Friday Five:
Dude, what is up with everyone mentioning me in their answers this week?

1. If you had the chance to meet someone you’ve never met, from the past or present, who would it be?
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think I’d pick Roald Dahl. He could be a pretty unpleasant guy and he’d probably not like me and then I’d just feel like I’d wasted my life, or something. No, I’m going to go with the old standby: Roger Ebert. I figure since I like his writing so much we’d get along swimmingly, and maybe if we got to be friends he’d take me to the Oscars and Sundance and stuff. Or I could be his co-host! (Screw that Roeper guy.) Yeah, that’d rule.

2. If you had to live in a different century, past or future, which would it be?
Ooh, I’m going to be in the minority on this one: the past. Pretty much any past, as long as I get to be a rich princess and don’t have to deal with muck and plague and stuff. Regency England would be pretty good. I could be Elizabeth Bennet and win myself a rich husband with my quick wit and “fine eyes”. Things were simpler back then.

3. If you had to move anywhere else on Earth, where would it be?
This is going to sound totally conceited, but I don’t think I’d want to move right now. Sydney has everything I want. We’ve got the cultural opportunities of a large city but without all the problems you get in London or New York. We have better weather than Chicago. You don’t need a car, like you do in LA. It’s pretty much perfect (with the exception of constantly missing, like, everyone I’ve ever met in the US and UK).

4. If you had to be a fictional character, who would it be?
I think I already kinda answered this one. Yeah, Elizabeth Bennet. Totally.

5. If you had to live with having someone else’s face as your own for the rest of your life, whose would it be?
Well, the Snook does have that Allyson Hannigan fixation… She kinda annoys me though. I’m thinking more Natalie Portman, except I’d be more vivacious and approachable with her looks than she is.

Happy birthday to Australia’s own orangecat! Hope you’re having a purr-fect weekend! (I couldn’t resist.)

What does “Look between the huge melons” mean to you? Anyone? Anyone? A million points and tons of respect if you know the reference.

So. Damn. Close
The Snook, Steve, and I came achingly close to carrying off both trivia prizes tonight. We tied for first place but lost the tiebreaker, which was something about the number of days hostages were held in Fiji in 2000. (We were 16 days off; the winners 14.) That was bearable, though, since we still won $30 bar tab for next week. (Personal highlight: knowing both TV shows that featured Jim Neighbors and winning a jug of beer for identifying Cindy Crawford based on her SAT scores.) The real pain came with the jackpot questions: What is the name of the New Zealand Women’s Cricket team? Which book of the Bible featured “The love of money is the root of all evil”? And which producer worked with Madonna on her “Ray of Light” album? We guessed “the All Whites”, the book of “Timothy”, and “William Orbit”. Answers 2 and 3 were correct… Answer 1 was “The White Ferns.” We missed out on $750 BY ONE FREAKIN’ WORD. And the Quiz Master set ours aside and read everybody else’s *wrong* answers first, thus making us sure that we had won. Trivia is a cruel, cruel mistress.

Birthday Recap
The Snook took me out Saturday to the Sydney Opera House to see The Way of the World, a Restoration comedy starring Miriam Margolyes. It was fantastic. Afterwards we headed to the top floor of the Toaster to Cadmus, where we drank cocktails and stuffed ourselves with the best Lebanese food I’ve ever had. On Sunday we had the regular crew over for beer and board games, where yours truly scored the Pictionary World Record of All Time. (Upon seeing the topic for an “All Play”, Major joked that it would be a tough one for me. Correctly deducing that it was probably something Australian, as soon as the clock started I yelled out “Vegemite! Bob Hawke!” Everyone groaned. It had been Vegemite.) We also played The Fellowship of the Ring (where we hobbits successfully destroyed the One Ring) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (where, as the Master, I was defeated in my attempt to enslave all humanity). All in all, an excellent way to start year number twenty-seven.

Found yesterday stuffed in our mailbox…

Kristen’s nominated me for the Anti-Bloggies in the “Turn off that webcam!” and “Best Heterosexual Weblog” categories. Ha!

Wow! Two guys climbed the Sydney Opera House this morning and painted “NO WAR” on it in giant red letters. While I admire the sentiment, couldn’t they have defaced an unattractive building? Like, say, Kirribilli House?

There are now officially seventy-five entries in my Oscar Contest. Seventy-five! Who the heck are all you people? Anyway, I’ve posted the complete list of everyone’s predictions so far. E-mail me or leave a comment if you really really need to make a change. As there are so many entries, I’m going to add two more prizes for second and third place. So if you haven’t entered yet, get going!