Random and Complex

It’s quiet in Bethesda. That’s where I am right now, visiting family for a few days. It’s a nice town. According to Wikipedia, Robert Hays is from here. As I write this, he sun hasn’t gone down yet in L.A., but here it’s nothing but darkness and quiet. Maybe that’s just the sort of thing I need for a few days in the middle of summer.

Fellow Blogger M.A. Peel is not my wife, despite the name, yet she does in fact display all the independence and intellectual curiosity of her namesake. Recently Mrs. Peel included me as one of the people she has chosen to tag on the “Tell us 8 random things about yourself” meme.

Here are the rules of participation:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged 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. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Look, I’m not going to tag other people. I just can’t do that. Besides, many of the people in the blogsphere who know I’m here have already been tagged about this thing, so it wouldn’t do anyone any good. That being said, here are random facts about me, Mr. Peel.

1. I walked in a blizzard to see the first showing of HANNAH AND HER SISTERS on opening day.

2. When I was a teenager I worked for a news organization which focused on children’s issues. The events I attended included the 1985 Reagan inauguration and the 1988 Democratic Convention.

3. I once flew first class on a JFK-LAX flight and sat next to Diana Ross. There was drinking involved.

4. I worked at a bookstore in Brentwood at one point in the nineties. Customers included O.J. Simpson, Faye Resnick and (so I was told) Nicole Brown.

5. Name a movie that was released from 1980 on and I can probably tell you when it opened, along with the studio that released it. Don’t give me some obscure thing that played at the Quad Cinema for a few weeks in 1986 but, really, I’m good at this.

6. My last name (my real last name) is also the name of a city in Italy. The Sopranos are from there.

7. I once met a friend of Quentin Tarantino’s and after speaking to her for a little bit she said, “You remind me of somebody I know.”

8. I once predicted I was going to meet a particular semi-famous actress and I did. But we didn’t wind up together. Occurrences like this really mess with your head in a city like L.A.

And maybe that’s one reason why it’s a good thing that I’m taking a few days to clear my head in the quiet of Bethesda. For now, that is all. Maybe I’ll reveal even more in the future. We’ll see. If you’re upset that I didn’t tag you to also make a list, please make one. For now, Bethesda remains quiet.