In which you tell your fellow Dopers five things they'd never have guessed about you.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I am the son of a Phi Beta Kappa.
I won a prize for translating Virgil in college.
I taught myself to read German (sort of) with an online dictionary and several books about aviation.
I went to a prep school that didn’t allow cars and didn’t learn to drive till age 18.
I have considered myself, at various times, both the least and most boring person alive.

42

Well, nobody knows me yet, so this should be easy

  1. I’m a giant Thundercats & Silverhawks fan. If you’re in the Thundercats fandom, I’m that Silvercat. I also love scifi and fantasy.
  2. I’m asexual. Wait, I mentioned that earlier. Uh, I’m a self-taught language geek who makes conlangs (constructed languages). All but one is Thundercats related.
  3. I can tell within a minute which episode of ST:TOS is on. This isn’t from watching it a lot, but from reading the novelizations. I can do the same thing with Quantum Leap & Thundercats, but it takes a bit longer.
  4. I’m a furry. Well, you could probably guess that from my name… I’m somewhere between a lifestyler and a furry-fan.
  5. I’m a barefooter. I always barefoot at home or at work. I generally where shoes when shopping because people completely freak out. (Just think of it as invisible shoes. Does that help?)
43

Randomly chosen, and in no particular order:
[ol]
[li]Although born and raised in America, my favorite sport is Australian Rules Football.[/li][li]I’m getting married in Mumbai, India in a few months.[/li][li]I’m addicted to karaoke, even though crowds of people I don’t know make me anxious.[/li][li]I’m trypanophobic.[/li][li]I’m currently learning to play guitar.[/li][/ol]

44

  1. I failed college algebra. The teacher was seriously not fluent in English, but I’m still shamed.

  2. I have a truly vicious temper.

  3. I blush very easily, so people can always see when I’m getting mad or embarrassed. And then they all go, “Oooo look at him, he’s blushing!” and that makes it worse.

45

  1. I’ve never had a car that’s mine alone. My name was on the title of a car for the first time when I was 30.

  2. Swarms of bugs creep me out, especially if they’re swarming over something dead or, even worse, almost dead.

  3. I’m an only child, but my dad’s fiancee was pregnant when I was in high school. She lost the baby and had to have a hysterectomy. I almost had a brother.

  4. I don’t play team sports because I’m not competitive. I usually wind up on a team with someone who is competitive and they get pissed off by the fact that I don’t play aggressively.

  5. I was born in Texas and raised in South Dakota. I’d be perfectly happy to never set foot in either state again, although I probably will.

46

(and then he blushed because the reply posted itself)

  1. I was allergic to fowl, eggs and feathers until puberty. I had to be taken to the hospital after I got into an egg toss contest at a picnic when I was little.

  2. I love washing dishes by hand, I find it very soothing and zen.

47

[QUOTE=dasgupta]
[li]I’m trypanophobic.[/li][/QUOTE]

My wife is a trypanophobe, too. It takes at least two, usually three or more doctors/nurses/aides to hold her down and keep her from freaking if she has to get an injection, plus I usually have to distract her somehow.

48
  1. I can tie a long cherry stem in a knot in my mouth.
  2. I don’t do well with multivariate problems. I do better at breaking them down into a multitude of simple decisions and working through them that way.
  3. I once went ashtray “borrowing” at a local hotel (as a teenage prank). We appropriated over a dozen before clinking hurridly out the door.
  4. While I was a bright little cuss, I could not swim until the age of nine; I could not ride a bike until the age of seven.
  5. I hated gin and tonic until two years ago. Now, I’ll kill for a Sapphire and tonic on a hot summer day.
49

Somebody can really do that? I always thought it was, you know, hyperbole. And what a username to go with it!

50

  1. I haven’t been to a dentist in over a decade.

  2. Nine times out of ten, I do not wear a bra.

  3. I have spent almost the entire day on the StraightDope today, even though I’m supposed to be working.

  4. My least favorite StraightDope forum is the MPSIMS, followed by Cafe Society.

  5. Several times in the past month, I have driven through the SunPass lane on the Fl Turnpike. I don’t have a Sun Pass, and I have yet to get a ticket.

51

  1. Math was always my worst/most difficult subject in school. (This would be surprising to anyone who happens to remember my occupation.)

  2. My sophomore year of college, the Dean of the School of English at my university sent me a letter strongly urging me to consider changing my major to English… from Visual Arts Education. (I didn’t do it. Now I rather wish I had.)

  3. I have a compulsion for rubbing the soft, edge-binding material of blankets between my fingers.

  4. There is a stuffed moose on my desk. Well, a little one.

  5. I always practice “see a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck,” but only if it’s heads-up.

52

  1. I like to spend all day Sunday in my pajamas more often than not.

  2. I can’t sleep unless it’s cold in my bedroom and the TV is on.

  3. I have a degree in music performance, but I work in non-profit.

  4. I try to eat healthy, but I have a weakness for Burger King and McDonalds.

  5. I’m a huge animal lover, but if the pound came and took my neighbor’s barking dog away today, I probably wouldn’t feel bad at all.

