A Little Diversion...

Fellow blogger and Santa Barbarian, Queen Whackamole "tagged" me a few weeks ago. The game is a challenge to list 8 fun facts about myself, "tag" eight other bloggers, and off we go in an ever expanding web of useless but interesting bits. Her tagger was Amy, another S.B. blogger.

So, here are the rules (required ingredient) and my great eight.

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are “tagged” (as in “Tag, you’re it!”) need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Eight Facts

My life-long love of drumming started at age 5 when I heard some Puerto Rican drummers “under the boardwalk” at Coney Island.

I proposed to my wife via a fortune cookie. She said yes.

My wife went on to win our Ireland honeymoon on a St. Paddy’s Day radio contest. She was the one-hundred and first caller. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve been. Thanks again, sweetie pie.

Brushes with fame: Little Richard came on stage with my band in Las Vegas and sang a few tunes with us. Another band also used to open for the Jackson Five. In another band, I met Huey Newton (Black Panther leader) and partied at his pad in Oakland, CA all night. Oh, yeah—I was on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour when I was in junior high with a Dixieland band. That’s my 15-minutes of fame.

My entrance to the world of plants was through the art of bonsai; that simple, natural aesthetic still drives me. Conversely, people who butcher plants into geometric shapes that have nothing to do with nature cause me to scream outloud when I drive down suburban streets.

My son, Ben, loves me, but if I make Moroccan Vegetable Stew, he loves me even more.

When I was a kid in Brooklyn, we’d spend summers in the Catskill Mountains and my brother and I would make bows and arrows out of birch saplings.

If I could achieve all the health and nutrition required to live from only one food, it would have to be ice cream. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Nummers!

Now for my bloggers to entice:
1. My home girl, Rachel Thurston (bandmate, world travel writer, African drummer, and all around groovy chick); 2. Susan Harris, co-author of the GardenRant, who has inspired me to write some fun stuff; 3. Trey Pitsenberger, Sierra Foothills nurseryman fighting the good fight for garden education; 4. Kim, at "A Study In Contrasts" because I've admired her blog from afar; 5. Xris (Flatbush Gardener) 'cause I'm originally from East Flatbush; 6. Ken Foster, extoller fossil-free approaches to gardens; 7. Useful Chemistry, a chemistry blog I just ran across, because sometimes we have to reach out; 8. And last, but not least, my favorite TV personality, Anthony Bourdain, 'cause he's just a kick in the head.

There I've done it...get on with it!