Recently I decided, once again, to favor Mr. Fabulous with a little of my attention and he responded by asking me the following five questions:


1. Recently you accepted my challenge to a month-long trivia competition. Are we to surmise from this that you have suffered yet another relapse in your battle against Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or are you back on the blow?

My favorite amateur psychologist has diagnosed me with a mild case of Oppositional Defiance Disorder, but that's about it. In light of the fact that I am providing you with more than a little competition I think perhaps the challenger should look to his own mental health.

2. Going on the assumption that you have been a redhead your whole life (cough cough) what assumptions, if any, do you find people make about redheaded women?

Yes, I HAVE been a redhead my whole life, thank you very much.

I spent my childhood being redheaded curly haired, left-handed, and skinny as a rail so I got comfortable pretty early on with being different.

Perhaps the early hazing redheads typically endure causes certain behavior patterns, who knows.
Some of the assumptions people tend to make about redheaded women;
We are…
bad tempered, jealous, hardheaded, argumentative, sun-sensitive, independent, sassy, smart, and passionate (also interestingly enough, recent research shows that redheaded women have higher pain tolerance than most but require more anesthetic).
I will admit that a couple of those redheaded stereotypes do actually fit me pretty well.
For your reading pleasure I will now include a couple redhead quotes and jokes.

"While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats."-Mark Twain

"If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead."-unknown

"Of course, part of the problem with redheads is that there aren't enough of them. They make up just two percent of the population. So they're pretty extraordinary. Redheads are too numerous to be ignored, too rare to be accepted." ~Grant McCracken

"You'd find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair," said Anne reproachfully. "People who haven't red hair don't know what trouble is." -Anne to Marilla in Anne of Green Gables

"All throughout history, from Reuben to Robbins, redheads have been recognized as a rare breed. Blondes may have more fun, brunettes may be brainier, but when it comes down to raw energy, creativity, and personality ... you just can't beat a redhead well, you can, but beware ... she'll probably beat you back!" -Redheads Unlimited

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.
Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.
-Sylvia Plath

Only two things are necessary to keep a redhead happy; one is to let her think she is having her own way, and the other is to let her have it. ~ unknown

Q: What's safer: a redhead or a piranha?

A: The piranha. They only attack in schools.

Q: What do you call a Redhead with an attitude?

A: Normal

Q: How do you get a redhead to argue with you?

A: Say something

Q: How do you know when your redhead has forgiven you?

A: She stops washing your clothes in the toilet bowl

Q: How do you know when a redhead has been using a computer?

A: There's a hammer embedded in the monitor

Q: How do you know when you've satisfied a redhead?

A: She unties you.

Q: Why aren't there any more redhead jokes?

A: Someone told them to a redhead.

Here endeth the lesson.

3. In a steel cage death match who wins, you or Gawpo?

Well, I think if Gawpo and I were in a steel cage death match we would be laughing so hard at each other's costumes there wouldn't be much fighting going on, we would mostly be rolling around laughing our asses off. However, if at some point we could pull ourselves together... Mr. Gawpo feels confident I could whup him but I bet he could put up a pretty good fight.

4. You live in Washington State, which I often mock. When I think of Washington I think of cold, rainy suicide weather. I am sure there is more to the state than that. What do you like best about living where you do?

OK, the weather is something I like to dramatize as being worse than it is, keeps the Californians at bay, doncha know. In all actuality Seattle gets less annual rainfall than New York, Atlanta, or Houston and most cities in Florida. We have what’s called Marine West Coast weather, basically, incredibly mild. Seattle’s hottest ever temp was 100 degrees and it’s never been recorded below 0. Average winter temps are between 36-46 F and average summer temps are about 75 F. That will be plenty about the weather, yes?
Seattle is a diverse and beautiful city. I love going to the art museum, which is currently being expanded and should be AMAZING when they are done. There is the Seattle Symphony, the various art and music scenes which are thriving and fabulous. Going to Pike Place, or walking through Pioneer Square (mmmmm, Elliot Bay Book Co.) is always a wonderful way to pass some time. Then there is Ballard and Fremont, I love visiting those neighborhoods! The city itself is pretty dang great but THEN you have the whole state. I will admit I’ve a prejudice to the western side of the state. We have two mountain ranges which are gloriously beautiful. We have the Puget Sound and the coast which is important to me as I love living near the sea. For flat-out green gorgeous, natural beauty Washington is hard to beat.
I’ve lived in Maryland, Florida, Greece and Italy, none of those places appealed to me more than the Northwest does. Nice places to visit, in some cases even for a couple years, but I would rather live here.

5. Do you think bloggers are different than other people, in that they seem to have more problems with insomnia, depression, etc. or do you think that because we are bloggers we are just more honest about our issues?

The vast variety of people blogging and the incredibly different styles of bloggers make this question a difficult one to answer well. There is not even a consistency about liking to write or doing it well. So you can’t even classify all bloggers as writers per se. I hesitate therefore to say that bloggers are more issue ridden than any other group of people which numbers in the millions. I do think the blanket of anonymity leads many people to share more online than they would tell their neighbors or acquaintances. There is a unique environment here of intimacy and distance and the order in which you get to know someone is reversed. There is no body language to get in the way, no preconceptions based on how they walk, or pronounce their vowels, how straight their teeth are or if they don’t make good eye contact. You are reading their thoughts and ideas, their experiences or what amuses them. You have a direct pipeline straight into their psyche without having to do the “Hi, my name is Jane. How do you do?” dance. The first time someone looks at my blog they have access to over a year’s worth of daily minutiae from my life and what I’ve felt was worth writing about. They are therefore going to know some things about me that my neighbor, a fellow-PTA mom, or maybe even a pretty good friend won’t know. Even my husband has read things on my blog and said to me, “I didn’t know that.” Not that it was a huge emotional revelation, just that in a preponderance of babble there is bound to be a smattering of content even though I am not someone who blogs extensively about my incredibly rich and complex inner life :p

Now, if you want me to ask you 5 interview questions make sure you mention that in the comment section and hurry. I will interview the first 5 who request it. You would then answer the questions I compose for you on YOUR blog and you can proceed to interview your commenters.