Ask Me Anything! August 2013 edition

Ask Me Anything!

It’s that time again, folks!

Regular readers know the drill,
but in case you’re new around here,
twice a year (February and August)
I solicit questions from readers
during the first couple weeks of the month
and then I spend the last couple weeks
answering them.

Questions can be serious or silly,
profound or strange.
I reserve the right
to post silly answers
to silly questions,
but it’s all in fun!

Ask Me Anything!


(Disclaimer: Anonymous commenting is still enabled, as spam activity has fallen off somewhat. Questions may be submitted in just about any way you can get hold of me: comment here, e-mail, Tweet, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, or scrawled on the back of any legal tender denomination of paper currency in the United States or Canada. You can even ask things on Google Plus, but…well, if you do that, I might not see it for quite a while.)

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12 Responses to Ask Me Anything! August 2013 edition

  1. Andy says:

    OH HELL YEAH!!!!!! It's the BEST time of the year!!!! OKIE DOKIE! This thing on!?!??!! Test 1-2-3….. "Am I the only person that doesn’t trust anyone with a hyphenated name with an exception to our mutual friend Anne Conroy-Baiter…. She has ALWAYS been a sweetheart to me and we have a mutual THANG! I love her paintings and she loves my money!!!!"

  2. Roger Owen Green says:

    Boy, are you in trouble. More questions coming in the next two days.

    But let's get to the most important ones: Who is going to win the NL Central? And will the Pirates, who have the best record in baseball at this moment, FINALLY have a winning season, first since 1992?

  3. Earl says:

    Which Do you find more offensive to pledge; one nation under God" or "with liberty and justice for all"?

  4. Roger Owen Green says:

    Hmm. I've written a blogpost re Earl's question, haven't scheduled yet…

    Anyway, what TV shows, movies, books, comic books, et al. have affected you in terms of your politics/geopolitical world view?

    A question I asked Arthur: I was reading Mark Evanier's column and he wrote recently: "The other e-mail was from someone who seems pretty happy Trayvon Martin is dead because, you know, he was a druggy gang member who probably deserved it. Martin may not have been guilty of something at that moment but he was foolish enough to go up against an armed man so he brought his death on himself. Or so this guy believes. I don’t think I’m going to consider him a friend any longer."
    Did someone's politics/values/thoughtlessness ever end a friendship with you?

    Have you ever participated in a buycott, rather the opposite of a boycott, in which you buy some product or service to support someone whose values you admire?

  5. Roger Owen Green says:

    Another question I asked Arthur last month:
    How do you feel about casting folks who aren't the category they portray? I was thinking about Johnny Depp as Tonto, but there are tons of other examples. Should only a gay man play a gay man, e.g. Related question: how do you feel about casting a character that had been traditionally white differently? I'm thinking about making Kingpin, the white villain in the Daredevil comic books as a black man, or the black Asgardian in the Thor movie that made parts of fandom apoplectic.”

    If I'm to believe what I watch on FOX News, the white man feel mighty oppressed in America! Why is that?

  6. Roger Owen Green says:

    Who will be the first woman President in the US, and when?

    When will the first Hispanic be elected President? Any idea on who?

    When will the SECOND black person be elected President?

  7. Roger Owen Green says:

    Spitzer abnd Weiner are running for office. Why shouldn't they, with former SC gov Sanford now a member of Congress?

  8. Roger Owen Green says:

    Your feeling about ebooks v physical books, both from a reading experience and all that complexity of who owns the items when one wants to pass on the book.

  9. Roger Owen Green says:

    Your opinion of the Presidential Medal of Freedom nominees:

    -Bill Clinton

    _Oprah Winfrey

    -Daniel Inouye, former senator from Hawaii, World War II veteran and the first Japanese American in Congress. Inouye will receive the award posthumously.

    -Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Washington Post who oversaw the newspaper's coverage of Watergate.

    -Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space. Ride will receive the award posthumously.

    -Richard Lugar, former senator from Indiana who worked to reduce the global nuclear threat.

    -Gloria Steinem, writer and prominent women's rights activist.

    -Ernie Banks, baseball player who hit more than 500 home runs and played 19 seasons with the Chicago Cubs.

    -Bayard Rustin, civil and gay rights activist and adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin will receive the award posthumously.

    -Daniel Kahneman, psychologist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

    -Loretta Lynn, country music singer.

    -Maria Molina, chemist and environmental scientist who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry.

    -Arturo Sandoval, Grammy-winning jazz musician who was born in Cuba and defected to the U.S.

    -Dean Smith, head coach of University of North Carolina's basketball team for 36 years.

    -Patricia Wald, first woman appointed to U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and became the court's chief judge.

    -C.T. Vivian, civil rights leader and minister.

  10. Bonnie McDaniel says:

    Did you ever finish your "Battlestar Galactica" rewatch? I was wondering what you thought of the series as a whole, especially the ending.

  11. Roger Owen Green says:

    This is less question than request: could you write a verse of song/poetry about the end of you finishing writing something. The thing I had in mind was for you to write something called "Put a Fork in It" to Beyonce's "Put a Ring on It", but you can pick another title as long as it's to a widely recognizable song.

  12. Anonymous says:

    How did you put together/find the people who review and edit your book?

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