to put it in. It weas an 8 month old cub, just playing, and he didn’t break the skin, but he did leave bruises.
I smiled about it for days! 
I have:
… programmed and conducted experiments on several “astronaut-training-like” 3D rotating chairs (not with astronauts riding it, but with with normal people and occasionally myself).
… a real human skull at home.
… been in a place 3 minutes before a bomb exploded there, in Paris.
Checked in for a Southwest Airlines flight with an actual Apollo moonsuit as baggage and a moonrock as a carryon
Hand-propped a 1919 Curtiss Jenny biplane
Ditto a rotary-engined Fokker Triplane
Explained to a confused Gary Busey why I had an airplane on a trailer in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Gah.
You guys are boring.
…
Seriously, I knew this place was filled with wondrous folks, but holy OG, this blows my mind!
Wow. I just am blown away.
I met him when I was setting up the tech side of a groundbreaking live streaming text webcast of one of his speeches in 1984.
I held my mother’s hand as she died. That was a life-changing experience.