This is the first in my series of my silly new idea where I interview you all one question at a time. I am going to start off with an easy question… a deceptively easy question… to get the ball rolling. The fun in this is not in the questions, although I will try to make them clever. The fun is in the answers you give in the comments, and the discussions we are going to have about those answers.
Let me start by telling you a quick story. I may have posted this one once. Back when my wife was pregnant with our first daughter, I went to a Grateful Dead concert… the end of the decade 1990 show on New Year’s eve at the Oakland coliseum. After the show, I was riding on BART… an electric monorail system in the Bay Area, with a bunch of ‘tripping’ dead heads… I am not saying if I was in a similar state, I will leave that up to your imagination, but I still had really long hair… so…
I was sort of freaking out that I was going to be a father in a week or two. So I started talking to my friends about it, and for some reason, I began to ponder the following question: If I could have my kid be born with the personality of any person or character, real or fictional, who would I pick?
The question raced around the whole train. Dead heads are friendly and love this kind of conversation, and they were excited about me becoming a father. Many names of both real and made up characters were tossed out for consideration. I only put one name out there. There was one name that held all the magic of a good personality… loyalty, bravery, kindness, a loving soul who never deserted a friend and never backed down from a bad person. A sweet soul that everyone everywhere loves…
That’s right. If I could have picked the personality for my own child, that is the one I would have picked out of all of them. And you know what? After much discussion, almost everybody agreed that this was the best choice. He beat Jesus, hands down.
Why did I tell you all this?
Because my first Crazy Question to you is:
If you could be anybody, either real or made up, for one day, who would you be?
Pouring My Art Out 
Well if I were to pick an actual person I would want to pick the day I was going to be them. Like Neil Armstrong on the moon. The problem is I would want to be so many different people at different times. Wouldn’t that be awesome?
I guess everybody would be fun to be for one day if you picked the day.
I honestly wouldn’t be anyone else, or at least I can;t think of anyone. Maybe I could be someone who has an imagination?
Get your thumb out of your aspirations! HA!
Good one AB. Good one
Thanks, buddy.
One day?
Merlin.. in the hopes that I could figure out how to prolong the transformation for more than one day with my awesome magical awesomeness. And, if that failed, at least I would have gotten to feel the power of sorcery running through me for a day.
Everybody always tries to sweeten the deal. That is why I gave up being a genie… no… you can’t wish for more wishes. There are rules.
Rules are boring. And don’t apply to everybody… I think I should be one of the people they don’t apply to.
But, like I said, I’m fine either. One day as Merlin would still be awesome.
Not Gandalf???
I feel like we’ve had this conversation…
How much magic does Gandalf really have? He can summon his horse. He can scare away dragons with his magic light bulb staff. He can talk to moths, and eagles. Meh. Merlin raised stonehendge, can see into the future, can summon fire with words, can change his appearance, …do you need more? Or, have I settled my case?
Gandalf does cool fireworks, fights Balrogs, and has a cool hat.
Easy question. I’d be King Midas. I could make myself fabulously wealthy in a single day but not have those pesky long-term consequences.
Now that is good thinking.
IAM new to your blog too after your funny interview with the goose man… I have to say that I enjoy being me my magnificent self… because IAM god also… IAM everyone…. and although you say you don’t visit blogs… it would be fun to be friends and enjoy each other journey… take care Barbara
I like your sense of self… and I like your self-assuredness… I didn’t say I don’t visit blogs. I meant that I can’t follow 1,500 + people and get to know everyone of them. I get to many visitors to spend time with all of them. I have to narrow it down, and that is hard and heart-breaking.
I was pulling your leg a little.. (english sense of humour with an extra u) I just wonder how a person can have so many visitors and get around them all… it seems impossible… I try and have my own way of visiting everyone but it takes time…. and I only have a 200 now… so tips would be useful… in the meantime I love your blog and will enjoy coming to you as I know you will come to me too… thank you.. barbara
Well, my secret is that I am mostly unemployed, so I can’t recommend that. But welcome, and I will do the best I can.
God. Real or fictional? Discuss.
He is as real as you make him… but I bet you will find that it is a harder job than it seems like it might be.
Not if I’m drunk enough.
sigh
Well….first time to your site. 🙂 Your name was once screamed at me through Mr Edward Hotspur and then when I read Al’s interview…had to see more. 🙂
Okay, enough of that…my answer is simply Mahatma Gandhi 🙂
Well then… I hope you like Indian food…
I sure do 🙂
That was an interesting choice you made. You would be living history.
Aren’t we all….. 😉
Excellent point.
I mean, some of us are living it better than others, and some of us are making it… but, yeah.
I will accept my Pulitzer now. Please and thank you.
I have a whole closet full…help yourself.
That’s a difficult question…. It’s tough enough being myself…
I bet…
I would want to be… um… I’m not sure. Would I keep my personality as this other person? Or would I become that other person completely and forget myself?
If I could keep my personality, I would pick someone completely opposite to me so I could really mess with them (like some politician or something along those lines)… I would do kind, loving things. I would cuddle animals, I would spend their money on others, I would try to make a difference…
If I lost myself for that 24 hours, I would want to also be someone opposite my true self, but more along the lines of someone happy and self-assured. Someone confident and well-spoken. Someone accomplished… I would learn all I could and hope to retain it when I returned to being “myself”… Actually, it wouldn’t have to be a person, it could be any living thing…
That was beautiful I think you made us think. I will try to leave less wiggle room from now on.
lol, that’s a good thing right? maybe? 😉
Thinking or wiggling?
um, either? both?
