So lame I'm cool

Melinda June has tagged me with this task:

TO DO: List 5 things you do, did or like that some may consider “totally lame,” but that you are totally proud of.

1. Trivial quotes from famous people. Sometimes you encounter someone famous who has no idea who you are, but who will say something completely incidental to you. I collect these comments. For example, I once had to get Stephen Jay Gould's signature on a Drop/Add Class form for school, and he said to me "Looks like you're taking a lot of classes." I got a backstage "excuse me" from David Copperfield. And here's one for newly self-identified Fanilow Melinda June: I once met Barry Manilow. The quote? "Hey kid, get me an ashtray." (For his driver, not Barry.) Hmm, as I think about it my quotes are all from the 80s and 90s. For some reason I run into a lot fewer famous people since I switched from the music business to being a medical student.

2. End credits. I usually stay to watch the end credits of movies. I've had people ask whether I read them, but that's not it (unless I'm looking for the name of someone I know who worked on the film). No, I stay to listen to the end titles music, especially when it's an orchestral score. After all, a symphonic soundtrack represents a major artistic effort, and all of that work by composers, arrangers, copyists, conductors, players, recording engineers, etc. gets stuck at the end, largely unheard. At the end of the film the context is fresh, and you get to listen to it loud on a big sound system, sitting in a comfy chair. If it's a good score, that's worth the price of the ticket right there. Then I go out and meet my annoyed date in the lobby.

3. I'm a weather geek.

4. When I'm out on the road and I pass one of those "Historical Site" markers, I pull over and read it.

5. I can juggle two balls. I'm still working on the third.

I tag Tom.