None of these pictures of Gerry are very good. Someare too dark, or his eyes are closed, or he is not the
central focus of the photo but they'll have to do for now
because they are the only ones I have on my computer and
I am tired so I am going to bed. Goodnight!
My brother's birthday was October 21st. In honor of that I wanted to write my most spectacular post ever but I didn't. Instead I came up against the worst case of blogger's block ever. I have been trying to get this written for TWO months. You see, I thought it would be cool to copy my brother-in-law's idea. Tom created a quiz in honor of his brother's birthday last year. The quiz was about shared family, literary, music, and artistic experiences that they had had. It was 19 questions and had quotes from Tolkien, Tolstoy, Taylor (James), family members, etc. I thought that would be a great way to pay tribute to my brother so I tried to come up with some quotes like Tom's. That is when the writer's block hit. At first I thought that the reason I couldn't come up with a quiz like Tom's was because we didn't have any quotes that Gerry would recognize and that made me think that our family didn't have any shared experiences. Finally I have realized that the problem was that I was trying to make my quiz like Tom's when in fact the Tippetts family culture is quite different (and vastly more intellectual) than the Skousen family culture. So the problem wasn't the idea of a quiz it was the questions I was trying to come up with.
Here goes:
1) "I know nothing, NOTHING!" (German accent)
2) "Love. Love will keep us together.
Think of me babe whenever
some sweet-talkin'girl comes along...."
3) Use your head.
4) "He loaded some bags
And some old empty sacks
On a ramshackle sleigh
And he hitched up old Max."
5) western, westerner, westerners
heroine, heroines, heroin,
6) I'm not dead yet. (english accent)
7) "Wanna know why I carry this tape recorder? To tape things. See, I'm an idea man, Chuck. I got ideas coming at me all day... I couldn't even fight 'em off if I wanted. Wait a second... hold the phone! Hold the phone!"
8) "Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale..."
9) 963-8303
10) It's the chance of lifetime in a lifetime of chance
and it's high time you joined in the dance...
11) Smile every mile for wherever you roam...
12) The name of the brand of ice cream Mom used to buy most often.
13) "you are not a kid. Goats have kids..."
14) He's got the action, he's got the motion....
15) "Get out of my way kid"
16) The best place in the world (or Provo, Utah) to play tag/hide and go seek.
17) Name three different types of competition in a swimming pool.
(Only one has an official name the other two we made up.)
18) A show that you watched and worshiped to such an extent that it apparently entered into our poor little sister's subconcious mind so deeply that it affected her later in life.
19) Mom's favorite joke.
20) "To find the truth you've got to read between the lines...."
21) "Don't save the best for last because if you do your brother may end up eating your sweet and sour shrimp. Especially if he has a very charismatic personality and can talk you into doing just about anything he wants you to do."
Good luck with the quiz Gerry and Happy Belated Birthday. You are a prince among men.
5 comments:
I think I have most of these, but you and Gerry had your own little world where you don't even remember talking to me....
Lets record some answers over Christmas.
Well... it is very late and I'm still at work. And, although it has been a long day, when I found out that my sister devoted an entire Blog entry to ME, I was deeply touched. So, I thought I'd take a minute and do something that I don't even do for my own daughter's blog (not very often anyway)... post a comment. Besides, I feel like I need to defend myself, and my family's honor. What makes Tolkien, Tolstoy, Tennyson, Thoreau, Twain, and others (that's just SOME of the "T"s I know) great?... they're dead... that's all! I choose to study the symbolism in the works of such living artists as Steve Carrell (Dan in Real Life, The Office, etc.) and William Shatner (Star Trek and... uhh... Star Trek the movie). These are the true shapers of our society's destiny and the people who impact my life (along with all other actors in movies)... I don't think anyone could challenge me on that fact! Anyway, in order to defend my honer ("it is a small mind that can only spell a word one way" - Mark Twain) I will quickly answer these somewhat simplistic questions Dona has posed...
1) Sargeant Schultz... dah
2) Tennille, of "The Captain and Tennille" fame (now that I think of it, they helped shape our society too)
3) It may have been "use your head" to you. But to me, it was "use your &*%$ head!!!" Dad
4) A trick question... the narrator in "The Grinch who stole Christmas (let's see anyone in Tom's family get that one right!)
5) Thank goodness for memories of sweet victory, that we can latch on to in life... I have so few, but this one will never leave me (until Dona stops reminding me of THE DAY I BEAT DONA AT BOGGLE with "western" and other forms of the word).
6) Unknown knight in Monty Python
7) I'm impressed... Michael Keaton
8) Beverly Hillbillies... child's play
9) dah... a phone number in Gilbert (either ours or some long forgotten best friend because it sure seems familiar). I'm going with Silver Creek House.
10) He just died this week... Dan Fogelberg
11) Sing your way home
12) Carnation (didn't think I'd get that one did you)
13) Best dang Grandma ever...
14) Dire Straits
15) probably the most famous line ever uttered by "The Sundance Kid"
16) The Field House???
17) Dona must have won these games often, because she is an awesome swimmer. I'm thinking... "hold your breath", "swimming the furthest under water without coming up", and... Throwing large objects at older cousins (Steve Western) and nearly knocking out their front teeth??? (probably not)
18) The Rockford files??? (I'm missing the connection though)
19)Bob Cratchett... I refuse to say any more.
20) Let's come back to that one...
21) Advice from Dona to Sarah???
A very stimulating and fun quiz. My sister is my memory... we shared many of the childhood ones that I look forward to being reminded of one day (by her). It is nice of her to drudge up the good ones all the time... Dona is THE BEST (even if she posts ugly pictures of me)! Thanks Sis!
Love,
Gerry
Well, not too bad Gerry. I'm not sure how to grade 17 or 21. If I give you 1/2 credit for those two than your overall grade is 76% but the questions weren't well stated so I am giving full credit which puts you at 81%. Not bad for a man whose sister typically retains all of his memories for him.
Were you just messing with me on #'s 8, 18, and 20? Because you really shouldn't have missed those. Do you need some clues?
Grant and Sarah I think that you should put in your answers and see if you score any higher than the boy who got a 33 on his ACT.
Love Dona, the girl who got a ??
(I did make it into double digits.)
oh I just loved this post, and I enjoyed comparing the quiz questions with the answers my dad provided... and I also laughed out loud at uncle Grant's comment. ha ha ha. I think Jared will say something similar to Josh and Me in later years...
Sorry I was late in seeing this one Dona, but it brought back a lot of memories for me too. Many of them I've just heard you guys talk about, but it feels like I was there. Thanks for doing that four your brother! You are an awesome sister and sister-in-law! Michelle
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