Good answer!
Chuck Norris… And you really can’t argue with that at all…
I would be afraid to
Exactly!
You just continue to be a nice llama…
A little scratch behind my ears is always an in to keep me happy.
You aren’t a spitter are you?
A lady llama never spits.
uh huh…
Yeah, like Benzeknees only the opposite. I’d probably be a woman for 24 hours.
I bet you would be a good one…
That is more than a little disturbing
How much more???
More than a little more
a lot more than a little more or a little more than a little more
More than more than a little more. And so forth
a feeling, more than, it is
Confusing
Yoda sings Boston
The engines, cool
I got nothin’!!!
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin – yep you will have to look her up but when you do you will be surprised….
I am always surprised
I think I would like to be a man for 24 hours, just to know what it’s like. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine what in the world they were thinking or even if they were thinking. 😉
We weren’t
Me. But I would know that earlier.
(And yes, it’s a valid answer. Depending on who you ask, I am both real and fictional.
That answer is deep and mysterious, like the ocean with which you represent yourself!
King Arthur. Brave, important, loved by his people, noble yet flawed.
I think that about sums it up… ha!
I’d want to be Ferris Bueller. That kid has life figured out.
Ooohhh… and I like Matthew Broderick too!
I would be Bugs Bunny. He always had it together, never missed a beat. He was self-confident yet had a vulnerable side.
I agree, but I went with Mickey because Bugs has a dark side, he seeks revenge… I know the person always deserves it, but he enjoys it a little too much.
Bugs is the dark side in all of us. When we think of the snappy comeback, hours later to an insult. Bugs is right on cue. We all secretly enjoy revenge. Bugs is just open about it. Plus he has the animated world as his oyster.
I am coming around. He is someone I would be. I was still thinking about my kids, and that wasn’t the purpose of the question. Well played, sir!
Cherry Garcia. Oh wait, that’s a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor. Sorry, give me more time.
I wouldn’t be that here… they were rioting the other day because the snacks in the lobby ran out…
Okay, fair enough. Besides, I’m starting to melt. Ba dump bum!
But seriously now, folks. If I could be anyone for a day, for 24 hours, I would want to be a woman. A beautiful woman. A woman men idolize, adore, can’t take their eyes off of. A sophisticated, sexy, flamboyant woman who turns every head, male and female, when she enters a room. Pick the most beautiful, gorgeous, sophisticated, remarkable woman you’ve ever known and that’s who I want to be for a day. For 24 hours.
Why? Because I want to feel what she feels, see everything from her perspective. I want to understand what it’s like to walk in her shoes (and her bra and panties as well, but that’s a whole nother story). I want to experience what she experiences, to know what it’s like to be the object of adoration and of envy. I want to appreciate her perceptions, her reactions, her responses.
I want to spend a day as a woman so that, at the end of the day, I can be a better man.
I am floored… that is awesome… and wise… did you read the 7 chapter fiction story I did a while back? One chapter had a man trapped in a woman’s body for a day until she…well, I don’t want to give it away, but it does apply… sort of.
Thanks! I didn’t read your story. Is it on this site? How do I get to it?
It is called Unnamed Story, back in December… military fiction/horror/sci-fi/adventure… violence and adult content… not like what I usually do around here at all.
Found it. Thank!
I hope you like it.
Neil Armstrong. Real out of this world guy. What wonder and excitement at that time.
That is a good choice. You get to be a hero and have an adventure none else ever had… sweet.
Leonardo da Vinci. The guy had a brilliant and constantly inventive mind.
I like that one. You have to wonder about the guy. Was he using more of his brain than the rest of us? Was he an alien or a time traveler? Was he just nuts?
Not crazy, I think. Although maybe a time traveler — he had ideas for helicopters and things like that centuries before anybody else thought of them.
I’m told he also wrote some of his notes in backward script so you had to hold a mirror up to them to read them normally. Gotta admire somebody who could do that.
I watch the discovery channel and study history. But no normal mind came up with all that… there has to be more to it… inventions spring from other ideas… you don’t just invent a helicopter without going through other steps.
I think I would want to be a keyboard.
An inanimate object? Interesting choice… people poking you with their fingers all day and… oh… wait… this isn’t some kind of weird fantasy, is it?
I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you. I was thinking it would be cool to be under the fingers of a great author. I’d carry all the keys to their story.
Pick their brains… awesome…
I think I would want to be an Eagle
The eagle has landed… I was going to say that an eagle is not really a person or a character, but I went with a mouse, so who am I to argue? And being an eagle would be cool.
exactly! just to fly over the mountains and feel free
I like the sound of that
Me too!
uh… yeah
I would be the living Random Kindness Lady; the magical kind that could be in a million places at once doing all sorts of out of the blue kindnesses for people. How’s that for imaginary and off the wall, grin, these days I’m lucky if I get to do one or two things…but everyone has something to offer. Loving what you’re doing here, it’s fun.
I did not expect anybody to just make up a whole new person to be… that is awesome.
LOL, I know you like to have fun on your blog; so you gave me the perfect doorway to be anyone, grin.
I suspect you make your own doorways whenever you feel the need…
Thanks for making me smile…
That is all that I live for…
You did it again! LOL
Yay!!!