My Ten Favorite GTKY Questions

For people who have been around here a long time (bless you), you have seen a lot of articles and series, some of which persist to this day (like this and this), others of which we don't really do anymore or do so sporadically.  This morning, I decided to do an installment of "GTKY Sunday" a series we used to do a number of years ago where I let you know a little bit more about my tastes, but because it's a week where I don't really feel like discussing the impeachment (I'd theoretically write an article about Jeff van Drew, but I don't want to waste the ink until he figures out what he's doing with his life), we're going to have this be a Thursday article.

For GTKY Sunday this week, I recently made a list of ten of my favorite GTKY questions, which is a passion of mine.  I am a weird combination of naturally curious about other people and extremely introverted, so having a few GTKY questions in your back-pocket to make people feel at ease (and by people I mean me), feels like a good idea.  You can totally steal these for your next date/party/long car ride, or better yet, answer them in the comments yourself if you so choose (or provide your favorite GTKY questions there as well!), but I figured I'd ask them and then answer them here on the blog this morning!

1. Describe the Perfect Sandwich

This is one of my all-time favorites mostly because it allows people to be mentally creative, and also if it's on a date, gives you an idea of what kind of food they like without asking something as generic as "what kind of food do you like?"  For me, this is easy-one of the things I miss most about living in New York City (a long list) is easy access to delis, which are not as plentiful (or as good) in the midwest.  Put me at a deli counter, and give me a pastrami & swiss on sourdough, with brown mustard and a pickle (on the side!) with BBQ kettle chips, a black-and-white cookie, and a Doc Brown's root beer, and I am in heaven.

2. What companies would you shill for for free?

Everyone always says "do charities count?" and no, they don't.  This is a question related to those commercials where people are giving testimonials about Proactiv, and you have to pretend they aren't paid to be there-what if you actually got the chance to speak for a company, and had to do it for free, what product(s) do you most believe in that genuinely you just want those organizations to succeed you love them so much?

Mine would be, in no particular order: Sleep Number (their mattresses solved my back problems within two weeks, and they never came back), Turner Classic Movies (now and forever), Barnes & Noble (my home planet), my favorite movie theaters in the Twin Cities (my all-time favorite, Willow Creek in Plymouth, I genuinely am a paid advertisement for since I'm always convincing people to go there), and, with apologies for the cliche, Ben & Jerry's.

3. What movie have you seen more than any others?

I'm a film fan, so people always assume I'm being judgmental with this one, but honestly the only answer I judge here is if you don't have an answer.  For me-this is simple.  When I was a kid, my brother and I got a copy of Clue on VHS from my grandma (my parents, who knew what was coming, I think had been reluctant to invite it into their home, which was a solid instinct), and we watched it all. the. time.  I've probably seen Clue at least sixty times through the years, and while there are other movies that I've seen more times than I can count (Sleepless in Seattle, Casablanca, The English Patient), Clue will likely always be my stock answer here.

Also, I'd shill for Clue or Clue for free.  And do-all the time.

4. First Celebrity Crush

I think my first celebrity crush was Wil Wheaton in Star Trek: The Next Generation.  He was so smart, and his hair was so neat, and I was probably 9 or 10 when I was watching him on that show and thought he was dreamy.  It's also entirely possible that my lifelong celebrity crush Prince Harry (I have long had a thing for the redheads) might have been my first crush as we're the same age.  Colin Farrell was pretty quickly after those two, though, as I saw Tigerland when I was too young to see Tigerland, and it was...moving on.

5. What's the nerdiest thing about you?

I'm not sure if you know this, but I run a blog that specializes in discussions in classic film and elections analysis, somehow concurrently.  There are a lot of nerdy things about me (I have an annual awards show that I do with my brother every year, my house somehow has both a library for books and a library for movies/board games, I can name verbatim every Oscar acting nominee & every senator from the past three decades), but I feel like this blog might be the best testament to my nerdiness.

6. What was the last book you read?

Reading is something that is important to me, but reading is oftentimes perceived as kind of pretentious, and I feel like this question is a way to invite a conversation about literature into the dialogue without forcing the other person to prioritize their own reading tastes.  It also gives you an indication of what they actually read (because it's a recent book) than what they want people to think they read.

I'm in the middle of Olive Kitteridge right now (I like to read all of Oprah's Book Club selections because she does such a good job of finding ways to curate the conversation of the book you're reading and make you think about it in new ways, but I want to finish the first book before I get to Olive Actually), but the last book I finished was Slaughterhouse Five, which I read for a classic book club I'm in, and I don't think I'd ever actually read it (I might have tried in college, but never finished it).

7. Someone gives you $100 million-you get to start a foundation in your name, but you can only focus on one idea-what is it?

I have a lot of charity passions, but if I'm going to make something personal and real, it'd be focused on film preservation and getting rare films into the public.  Through efforts like the Oscar Viewing Project and Saturdays with the Stars (I know I already brought them up-this is a GTKY, I'm going to be passionate about the things I love!), I've found that there is a shocking amount of films that aren't properly lost (like The Mountain Eagle or The Patriot, where copies of the films genuinely don't exist), but are simply lost because no one has ever put money into bringing them onto DVD or a streaming platform.  I'd use my foundation to bring those out to the public consciousness, and make them available for scholars and film fans.

8. What is your Ted Talk about?

I kind of stumbled on the order here, because it's about how we need to do a better job at preserving our cultural touchstones through more preservation of film, TV, and music (these are good separate questions, and I'm not entirely certain why I put them back-to-back when I was prepping this article, but just go with it).  My second Ted Talk will be about how midterms are more important than presidential elections.

9. What is a talent you can do better than 99% of people?

Oscar trivia.  I know on this blog I do have the ability to look things up when it comes to Oscar discussions, but most of it I'll (humbly) admit is the result of me just knowing the answers.  I will put myself up against anyone when it comes to Oscar trivia.

10. What is your favorite unsolved mystery?

This is such a good one, and it's also a good way to gage how into conspiracy theories other people are.  For me, as I'm not a big conspiracy theory person (I find them fascinating in a "what if" sort of way, but I don't believe them), the answer is "what happened to the Mary Celeste?"  You can read more about it here, but essentially it was a ship that was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872.  No one was onboard when they found it, but it was seaworthy, its cargo was intact, and there was little sign of disturbance.  The captain's log hadn't been used for ten days, and no one onboard was ever heard from again.  This fascinates me because it didn't appear to be a mutiny, the ship wasn't overtaken by pirates (there'd be more disturbance), and it clearly didn't sink.  What happened to this phantom ship?  I heard about this as a kid, and it's still my favorite historical whodunit.