I love this four things meme that has been flying around lately. I couldn’t resist making some changes which you will notice in red.
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| From the film Babette’s Feast |
Four Jobs I Did to Help Pay for College I Have Had in My Life:
- Dormitory janitor
- Potato sorter/packager
- Parking lot attendant (aka getting paid to read)
- Scooped ice cream at Haagen-Dazs (good thing I was 19 and had a monster metabolism because I ate a lot of ice cream)
Four Books Movies I Would Read Have Seen Over and Over Again:
- A Room with a View (Merchant-Ivory version of course)
- Six Degrees of Separation
- Babette’s Feast
- 84, Charing Cross Road
Four Places (other than DC) I Have Lived:
- London
- Honolulu
- Minneapolis
- Ithaca (NY)
Four Books from the Modern Library Top 100 List that you probably haven’t considered reading that I Would Recommend:
- Deliverance by James Dickey
- An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
- Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
- The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
Four (I can’t believe I got to go there) Places I Have Been:
- Masai Mara, Kenya
- Lizard Island, Australia (Great Barrier Reef)
- Siem Reap, Cambodia
- Amalfi Coast, Italy
Four of My Favorite (aka Carb City) Foods:
- Perfectly cooked and sauced pasta
- Squishy white dinner rolls
- Hamburger on a charcoal grill (with a squishy bun of course)
- Pad Thai
Four of My Favorite Drinks (that make it look like I have the palate of a 10-year old):
- Sparkling lemonade made from fresh lemons at Pizzeria Paradiso in DC
- Williams Sonoma hot cocoa with “hand crafted” marshmallows
- Orange Fanta (The European kind, not the kind in the US, but I think even the European stuff is starting to taste like the Ameican kind.)
- Root Beer Float (What? It counts.)
Four Places I Would Rather Be With a Book When the Weather is Perfect Right Now:
- Sissinghurst (on a bench near the moat looking out at the pasture land)
- Monhegan Island, Maine (in a hammock)
- On the veranda of my cabin on the Celebrity Eclipse
- Sonoma, California
Four Things That Are Very Special in My Life:
- John
- Lucy
- My family
- My friends
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| Monhegan Island, Maine |
hogglestock 
OMG yes about Fanta! When I went to Spain in 2006, I drank more orange Fanta than was probably healthy. When I went back this time I was disappointed to find that Fanta in Spain just kind of tastes like orange soda now.
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Love your version and gee, why am I not surprised that you would take a job that allows you to read and get paid for it.
And thanks for the reminder that it has been far too long since I've had pad thai.
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Hey, I scooped ice cream in college too–at the Baskin Robbins by Colonial Williamsburg. I too ate a lot of ice cream. We got two free scoops a shift, and I always took advantage, but I actually lost weight the summer I worked there. It probably helped that it was incredibly busy and I never stopped moving during a shift.
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I'm impressed with the places you've visited/lived.
Ann
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I adore Pad Thai; I believe I could exist on Thai food alone.
I thought about doing this meme, but I'm embarrassed to say that I've only lived in Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, and Georgia. Also, the only travelling I've done outside of the deep south was back in 2003. I went to Bloomington, Indiana for an International Sylvia Plath Symposium (Sam calls it PlathCon). nerdsnortttttt
A favorite beverage of mine is tea — like the lovely teas you sent me. You are seriously awesome.
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Nice. I like your adaptations. But Fanta — Ughhhhh . And I am in Europe. God knows what the US version must be like.
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I love your twists on memes, Thomas. I haven't heard of three of your book recommendations, but I *have* heard of An American Tragedy because the Provincial Lady reads it in the first book, whilst waiting for her friend to arrive on a boat.
Speaking of which… the PL arrived on English shores, thank you so much! It's really beautiful.
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This is great! I like your alterations. I love Orange Fanta too!!
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Lu: I am so glad you confirmed my suspicions about Fanta. I thought it may have been all in my mind.
Darlene: I had that job right before I went to England for the first time. Once classes let out I was able to spend a lot of time pouring over books and maps planning my trip.
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Teresa: We were only allowed ONE scoop per shift, but were often left alone at the shop. I easily averaged about 8 scoops a shift. I kid you not.
Cozy: I have been lucky. I spent the first 18 years of my life in the same house and never got on a plane until I was 19 so I feel like I am making up for lost time.
Amanda: I love the term PlathCon. Instead of dressing up like a Klingon, what do you wear when you go? Or maybe Klingon is appropriate for PlathCon. I have never read anything of hers.
Harriet: Well Lu above confirms that the Fanta I love doesn't appear to exist anymore.
Simon: One of my favorite things about the PL is the way she pretends she has read certain books. Are you sure she read An American Tragedy?
Miranda: I heard a story once that I really should confirm before repeating again, that Coca-Cola created Fanta so they could continue to do business in Nazi Germany without it looking like it to the rest of the world.
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Love your twist on the meme! I'm sure I've mentioned it before but my favorite from the Modern Library Top 100 that nobody has read (except me) is The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett. I do have Darkness at Noon on my TBR list, my husband has read it and told me it was excellent. Looks kind of depressing though. I have to say I'm a little squeamish about Deliverance!
And I am so jealous you've been to Kenya and Cambodia! I really, really want to go to Africa someday. Maybe Botswana. And I really must watch Babette's Feast again, haven't seen it in years.
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I worked in a pizza restaurant in the mall and happened to be right across from Haagen Dazs. They supplied us with ice cream and we supplied them with pizza. It was a good match.
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Your list of your favorite things in life made my heart smile. Glad John came first…and of course Lucy in a close second.
P.S. Favorite foods…you forgot COOKIE DOUGH ;)
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Karen: I have a copy of Old Wives' Tale so it won't be long before I pick it up. Deliverance is definitely suspsenseful, but worth it.
Ti: We used to swap stuff with a restaurant too. Worked out well.
Mallory: I don't do much cookie dough these days. Unless it is homemade.
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