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 …