* I have plunged into the Atlantic just south of the Arctic Circle in mid-October, bowled with Celtics players, had a limerick smack-down with Christopher Hitchens (R.I.P.) and interviewed Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, neurosurgeons, dive bar owners and graffiti artists. I love my job.
* Freelancer by trade, entrepreneur by design.
* Sarcasm fancier.
* I put a premium on fitness. I’m far more interested in being fit (tabata, circuit training, cycling) than spending time watching professional athletes.
* Why drink wine when there’s whiskey?

Also, I....notice details, ask questions, lose track of time, laugh until it hurts, brainstorm, follow politics like a sport, dress up, calm down, value rationality and impulse equally, wonder what makes people tick. I hope you do, too.

Observing. Scribbling. Narrating. As a freelance journalist, I don’t have a particular beat. I have areas that I focus on: food, drink, design, urban art, travel and the occasional wonky business topic. No week is even a little bit like the prior.

Since one of those areas of focus is the liquor industry, I travel to distilleries around the world in the name of research. And when a whisky maker invited me to spend a few weeks apprenticing at his distillery in Scotland, I took the bait.

In new news: dabbling in the public health field.

* Making sentences. Except when I'm making lists of bullet points.
* Having conversations that cruise along for miles without any road signs, take sharp turns and leave skidmarks.
* Talking to strangers, listening. People tend to open up to me relatively quickly. I take that as a compliment. Usually.
* Finding the good in people

Old people say: "Kind eyes."
Friends say: "Generosity." "Sweet boots!"
My brother says: "Whatever."

* Anything De Niro, Quentin Tarantino, Katherine Hepburn, Chris Rock, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Cate Blanchett, Steve Buscemi, Billy Wilder, Sir Sean Connery lay their respective hands on.
* Music…music…where on earth do I begin?!? Well, here’s a start: http://www.eastvillageradio.com/shows/chanceswithwolves/
And also: The Clash, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Solomon Burke, Dinah Washington, Ike & Tina, Nico, Nina Simone, Pulp, Joy Division/New Order, Cut Copy, The xx, Chromeo, Dolly Parton (the gal never gets credit for her genius. She’s written almost all of her own songs!) Steely Dan (hey, cool your jets—we all have guilty pleasures, ok?) and pretty much any band out of Sweden or Iceland these days. (Love is All, Radio Department, The Knife, Casiokids)
Also: The jukebox in back of the old bar on the corner--the one with the busted neon sign in the window.
* Everything I need to know in life I learn from The New Yorker. And Eugene O'Neill/Tennessee Williams/Edward Albee.
* Jon Stewart is my therapist.
* If I had to choose, I could live on Mexican food until the end of days. Also: [real Brooklyn] bagels and lox.

* A trip to look forward to/my passport. (Currently on the dockets: Omaha, San Francisco, Ireland, a return to Reykjavik in the fall.)
* Shakespeare.
* An extra-fine-point pen.
* Peace, Love and Understanding, of course.
* A dram of exquisite whisk(e)y.
* My friends. (You'd never do without them either if you met them.) My family. They come first.

* This quote: "Too bad that all the people that know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair." -George Burns.
* Imminent deadlines; how to best tell a person's or a place's story.
* Why there should be more of this in the world: http://www.dezeen.com/2010/08/13/land-of-giants-by-choi-shine-architects/
* What I'd write if I got a job with a fortune cookie company.
* Crossing the country. I grew up in NYC (once a New Yorker, always a New Yorker) and I’m a city gal through and through, so I don’t have a license, but I want to know what happens in South Dakota. Wanna come?
* How your day is going.

Typical??

I was Debbie Gibson for Halloween when I was 9.

if you’re allergic to complacency…if you thrive off of your work ....if you take initiative....if you're kind to bus drivers, taxi drivers, flight attendants, mailmen....if you do whatever it takes to make people laugh.....and please: if you are not vegan....
Cool? Talk soon!