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25 Random Things About Me

1. My parents nearly named me Alexander.

2. The first thing I ever wanted to be was an ambulance driver. This was before I knew that meant you had to be a paramedic. I just wanted to drive fast and turn on the siren and lights.

3. I am an insane Star Trek fan. Yes, I even go to the conventions.

4. Living in Europe gave me a rabid wanderlust. Most people thought that after 20 plus countries, I'd be satiated, but that merely proved to me how much of the world I've yet to see.

5. I am a cat man.

6. I once saw myself in national politics. The first time I lived in Washington D.C., I interned for Newt Gingrich's Grand Old Party. When I returned, I was a liberal. Thanks for that W.

7. When I was flying in the Navy, my call sign was "Senator." I was given the nickname because, during my training, while all my friends read the Sports and Comics sections of the newspaper, I was always interested to see what was going on in Washington D.C.

8. I can take or leave sports.

9. People have always told me I look like Vince Vaughn.

10. My favorite movie is "Lawrence of Arabia."

11. I second the late John Updike when he said, "The true New Yorker secretly believes that people living anywhere else have to be, in some sense, kidding. "

12. The only thing I have ever stolen in my life was a Belinni shot glass from Harry's Bar in Venice. It was the bar Earnest Hemingway used to frequent.

13. I have no patience whatsoever for technology that does not work as it is designed to.

14. I adore kids but don't know if I'll ever have any.

15. I never go to bed without watching Jon Stewart.

16. I hate the summer. I hate heat. I wish it could be fall year round.

17. I drink my coffee black and my tea with cream and sugar. I've never lived in the South but super sweet is the only way to drink iced tea.

18. I grew up in the mountains but never want to be far from the ocean.

19. My mom was raised in Africa and considers herself more an African than an American.

20. I could eat seafood for every meal.

21. My sister is gay and I love and support her and her wife in every way.

22. Before podcasts, I used to plan my Saturdays around NPR shows. Brunch? No thank you, I have to listen to "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and "This American Life."

23. I look back on my days in high school and college and I don't recognize myself. I believe so few of the things I believed in then.

24. While I adore making a living (yeah, right!) writing about other people’s films, I hope that someday soon others will be writing about my films.

25. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.