But anyway, I didn't call this meeting to get all nostalgic about my head injuries. I wanted to tell you about my participation in something Neil (from Citizen of the Month) did. He hosted the Great Interview Experiment, where we all gather in a circle with our notepads, pencils, and press passes stuck in the rim of our caps. Then Neil yells GO!, and we begin to interview the person on our left.
So while Rootietoot interviewed me, I interviewed this dude in Australia named Chris who writes a blog called A Free Man. After introducing ourselves I asked him if he could call me "mate" but when he said "mate" it sounded like "mate", not "mite". So I said, "Hey man, your voice got no flava" and he said it was because he wasn't actually from Australia originally. So I drilled (or is it grilled?) this Dr. Chris guy (he's got a Ph.D. in Genetics, y'all) who is actually from New York, by way of Florida, about a few things.
NGIP: I realize you're a big college football enthusiast and all, but I'm not, so I'm not even going to ask you about your unhealthy obsession over the Georgia Dawgs or your scathing hatred for the Florida Gators or your humiliation regarding the Tennessee Vols. Is that OK with you?
Chris: It’s probably for the best really - not a great year. Despite being an avid sports fan, I had never been able to summon much enthusiasm for a professional sports team. When I graduated from The Finest University in the South, however, I discovered a loyalty to an institution that I never had before. Seems like the least that I can do to be a rabid Georgia football fan.
NGIP: You blog about the aspects of fatherhood. I particularly enjoyed your funny, yet moving post entitled Braggin' Rights. Do you consider yourself a "Daddy Blogger?"
Chris: I’m a daddy and a blogger, so I guess I’m a daddy blogger in some sense, especially lately. But I’ve been at this for a while now and I find that I go through spurts of blogging about all manner of things - music, politics, sports, science - whatever’s on my mind, really. I think I’m more of a guy with a blog.
NGIP: You end each blog post with a music recommendation. You have officially turned me on to Gomez. I also read your blog post about Ben Folds, who is in my personal Top Ten list. Isn't Ben the greatest? If not, then who's your favorite? Have you heard Butch Walker?
Chris: I’ve not (heard Walker), but now I’m curious. Ben Folds is a great songwriter and even greater performer, but The Greatest™? Not sure. Some of my all time favorites are Wilco, R.E.M., Nirvana, Belle & Sebastien, Radiohead, Drive-by Truckers. Sure, I’d put Folds in that group, but his latest album was a polished turd, so I’m a little annoyed with him. I just love good music and I can tell upon listening whether it is good (pure, honest, evocative) or bad (plastic, saccharine, derivative). I’m a little bit of a snob when it comes to music.
NGIP: You are a New York born, American native who has lived in England and currently resides in Australia. How dare you abandon your country, sir! What's Australia got that we haven't got?
Chris: Where to start? OK, the polite answer is that I came for love. My partner grew up here and when we had kids, we decided to come down here to raise them rather than the U.S. or U.K.
The impolitic answer is that the U.S.A. started to drive me nuts in the late 90’s. The politics, the consumerism, the pop culture. The crime, the religiosity, the intolerance. One day I was driving to work and saw an “America, Love it or Leave It” bumper sticker on the back of an SUV and thought to myself, “Self, that’s not a bad idea.”
OK, OK behave yourself, Chris.
How about this - Australia has kangaroos.
NGIP: You're a scientist. Do sinks drain and toilets flush in the opposite direction as the US?
Chris: This is going to disappoint you, as it has many before you: I don’t know. I know that I’m a scientist and should be a keen observer of the natural world, but I’m going to go with the excuse that I’m a geneticist, not a physicist. Or a plumber.
NGIP: You refer to the University of Oxford, where you did post-doctoral research, as the "second best university in the world." What is the first best?
Chris: Actually, I think it’s the third or fourth best now. Much to their chagrin no doubt. I think the current rankings have Harvard as number 1. But it’s all a lot of faff isn’t it? The older I get, the less important that sort of thing seems. I will say, however, that my experience at Oxford was fantastic. But not because it is one of the best universities in the world. I learned how to live there and it had nothing to do with dons.
NGIP: I listen to science podcasts (such as The Naked Scientists and The Skeptics Guide to the Universe). Do you listen to any podcasts? And if so, do you have any favorites or recommendations?
Chris: I love podcasts! One of my favourite ways to keep up with news as well as being entertained throughout the day. Here are five of my current favourites:
4. The Moth
NGIP: Tuesday is science day on A Free Man. I read your post entitled Science Tuesday: The MMR vaccine and autism - truth, lies and the media. When you hear rumors, (like the one about vaccines causing autism, which leads to anti-vaccine causes, which leads to Jenny McCarthy jumping on the bus, which leads to parents not vaccinating their children, which leads to outbreaks of disease, like measels) does that drive you crazy? How can we make science more accessible and as entertaining as fear-mongering so that people will act more rationally?
Chris: Yes. Absolutely. I’ve thought about dedicating my blog to dispelling the swill that gets reported as ‘fact’ by the lay media. It is dangerous, criminally so. If we had today’s 24 hour tabloid media in the 1950’s, you would still have hundreds of thousands of people coming down with polio every year. I know that the media is struggling and that dedicated science journalists are an endangered species, but what this means is that the general public is going to become increasingly illiterate about science. It really annoys me that the media has to find a sound bite that it thinks the public can handle. That assumes that the audience is stupid. Maybe they are - particularly Fox News viewers - but I have to think that people can handle a bit more detail.
I could go on and on. This reminds me that I haven’t done a science post in some time. Need to do that. In my own minute way I can be a part of the solution.
NGIP: You have a Ph.D. in Genetics. In your opinion, what's this world coming to?
Chris: Jesus! Don’t lob me any soft balls. I’m going to take the path of least resistance. In the words of your commander in chief - that’s above my pay grade.
Actually, the older I get the more optimistic I get because you start to see that most dire predictions are products of the Chicken Little syndrome. That’s not to say that the world isn’t going to crap, just that it’s going to crap a little more slowly than I thought when I was young and all political.
I'd like to thank Chris for putting up with my silly questions and for playing along in this Great Interview Experiment. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming: Squirrels Playing in the Snow.
The Lucky Winners of Marrying George Clooney
For those of you who have been chomping at the bit, I can now tell you that the actual amount of money in this jar was $129.66. The #1 guess by Lisa from Pennsylvania was off by a whopping 34 cents - wow!And here are the winners of the book Marrying George Clooney by Amy Ferris:
Lisa from Pennsylvania
Wendy at It's Really Only a Purple World
Mrs K at Mrs. K
Bonnie from California
Charlene from Virginia
Gianna at Real Moms...Real Views
DG at Diary of a Mad Bathroom
Nicole at The Hughes Family
Tammy H at Happenings on the Hill
MA Fat Woman at Reflections on a Middle-Aged Fat Woman
Kerry from Alaska
Katie from Oregon
Donna at The Shepards
Lance from New York
Congratulations!
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