Last month, I responded to a five-question interview meme. For readers unfamiliar with blogging customs, a blog meme is like a chain letter: if you don’t pass it on, you haven’t properly completed the meme. I was supposed to come up with five new questions of my own and tag five bloggers, but five seemed too few. How about eight questions instead?
- Is half a stone still a whole stone?
- Do grains of sand get tired of being recycled into mountains?
- If you crossed a bat with a mushroom, would you get an umbrella?
- Do the glasses one wears in a dream require a prescription?
- What songs do they sing in a school without windows?
- Do the daisies love us or not?
- Is there any reason to believe that we’ll have working mouthparts in the next life?
- What kind of cartilage connects us to the stars?
Now the challenge is to find eight bloggers who might actually enjoy answering such questions. Let’s see. How about:
- Julia Martin at Clumps and Voids
- Siona at autobiology
- Dale at mole
- Deb Scott at Stoney Moss
- PF Anderson at Rosefire Rising
- Hannah Stephenson at The Storialist
- Peter at slow reads
- Sarah Sloat at The Rain in My Purse
Of course, being tagged in this fashion confers no obligation whatsoever, and anyone not on the list is also free to tackle the questions. Please leave a link to your answers in the comments.
I thought a half a stone was seven pounds?
Heh. We don’t use the unit of measurement in the States at all. Is founteen pounds the most standard definition? I know there are several.
I’m glad you reminded me; I’ve still to pass on my 5 questions. Except, now mine all seem so … boring. Must redo.
I love your questions!
#3. Depends; you might get a deaf mouse with gills.
Good answer!
I don’t think its used much anywhere anymore, except possibly in Britain. I think 14 pounds is the usual definition, but as you say, there are a bunch of others.
All I know is, a 140-pound woman is not likely to appreciate it if you tell her she weighs ten stone.
Well you may be right Dave when you say that a 140 lb woman may not appreciate being told that she weighs 10 stone. But speaking as a man who has just shed 17 lb in four weeks thanks to a suppressed appetite from the flu I caught in Catalunya, it’s enormously satisfying, given that it was weight I didn’t need, to be able to say that I’ve lost over a stone!
It would be fun to put these questions away, forget them, and then write eight random answer to other questions. Then see if you could later match some of them in an odd way. I might have even read this idea on Sarah’s blog, I’m not sure.
That sounds like a great approach!
Great questions that are already bending my brain & Christine’s idea is fascinating.
I am in love with these. I love the Buddhist eight. I love the contradictions and dynamics of the questions, the changes in tone. A worthy meme. This could make a totally fascinating collection, spidering across confusions and intellects.
Yeah, I can’t wait to see what this shakes loose. Glad you all liked the questions.
Hi Dave,
These are awesome. Though I only post poems to my blog, I thought I could speak here on the subject of mouthparts in the next life.
It is a scientific fact that we will have mouthparts in the next left. Eating will not be necessary, but because it will still be enjoyed as a hobby, mouths stick around.
Just thought I’d clear it up for everyone. Thanks for tagging me!
I always used to answer memes in the comment thread of whoever tagged me. It’s certainly not essential to answer them on your blog — at least, not in this life.
hi dave –
i’m hoping to accomplish this. just having some hand/arm trouble these days. thanks for tagging me.
Hey, no rush. But if you need a writing prompt six months from now, you know where to look!
Fun to think about, thanks Dave. No right, no wrong, only hypothisis. How about:
1) It depends on how big the hammer is, and how much is obscured in moss.
2)They’re already tired and resting, hoping they reached the end result.
3)If they were magic mushrooms.
4)No, just there for looks.
5)The Blues?
6)Mutually and from afar.
7)Yes, everything has to suck sometime.
8)Very stretchy cartiledge.
How do reasons lead to confusion?
Do States have their own state of mind?
Are spirals in control?
Is a Chesire cat really happy?
Does instinct make up for love?
Is probably not right or wrong?
Do infinities bite the facts that feed them?
Do opposites attract other opposites?
Great answers and questions, Renny! Thanks for stopping by. I will be thinking about some of these for a long time — their very playfulness makes them compelling (and easy to remember).
Okay, I’m in for number eight. http://koshtra.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html#286944630828475689
Ah, so this is where it started! Loved finding it here, and at Sarah’s blog. Enjoying your poems and musings!
Hey, thanks for stopping by!
Done.
Nicely done, Dave! My responses can’t possibly measure up. My own questions follow the set.
1. If the heart is hard it doesn’t matter how whole it is.
2. Nah, you can tell when grains of sand get tired because they relax into one another, becoming glass.
3. Why, yes. Or a broom.
4. You wear glasses in your dreams? In my dreams, I have perfect vision. Making up, of course, for the fact that I cannot run, speak, appear in a classroom on time and fully clothed, etc…
5. Sea chanteys.
6. Snips and snails and puppy-dog tails. (Translation: What’s to love about us?)
7. PT Barnum seemed to think so, if the ones born every minute are indeed reincarnates…
8. Mermaid-pound test.
Here are my questions…
•What long-lost love does the moth see in a flame?
•Why are there two twelves in a day, but no twenty?
•Who is they?
•Why do a composition textbook, a replacement headlamp for my car, and one dinner for two all cost about the same amount of money?
•Who is minding the store?
•Why B-flat?
•Where do you go when you aren’t listening?
Hey, good ones! I especially liked your answers to 2 and 5, and your own last question in the question of the age, I think, given how rampant distraction has become.
My start: http://palimpsest.typepad.com/frogsandravens/2010/08/questions.html