Oh, and banana Laffy Taffy. In my book it trumps stinky tofu every time.

I’ll pick All Along the Watchtower for 200, Alex.

Susan and all, thanks for your company this season. I’m taking the summer to work and play, preferably outdoors. Screw you, winter!

My phobia is black widows spiders. The big, glossy black ladies, with long, slinky legs and wicked red hour glasses on their abs. I posted my black widow nursery story on Tish’s “Name Your Phobia” page on her website.

I am too pedestrian to be a Hendrix devotee, though when I hear “All Along the Watchtower,” I smile to remember my cousin and his Hendrix devotion.

See ya’ll on Thursday.

Although I have made major progress this year in overcoming both of them… have become enchanted with the ballerina spiders in our house and had to learn to give injections to my horse. Kind of amazing to experience the lessening of two deeply-rooted lifetime fears!

Have a wonderful vacation. I LOVED those photos of Bozeman, Montana – wish I were going THERE.

billie

Okay, I just spent the last half hour reading all the new comments and I’m just happy to know all of you. Everyone will be linked on Friday. Both of my favorite Hendrix songs have already been picked but you’ll have to wait till Friday to find out which ones.

http://tinyurl.com/ytnnf7

Needless to say, I gave up everything (control of the tv, my allowance, I’d make his bed) if he just took it off of me. Then he went away laughing. Oh god, I hate spiders and Terry can tell you that I will shriek at the sight of the smallest one. Someday, I’ll talk about the two baby rattlesnakes that were loose in our house.

And I feel late to the game, but Aurelio, just writing ‘stinky tofu’ brings a knot in my throat. I lived in Taiwan for 1 1/2 years and one day, my students threw me a party filled with stinky tofu. ‘Eat it, eat it,’ they urged. And right near where I picked up my laundry each week was a stinky tofu stand with the happiest woman I’ve ever seen. I loved the person who washed my clothes but every week, stinky tofu woman from hell would try and give me free tofu so finally, I had to go somewhere else.

My only important fear is entirely reasonable. I fear death. Mine, daily. The fear of my own death informs everything I have ever written. I fear the death of my parents, and I used to rather hope I’d go first so that I wouldn’t have to deal with it. Now that I have kids, I don’t hope that I die before my mum and dad. I just live in the fearful hope that I die before any of my children, because I know I couldn’t deal with the alternative. I’m older than all my brothers and my sister, so if there’s any justice I’ll die before my siblings. And I’m seven years older than my wife, so all the actuarial data suggests that she’ll see me off, which’ll be fine by me.

Jesus – it occurs to me that I’m no longer as scared of dying as I am of other people dying. Perhaps that’s a kind of growing up.

Stone Free, most days.