I’m a Bronx native. A know-it-all whose days are peppered with humbling moments. I’m a big talker and a joker. I am high-minded and lowbrow. I like holding hands. I wish I had a secret laboratory, but for now I’m content making delicious concoctions in my kitchen. I like to think of myself as a tough New Yorker, but this city still takes my breath away with its unexpected corners of quiet beauty. I’m a fiercely loyal friend.

I am smart, goofy, and a whole lot of fun.

I am curious about people; my discipline gives me permission to be nosy. I like reading profiles and looking at pictures. If I've rated your profile highly, that means I saw something interesting in there. It doesn't mean necessarily that I want to marry you. And don't be scared by the rifle. I only shoot at paper targets.

I am a graduate student, finishing a doctoral dissertation in cultural anthropology (field site was Paris, France). I work as an instructor at a community college, and I do administrative work at a predominantly women's school nearby.

Rabblerousing, tomfoolery, defiance, mockery, gourmandizing, lounging, carousing, imbibing, warbling, crooning, belting it out, working it, breaking it down, owning it, gadding about, traipsing, witnessing and testifying.

My smile and my sense of humor.

BOOKS: Lolita, Brideshead Revisted, White Teeth, Watership Down, Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir, In Me Own Words, twee fairy stories by Patricia McKillip and Robin McKinley, Giovanni's Room, The Mismeasure of Man, Palestine's Children, Story of a City, Women of Algiers in Their Apartments, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, anything by David Sedaris, anything by VS Naipaul, anything by James Baldwin, anything by Jane Austen, The Color Purple, the Griffin and Sabine books, Little Big, American Gods, Good Omens, A Son of the Circus, Anil's Ghost, Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, The Lovely Bones, A Dying Colonialism, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, Random Family, The Color of Liberty, Seducing the French, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, The Sandman series, The Preacher series, The Books of Magic series, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, the Adrian Mole diaries, The Loved One, Vile Bodies....

MOVIES: Breaking Away, ZARDOZ ("The voice of the turtle is heard in the land." Motherf*ing WORD.), Fight Club, Black Orpheus, Mad Hot Ballroom, Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge, The Price of Milk, Romeo+Juliet, The Naked Civil Servant, Ma Vie en Rose, Crooklyn, Mississippi Masala, Punch Drunk Love, Gosford Park, Croupier, La Haine, Beautiful Thing, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Big Night, The Matrix, Batman, V for Vendetta, Philadelphia Story, Philadelphia, Murder by Death, Inside Man, Monsoon Wedding, Funny Face, Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Usual Suspects, Joe Dirt (don't ask), The 40-Year Old Virgin, Etre et Avoir, Diva, Star Wars, The 25th Hour, 28 Days Later, Trainspotting, Dirty Pretty Things, Kinky Boots, Midnight Lace, Bugsy Malone, Hairspray (the original), Cry Baby, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (anything set in a chocolate factory is good), anything featuring Toni Collette, Kate Winslett, or Chiwetel Ejiofor....

MUSIC: Nina Simone, Beck, Beastie Boys, Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, Bessie Smith, Soundgarden, Chris Cornell, Ella Fitzgerald, Rage Against the Machine, Miriam Makeba, David Bowie, TTD (Introducing the Hardline only), Public Enemy, Emilie Simon, IAM, Akhenaton, Shurikn, Skunk Anansie, Yo La Tengo, Radiohead, Bjork, Ben Harper, Tricky, The White Stripes, Massive Attack, REM, Talking Heads, Remy Zero, Roxy Music, Philip Glass, The Style Council, Shriekback, Amy Winehouse, Ray Charles, Garbage, General Public, Gnarls Barkley, Burt Bacharach, Scritti Politti, Dinah Washington, Sade, The Flaming Lips, Queen, James Brown, Modest Mouse, Missy Elliot, Duke Ellington, Zap Mama, Charles Mingus, The Indigo Girls, Hubert Laws, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Arling and Cameron, The Specials, The Mighty Sparrow, Charlie Parker, Toshi Reagon, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Sarah Vaughn, White Zombie, Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan, The Jackson Five, Prodigy, Stevie Wonder, The Wild Tchoupitoulas, Desmond Dekker, Khaled, Alice Smith...but that's just off the top of my head.

FOOD: I enjoy pretty much any cuisine. I like the expansiveness of the term "omnivore." I particularly enjoy Asian cuisine: Thai, Indian, Japanese, Chinese. I am known to make a heartbreakingly good lasagne (baked pasta cannot be denied). To me, a cheeseburger is the perfect food, although very little can beat a cold, ripe mango. The only things I don't like are innards and raw oysters.

Family, friends, music, email, books, and coffee.

World peace, post-it notes, social justice, le mot juste, cocktails, band names (if I had a band, I'd call it "Capital I" and we'd sing the jingle from the old Sesame Street cartoon), finishing my homework, travel destinations, love scenes, great-smelling toiletries, adventures, snappy comebacks, and my regime coming to power, finally.

Home, catching up on Netflix or reading something embarrassing. I prefer to go out on other nights.

I once punched a man on the NYC subway. Believe me, he had it coming. And, no I am not usually that impulsive or violent.

You can appreciate the love of a woman of size. Your sense of justice is matched only by your sense of whimsy. You know how and when to use Standard English properly. You can engage in a lively debate without becoming a bully. (Good conversation is really important to me.) You actually like to leave the house and go out on dates. You are not above making a fool of yourself. You are not cruel or false. You are not a sexist, racist, or homophobe. You're not into proselytism. You don't get impatient with people who walk really slowly (I am recovering from a broken foot). You like kissing.