more than you wanted to know


I grew up in Chicago on the northwest side (Irving Park Road and Lincoln Avenue, or 3500 North/4000 West, for those in the know) Remember Looking for Mr. Goodbar? I lived in Sandburg Village near Rush Street for most of the Mr. Goodbar years. I am agnostic, or you can call me an infidel if that suits you better.
I have severe aichmophobia, specifically venipuncture related.	My Kersey temperament sorter test puts me in the 2% if the population which is ENTJ, or (their shorthand) The Field Marshall Personality. One definition: ENTJs "tend to be: friendly, strong willed, and outspoken; honest, logical and demanding of selves and others; driven to demonstrate competence; creative with a global perspective; decisive, organized, and efficient. The most important thing to ENTJs is demonstrating their competence and making important things happen." From that it probably follows that my favorite Monty Python sketch is "The Argument Clinic"
I follow the careers of prominent Italian Americans with considerable interest. I admire Mario Cuomo very much but I believe Alfonse D'Amato and Anthony Scalia should be put in a small, dark room together with only each other to talk to, until they learn some manners. This should be after Scalia is impeached for his participation in the treasonous ruling on the 2000 election. Hillary Clinton. Once she was my hero, then she voted for the so-called patriot act.
I am slowly turning into a small, round matronly Italian old lady; it's my genetic fate, but I still am sad about it. I look like my father's family, a crowd of odd, neon-bright people. This is my father, who was a cook. That tattoo on his arm? A Hawaiian dancer, topless. On his other arm, "mother" in a heart.	Then there is my first cousin Benny, who celebrates every Halloween in drag. This is Benny with his daughter-in-law Lisa. Benny on the left.
The family history is fraught with odd characters. This is Filippino. 1504.	This is me, 1987. The eyes have it.
On my mother's side I am a great-x-granddaughter of the Witch of Wallingford. As was Louisa May Alcott.	The same year ^this photo^ was taken, I got received a PhD in linguistics from Princeton, which I used to Good End as a professor for twelve years. Then I started writing full time.
When I was one month old, the movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers premiered. A few months later, congress passed a joint resolution authorizing "In God We Trust" as the U.S. national motto. Eisenhower signed it. Coincidence? I think not.	I did the art work on the cover of the premiere issue of Quilting Arts Magazine.
I speak German fluently. I also speak Alemannic, or Swiss German, fluently. My Italian is spotty but servicable in most situations. I would like to learn American Sign Language, but probably will never take the (considerable) time required.	My heroes include Eleanor Roosevelt and Noam Chomsky.
If money were no object, I would build a perfectly designed art center where I live. It would be free to people who couldn't afford to pay. There would be art studios and classrooms and writing seminar rooms and a performance space and child care. And dogs would be welcome and there would be an aviary for crows and a dormitory.	I have a million words in print (fiction) and probably another 250,000 in print (non-fiction). This strikes me as improbable, but supposedly the numbers add up that way.