Since I hadn't written a journal entry in a few days, and didn't have much to say tonight, I picked up the question-thing that's going around. Queries courtesy of Chris Rowe.

1. If you could only pick one...Marvel or DC?

Had you asked me this while I was in high school, I would have said Marvel, hands down -- they had Spider-man, Carnage, Juggernaut, The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Hellfire Club, Kitty Pryde -- it was no contest, since I was never much of a Superman fan, and was lukewarm on Batman, and who else did DC have? Aquaman? Please. Then I went to college, and discovered Sandman, and from there I read Watchmen, Hellblazer, Transmetropolitan, and -- especially -- Preacher; all those good Vertigo titles. After that, DC was ascendant, and so it's been ever since.

2. How many were going to St. Ives?

You know, I never quite understood why the sacks got counted. Men, wives, cats, kittens, sure -- but if you're counting sacks, why not count shoes or petticoats or blunderbusses, too?

3. Mike Krzyzewski. Deal with the devil?

Back when I followed such things, I was a big Duke fan, and gave due homage to coach K. But, yeah, sure -- probably a deal with the devil. The devil is a creature of great vanity, most likely, so it makes sense that he'd support a team named after him and his brethren and/or sistren.

4. Using the Rankine scale, how cold do you like your beer?

I like my stout about 527 degrees R or thereabouts, just room temperature. Other beers I like colder, say 503. As a general rule, the worse the beer, the colder I like it.

5. Do you ever read Big Fat Fantasy Novels? If so, which ones do you like? If not, why not?

I used to, some. I was a big Robert Jordan fan in high school, and even read him a bit in college, until I found it impossible to keep track of the cast of characters, and realized the series wasn't going to end any time soon. I still think he did some cool, innovative stuff in that series, especially in The Dragon Reborn. As for Big Fat Fantasy in general... I never liked Tolkien, so most of his imitators left me cold (though I read a few, in high school, because they were in the house), and I never got into Brooks or Goodkind or the like. I came to fantasy through a love for Stephen-King style horror, which is really just contemporary fantasy where nasty things happen, where there are giant superintelligent rats in the basement rather than dwarves. I got into genre stuff from the Barker/King/Koontz direction rather than the Tolkien/Jordan/Brooks side, so I sidestepped a lot of BFF.

And the chain-letter-style aftermath:

RULES:
1 - Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 - I will respond; I'll ask you five questions.
3 - You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 - You'll include this explanation.
5 - You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.