Proust Questionnaire

For any Vanity Fair readers out there (of which I am an avid one), I have decided to do a Proust Questionnaire of my own. I only wish I had a witty caricature to accompany the questions. :)

• What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
  Feeling isolated and disconnected.
  
• Where would you like to live?
  Ireland, or a city in the eastern United States.
  
• What is your idea of earthly happiness?
  Children's laughter, quizzical looks from curious puppies.
  
• What are your greatest indulgences?
  Good chocolate, TV on weekend mornings.
  
• Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
  Huck Finn, Boo Radley/Atticus Finch.
  
• Who are your favorite characters in history?
  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Martin and Coretta King/Howard Thurman/Rosa Parks/Daisy Bates/Diane Nash (of the Southern Civil Rights Movement)
  
• Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
  Hillary Clinton
  
• Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
  Scout Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird) and Scarlett O'Hara, for starters. Shug Avery in The Color Purple. Viviane Walker in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. I love dynamic and strong Southern women.
• Your favorite painter?
  I'm not terribly well-versed. I liked the Blue Jackie by Warhol that I saw in the Tate Modern in London.
  
• Your favorite musician?
  Just one? I can't. Classical: Bach. Folk: Joan Baez. Pop: Rosemary Clooney. Country: Emmylou Harris (a little folksy, too, I guess...you can't pin her down). Hip Hop: Kanye West.
  
• The quality you most admire in a man?
  Intelligence, diplomacy, gentleness.
  
• The quality you most admire in a woman?
  Brass, poise, a sharp wit.
  
• Your favorite virtue?
  Intent listening.
  
• Your favorite occupation?
  I really admire entertainers who cross media--acting, directing, singing, dancing, etc.
  
• Who would you have liked to be?
  Maybe Victoria Woodhull, Susan B. Anthony, Georgia Harkness, or Martin Luther King.
  
• Your most marked characteristic?
  Hmm, I don't know. My let-it-all-loose laugh? Probably my biting sarcasm...and rolling my eyes.
  
• What do you most value in your friends?
  Intellect, wit, a willingness to laugh, and the ability to hold conversations
  
• What is your principle defect?
  The habit of taking on too many projects at once. Being too willing to tell hard truths; I'm too honest too often.
  
• What is your idea of happiness?
  Knowing that I got to spend my life working very hard to better my community and the world.
  
• What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
  To have ignored the great learning opportunities of my childhood and youth.
  
• What would you like to be?
  A UN Ambassador
  
• What is your favorite color?
  dark blue
  
• What is your favorite flower?
  Lately I've fallen in love with Irises.
  
• What is your favorite bird?
  Macaws.
  
• Who are your favorite prose writers?
  Alice Walker, Harper Lee, David Sedaris
  
• Who are your favoite poets?
  Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, e.e. cummings
  
• What is it you most dislike?
  Rage; it's profoundly unproductive.
  
• What historical figures do you most despise?
  Hitler leaps to mind....
  
• What event in military history do you most admire?
  The felling of the statue of Saddam Hussein several years ago...just kidding! I don't have much admiration for events of military history, only for those brave enough to undertake them...well, those who go into the military for genuine/virtuous reasons, even if I don't particularly enjoy militarism as a concept.
  
• What reform do you most admire?
  I like all the gay marriage stuff that's happening, but I really like both women's movements and of course the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
  
• What natural gift would you most like to possess?
  The ability to bullshit. Some people can do it and almost seem sincere. I can't even tell white lies very well; you either love or hate that particular quality in me.
  
• How would you like to die?
  Preferably at home, in bed, old, alone and asleep. I have a running list of ways I do not want to die: plane crash, drowning, in the middle of some really nasty and bizarre experimental medical procedure (I watch too much House) are some of the list-toppers.
  
• What is your motto?
  "I think there's just one kind of folks: folks."