This weeks’ Friday Five is a rather to-the-point inquiry by Melissa: “Who are your top 5 fictional crushes?” So, I’m thinking about this and I realize something: it’s been a rare occasion when I have had a “crush” on a girl in a book. Girls in movies, girls in TV series, my goodness yes, but not girls in books. That’s not very common at all. So I shall include TV and film in this when formulating my answer. But now another thought occurs to me: there is another way of reading this question. Reading it strictly, grammatically, the adjective “fictional” …

There’s one more teacher I forgot to mention in the last Friday Five answer, who had a big influence on me, and that was Tim Lilburn. He’s a Canadian poet with whom I had the priviledge of studying, as well as just an all-around cool guy. He’s very together, frightfully smart and dauntingly well-read. And his poetry is, to me, somehow deeply fragile and absolutely beautiful. Sometimes I long to read his book To The River again, but alas I don’t have my copy here. Tim was always a respectful, generous teacher. He was, in a sense that really does …

This week Sir Adam of Lipscomb asked: Going through some old papers my parents brought from their house last week, I found several notes to my parents from teachers I’d had growing up. I got to thinking about the legions of teachers I had for the first 21 years of my life, and wondered: Who were the 5 that had the greatest impact on me as a ppererson, for good or ill? Because of the places I grew up, and my education experience, I find that I had many more horrible teachers than good ones. But there were some who …

Thus Spake Mojave66: Hey, thank you for letting me into this wonderful group. I really love y’alls blogs. My apologies for the lateness– I’ve been scrambling at odd hours to try to get into San Francisco’s City Hall to marry my partner of 12 years. It’s been an amazing, profound experience– such an outpouring of love and support from damn near everybody in our city. Florists have been dropping off free roses, there are offers of discounted hotel rooms, people passing around food and honking and waving their support. So this week’s question is inspired by all this: what are …

This week’s F5 question is from Roganda of The Weather and Everyone’s Health. I think. So Valentine’s Day is coming up, and my impulse to be timely has overcome my dislike of mush, so today’s question concerns love. “Love is omni-inclusive, progressively exquisite, understanding and tender and compassionately attuned to other than self.”—R. Buckminster Fuller. What are five ways that people in your life (any relation: child, parent, spiritual advisor, friend, etc. etc.) have demonstrated through their actions that they love you–whether they meant to or not? (bonus points for interesting, unusual, unexpected or especially subtle examples). As some people …

This’s week Ray asked the Friday Fivers: Knowing the folks on the list, something similar to this has probably already been asked. Still, it’s what I came up with after letting it simmer for the week so, here goes: My wife sits and reads all the time, and I used to as well. I’ve wondered why I don’t anymore, and I think it’s that since High School G/T classes, I haven’t been forced to. I miss it. My question is, which books would you miss in my situation? More accurately, which 5 books have made the biggest impression on who …

This week’s F5 question is Morgaine‘s. Well, I’ve been thinking about absent friends – the people you just aren’t in contact with any more, for whatever reason. Maybe it was intentional, on either of your parts, maybe there is something unresolved between you, maybe you just lost a phone number or address and you would be in touch, if only you could! – so: Who are the five people from your past you would most like to be able to see, speak to or simply communicate with, by whatever means? Why did you lost touch? What would you tell them …

Okay, so… it’s Julie‘s turn to ask a Friday Five question: While thinking about what to introduce as a topic for this week’s Friday 5, i got stuck on two ideas: sex and cars. The first, because it’s such a huge part of human existence, as well as being something that everyone thinks about at least a few times per day. Cars are much the same way, in that there’s noone who’s never been in one at least, noone who has NOT been dependent on the gas-guzzling machines at some point in their lives. And i think there’s something to …

This week’s Friday Five question is from Marvin: I don’t usually remember my sleeping dreams, but sometimes I do. I have a handful stored away in my mind, dreams that for one reason or another have stayed with me over the years from childhood on through today. What are your five most notable dreams; when and where did they happen; and what do they mean to you? Wow. Actually, I also don’t remember my dreams all that often, and so any dream I remember is pretty significant. I’ve been thinking and I’m not sure I can come up with five, …

This week’s Friday Five question is courtesy of the ethereal Fionna: I’ve just finished reading a book about Arctic Exploration from the 1860s to 1926, and have started another one about the truth behind the myths about pirates. What both these books have in common is that I get to relive some of the adventure stories I used to love as a child, whilst still pretending I’m being all scholarly and grown up. So my Friday 5 question is: Given an unlimited budget, the ability to travel through space and time, and a guarantee that you would return in the …