1. I think being an American means questioning authority.
  2. Stalin’s daughter Svetlana once called my mother in the middle of the night to ask for help in extinguishing her car fire. She lived down the road.
  3. If you’re not going to try to do anything to change the situation, please stop complaining about it to me. Thank you.
  4. My father had his fraternity paddle prominently displayed on the wall of his home office. It was a huge bluff, and we knew it.
  5. I didn’t want to do one of these lists because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to think of 100 things.
  6. What I’d really like to see on weblogs is “100 Things I’d Rather You Didn’t Know About Me.” Now that would be good.
  7. When I was a reporter, I constantly felt like a professional fraud. I don’t feel that way any more.
  8. My family has a rich history of mental illness. Most likely it’s only a matter of time before I write my own chapter in that book.
  9. I don’t trust people who don’t read.
  10. I also don’t trust people who loudly proclaim, “I never watch television.” Often combined with a face like they just bit into a lemon.
  11. I’ve tried to change my image. It doesn’t work. This is it.
  12. My most-often-committed Deadly Sin? Envy. But in the sense of “longing.”
  13. I have few friends, and I don’t make friends easily. But I love my friends dearly.
  14. I used to hate my first name, since no one else had it at the time, and it was just another avenue for teasing. Now I have a great fondness for it.
  15. I believe people who are bullies in junior high don’t grow out of it.
  16. I believe Human Resources people are neither.
  17. Until I was in college, I didn’t understand what the phrase “Have your cake and eat it too” meant.
  18. I’ve never smoked pot, although I convinced my friend Wendy I was a major pothead in college. Her estimation of me shot up considerably, so I didn’t have the heart to come clean about the lie.
  19. I consider other people’s feelings before my own way too much. Translation? I’m a patsy. But I’m working on it.
  20. I believe the concept of junior high school should be eliminated on human rights grounds.
  21. I think believing we are the only sentient beings in the universe is unimaginably egotistical.
  22. I snore. Loudly.
  23. I look at myself in the mirror, and sometimes I think, you’re OK. Then I see a picture of myself, and I can’t believe society is letting that hideous beast live amongst decent people.
  24. I believe there are few things more important than family.
  25. I’m still figuring the whole religion thing out. But I believe “what goes around comes around,” and that there is some sort of existence after this one. I think it may possibly be a combination of “After Life” and “Defending Your Life,” two of my favorite movies.
  26. The internet has changed my life, drastically. And mostly for the better.
  27. When I was in high school I was a grumpy old man. I’m getting younger as I get older.
  28. I had glasses when I was four years old. Draw your own conclusions.
  29. I am genetically incapable of being late. Which makes my general hatred for lateness at least understandable, if not accepted.
  30. I let almost all my high school and college friends fall by the wayside. I go back an forth about whether that was a good thing.
  31. I won best fifth grade essay for the state of Wisconsin in the Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest. It was about the Declaration of Independence. I’m sure Jefferson would have been proud.
  32. The fact that Jefferson was four years younger than I am now when he wrote it doesn’t bother me in the least. Nope.
  33. I’m extremely sensitive to sun and lack of same. How I survived six years in West Michigan I’ll never know.
  34. I much prefer writing in plain text. Microsoft Word and the like just get in the way of real writing.
  35. I prefer all-lowercase bold sans-serif fonts, to the point where my co-workers began to call it “the Blust style.” I’m OK with that.
  36. I suppress my moods and my feelings way too much.
  37. I love peanut butter and bacon sandwiches.
  38. I have extreme trouble making decisions, but mainly because I’m too concerned about how they will affect other people. (see #19)
  39. I believe most of the world’s ills are caused by people who think they know what’s best for someone else.
  40. I never met an online personality test I liked.
  41. When I was in junior high, my favorite TV show was “The Bionic Woman.”
  42. When the Sci-Fi Channel stopped running “Bionic Woman” reruns, I was incredibly disappointed.
  43. Also in junior high, I once ran for class president with the slogan “I’m for Adam.” The outcome of that election is seemingly self-evident.
  44. Sleep is my favorite form of consciousness.
  45. Some people say, “You can sleep when you’re dead!” True – but I don’t want to have to wait that long.
  46. I have no depth perception, a side effect of being extremely cross-eyed at birth. (see #91)
  47. While I desperately want to be Tigger, I know I’m really Eeyore, and nothing’s going to change that.
  48. My favorite punctuation mark is the semicolon.
  49. I hate shaving. Now that I don’t work in an office any more, I do it infrequently, despite the fact that after a couple of days, I look like I live under a bridge.