E.

53
  1. Green peppers make me burp.
  2. I have a phobia about flour.
  3. I have really cracked heels.
  4. My car is named after a character from Little House on the Prairie/Grandpa/a dead singer.
  5. I have three holes in each ear lobe.

I did this (and sucked my thumb) as a kid to help me go to sleep.

54

Some more…

  1. My dad dated actress Judi Dench back in the '50s, and recently met with her again while Dame Judi was appearing on Broadway. And yes, my mom went along too. She arranged it!

  2. My wife is Phi Beta Kappa; I’m not.

  3. I’ve lived in Ohio, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.

  4. A nebula on Star Trek: The Next Generation was named for me after I wrote a letter to the show’s writers.

  5. I grew up in a family with lots of dogs, but since adulthood I’ve only had a single, wonderful cat.

55
  1. Point me to a piano, and I can plink out the melody of any song with which I’m moderately familiar.
  2. Whether I actually need to use it or not, I feel compelled to visit the men’s room of any public place I visit – whether it’s a ballpark, a library or a 777.
  3. There are two regularly used record turntables in my house.
  4. I love spiders. If someone feels like they must destroy one that’s in their immediate vicinity, I offer to take it away.
  5. Walking across parking lots, whether they’re empty or full, gives me the heebie-jeebies.
56
  1. I do not like Star Wars, the New Battlestar or most of the newer Trek Series.
    (I am a self-professed geek, so people assume I like these shows)
  2. I have some anger management issues, especially while driving.
    (I mention this as people have commented on how even tempered I am on the boards or even too nice :wink: )
  3. I do not have a college Degree.
    (I am a successful professional despite this)
  4. I do not play games on-line or only frequent other boards very rarely
  5. I do not enjoy cooking but I enjoy Barbequing.

Jim {Elendil, where did you live in NJ?}

57
  1. I’ve moved eight times in the last seven years.
  2. I can pop joints on my hands, arms, legs, feet, my hips and back.
  3. If I don’t have any reason to wear clothes, I go without.
  4. My legs randomly lose most of the muscle function and control in them. Oddly enough, this only affects walking; running is fine.
  5. I receive e-mail updates from the AFA.
58

[ul][li]I’ve never seen any of the Godfather movies, nor (much to my shame) have I read many of the “classics” of literature.[/li][li]I have this uncanny ability (without keeping track in my head as I pluck items from the shelf) of looking at a cart of groceries and guessing within just a dollar or two (sometimes within pennies) of how much it will ring up for.[/li][li]Though I have long since lost most of the language, during my 20s I was conversationally fluent enough in French that I actually passed as being French when travelling to the French West Indies. I was actually quite flattered at the number of :eek:s I encountered when I started speaking English in the presence native French-speakers who had previously assumed that I, too, was French.[/li][li]When I was a teenager, I used to sing with a band, and we performed on local television once. We weren’t very good (though that should really come as no suprise).[/li][li]I used to work for a man named Dr. Stanley Sarnoff (though I never reported directly to him, as we were in different cities), who is the primary inventor, designer, and manufacturer of the AtroPen, LidoPen (and the technology mentioned in that link), EpiPen, and who provided all the medication on all the astronaut flights. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the ones seated today". For some strange reason I take great pride in having been a part of that company and the products they made, even though I had nothing to do with the original inventions. He was such a fascinating man, and such an innovator in the medical field, that I’m surprised no one has ever written a Wikkipedia article on him.[/ul] [/li][QUOTE=gigi]

  1. I have really cracked heels.
    [/QUOTE]
    Try Lamisil cream – you will be amazed. It’s not a moisturizer, but a medicine that kills the fungus that causes the cracking, and it really works!
59

  1. Like a lot of men, I think about sex every six seconds. The other five seconds are spent thinking about how cool it would be to have Adamantium claws spring out of my knuckles, and the social ramifications of such an act.

  2. My right thumb is distincly shorter than my left.

  3. When travelling in the front passenger side of a car, I have an overwhelming desire to open my door, swing both my legs out and trail them along the ground. I think that this will feel “Funny”.

  4. When I strech my tongue backwards into my mouth, a stream of water shoots out from the “Frenulum” of my tongue, silently, sometimes to a distance of two yards.

  5. My re-uccuring dreams include figuring out how to breathe underwater, and discovering that I am able to fellate myself, the latter usually when in some social gathering, which I wish would end, so I could go at it good style. The party never ends, and I wake up.

60

I’m from a gunless country, so maybe this is an obvious question to you merkins, but I’m going to ask anyway: given that you’re squatting at a friend’s house, where do you keep your loaded assault rifle locked up?