Really, where do I begin? What do I include? What do I leave out? On these sites the profile just seems to pop out of nowhere and catch me unprepared. (Yeah, yeah, I know: I should just sit down and write my perfect profile, then copy and paste every time I get to one of these boxes. But that seems so... contrived, and artificial.) So off the top of my head: I read. A lot. About everything. I own between 2 and 3,000 books, and my very favorite new toy is my Nook, which goes with me everywhere (except to work, but no, I won't bring it on dates.) I have very strong political views, and my only problems with President Obama are that (1) he's too conservative (yeah, that's what I said), and (2) he doesn't dish it back to the right wing/Tea Party/"Christian" conservatives nearly enough. (Nevertheless, I flew to Chicago on election day 2008 just to be in Grant Park that night. I was second in line when my polling place opened in order to be able to make my flight. I was also on the DC Mall for inauguration day, which doubled as my birthday party.) I tune out every politician or pundit who pontificates about the "Social Security crisis." (It's the REST of the budget that's the problem now, stupid.) Every summer I go to the best film festival no one's ever heard of: the Traverse City Film Festival. (See, I told you no one's ever heard of it. Now don't tell anyone else.) The best movies I've seen saw there : "Le Concert," "The Secret In Their Eyes," "Bride Flight," and "Cave of Forgotten Dreams." (I have the first three on DVD and would love to watch them with the right person.) I used to be conventionally religious (raised Catholic and a very serious Catholic until my early 30s). I am now skeptical/agnostic, but still read very serious books about religion because the religious questions remain the most important ones (even if we don't know, or can't figure out, the answers to them). See how much I like to read? I started with that, and at that's where I'll end too.

Books: too many to list, but best recent read was "In the Garden of Beasts."
Movies: Casablanca, Nashville, Le Concert, The Secret In Their Eyes, many more
Music: everything from Bach to Bruce (Springsteen, that is)
Food: crabs (Baltimore-style, naturally), Thai (yellow curry, pad thai), medium rare filet mignon, my all-time favorite, pasta alla carbonara, deep dish Chicago pizza, and much more

I don't want to include people in a list of "things," so:
1) My cat, the goofy Sam
2) My library (2 - 3,000 books)
3) Nook (I get to carry 400 books with me)
4) iPod (usually docked in my stereo with 7,000 songs and counting)
5) Computer (to order books and music)
6) Cell phone (how else can we reach out and touch someone these days?)