  50. I thought about becoming an architect like my dad, but I knew I couldn’t handle the math.
  51. I believe passionately that Daylight Saving Time should be abolished.
  52. I’m a huge procrastinator, a common personality trait of journalists. (I actually started writing this list in 1992.)
  53. I have abominable eating habits.
  54. I think one of the best things in the world is McDonald’s fries straight out of the fryer. Although that may change with the new oil.
  55. My least favorite food is brussels sprouts. Although to be fair, I only had them once when my dad had “Clean Out the Freezer Night.”
  56. I believe e-mail spammers should be put in jail.
  57. I’ve never been in love.
  58. I don’t understand why more people aren’t upset and scared that our president is an idiot. That in itself makes me upset and scared.
  59. My grandfather was a tightly-wound CPA. My father was a wild free spirit. The pendulum continues to swing, despite anyone’s best efforts.
  60. I often go to movies alone, but I would never eat in a restaurant by myself.
  61. I didn’t understand when my grandmother said water was a calming influence. Now I do.
  62. I took piano lessons and golf lessons when I was growing up. Neither stuck.
  63. I believe “The Simpsons” is the best television show ever.
  64. I’m grateful to the internet for many things, but especially for the people it’s allowed me to meet.
  65. Of the 5 W’s, I like “Why” the best.
  66. I’m vaguely disturbed by people who pronounce often “OFF-ten.”
  67. Favorite Warner Bros. character: Daffy Duck.
  68. Close second: Foghorn Leghorn.
  69. I’ve never understood why people collect things.
  70. When I was a reporter, I loved the writing and the research, but hated the “asking the accident victim’s wife how she feels” part.
  71. I was born on 7/11. No discernable luck has come my way because of this.
  72. When I was a little kid, my brother took me to the movies and told me there were snipers in the ceiling vents who would shoot me if I made too much noise.
  73. I think swearing can be a crutch – but it can also convey emotional content that’s hard to get at any other way.
  74. I have an intense love of words.
  75. Favorite word: hermaphrodite.
  76. I have an unnatural fascination with shopping channels and infomercials.
  77. When I was in high school and college, I watched the soap opera “Guiding Light.”
  78. When I was a reporter in Michigan, I got the chance to interview GL star Kim Zimmer (Reva), who was the grand marshal at a parade in Grand Rapids. I was nervous and excited.
  79. She, on the other hand, was perfectly calm.
  80. I didn’t even listen to any music until I was in college. So my musical knowledge is pitiful – a huge hole in my pop culture canon.
  81. I give great backrubs, but have trouble finding takers.
  82. One of my reluctant mottos is: If you want something done right, do it yourself.
  83. I would much rather be cold than hot.
  84. I seem to be everyone’s ad-hoc therapist. Which is fine. But I’d like to be asked about my problems sometimes too.
  85. I hate it when you can tell someone is just waiting for you to stop talking so they can start.
  86. I probably do that too, sometimes.
  87. I believe one person *can* change the world.
  88. I think sarcasm is overrated.
  89. When I was born, my mother was in so much pain that she ripped the maternity nurse’s dress.
  90. My mother also smoked heavily and drank a fair amount while pregnant with me. Maybe that’s why I’m the way I am.
  91. When I was four years old, I had an eye operation where they took my eyes out of their sockets to adjust the lengths of muscles. This was in 1969. (See #28)
  92. When I graduated from high school, they had to have my graduation cap specially made for my enormous head.
  93. I absolutely hate the sound of my voice, and have thought about going to a voice coach.
  94. Despite the previous items in this list, there’s a lot I like about myself.
  95. I’m smart, funny, generous, and a loyal friend.
  96. I’ve spent the last few years trying to face and overcome my fears. I still have a ways to go, but I’m so much happier than I was, say, five years ago.
  97. I once told a co-worker, jokingly (see #18), that I was an ordained minister from an ad in the back of Rolling Stone. She believed me (again, see #18). Which led to my nickname “The Reverend.”
  98. Other nicknames I’ve had: Odie, Dondi, Howdy Doody and Capt. Blast!
  99. I thought doing this list would be stupid and pointless, but I’ve enjoyed it.
  100. If you’ve read this far, thank you. And you need help.