This week’s Friday Five is a free-throw about Christmas! So I’m going to do my best to say five interesting things about that holiday in the next few paragraphs. Your first Christmas alone can be hell. Mine was. A cheap bottle of Japanese heated periodically through the day, and a lot of long-distance calls, made up my remedy. Really, this is one time that nobody should have to spend alone, and yet, somehow, I think everyone should have this experience once in his or her life, just the same. Christmas all year round is a crazy idea. Really, it is. …

This week’s Friday Five Question is answered a little late. I’ve been traveling, you see. More about that in a bit… the question, which requires a good bit of thinking to actually answer for it is quite difficult for me to put into only five points, or say clearly, comes to us courtesy of my very gracious and wonderful current host, Ritu: Everybody lives through certain moments in their lives when things go ‘click’ and ideas take a living, breathing shape. Concepts and thoughts which were only words until that moment now become an intrinsic part of one’s internal landscape, …

This week’s Friday Five is courtesy of Laura. I’m in Iksan, at the Language Center where I taught for my first year and eight months in Korea, killing time while everyone is in class. So, I have a chance now to peruse this question and attempt a response. If you are anything like me, you’ll go to lengths to avoid having to go see a doctor. I actually made an honest-to-god attempt to get to see mine today, but I was rejected out cold by the Secretary From Hell (never mind the fact I can’t eat or drink anything). But …

This week’s Friday Five is from Rob Stones over at About Pip. About whom I should say, he has posted several wonderful comments on my site. My lack of response is not a lack of appreciation. I usually decide to think over his comments, and what do you know, the thinking segues into drinking or band practice and eventually I’ve forgotten to post my thoughts. Argh! Anyway, without further ado, Rob’s question: It’s soon xmas. Very very soon. What are you going to buy for your partner, your kids, your parents, grandparents – takes deep breath – ???? I’ve been …

This time the Friday Five is the fault of my alter-blogmate Marvin Long, of the Electric Smack Shack. This is Thanksgiving week in the US of A, the holiday on which immigrant Americans celebrate the poor foresight of the Native Americans who kept their Puritan forebears from starving to death. Which normally means that I could cop out and ask a question like, “Name five things you’re thankful for.” However, several people on this list are within driving distance of my home and are rumored to have poor impulse control, not to mention the alleged secret stockpiles of explosives and …

There are more new people who have joined the Friday Five team. You can see the full set of oddballs in the Friday Five dropdown menu on the right, but the three newest people are: Morgaine – Eclectic Waves Rik – Grey Area’s Journal Fionna – Fionna’s Journal

This week’s Friday Five question comes courtesy of Nanette: I work in the music business. Glamorous as this may sound, we are actually just two women in a home office in South Austin. Hipness, youth and cool factor are a common topic of conversation between me and my boss, I’m 35 and she’s 39. We often reminisce about our cool groovy old days when we actually went out to see the kind of bands we work with and go to the clubs we talk to everyday and it dawns on us that we are sooo way out of the cool …

This week’s Friday Five question comes to us courtesy of Adrienne Martini of martinimade. Lately, I’ve been thinking about food. It’s something I think about a lot, granted, but this is more about food and place. For me, these connections are intense and evocative. The question: if you could travel back to any place you’ve lived (or, in a pinch, visited) and have just one meal in each location that reminded you of the time you spent there, what would your top five stops and dishes be? Wow, for me it’s become that way as well. For a long time …

This week it was my turn to ask the Friday Five Question. Man was it long-winded: I’ve just thought of this question, and perhaps it will be torturously difficult to answer, but… I’ve been reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt, a stunning alternate history that raises many questions about history, religion, culture, meaning (and how humans make or find it)… and offers some beautifully thought-out answers or possibilities to these questions. It’s a wonderfully crafted novel, and I highly recommend it. On a more literal level, the novel asks the question: What would have happened if …

I found a website called the friday five. I knew there were other Friday Fives out there, but… looking at this one, I have to say… I think ours is better. Not to toot my own horn.