marcel proust and his questionnaire

the proust questionnaire. it's essentially a list of questions. marcel proust (his full name is Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust) made it popular, but it wasn't invented by him. according to the reliable source of wikipedia, it was popular at the time to answer questionnaires like these at fancy dinner parties and such. he answered them in such a different manner that it drew attention to himself, and i guess the trend caught on. npr did an interview with cookie monster using the questionnaire, and i watched it the other day on their website (+14 nerd points for caitlin). it takes about two minutes to get to the actual proust-ish part. anyways, some of proust's answers were way more interesting than mine would be. for example-

in what country would you like to live?
one where certain things that i want would be realized- and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated
the quality you most like in a man?
feminine charm.
the quality you most like in a woman?
a man's virtues, and frankness in friendship.

there's this one question that was kind of interesting to think about. "if you died and came back as an object, what object would it be?" for some reason, the first thing that came to mind was a can opener. but that would definitely not be fun. maybe the pen of a really famous writer or something. or maybe the guitar of some great musician. a telescope, a camera, or a dollar bill.

fascinating fact- proust spent the last three years of his life in a cork-lined bedroom.

and now for a completely unrelated topic. someone was talking about karaoke the other day. the word karaoke comes from the two japanese words for "empty" and "orchestra." but i realized that i've only seen someone do karaoke once, and it was in honduras. we had just left this village, and we stopped at this old restaurant on the coast. i witnessed an old honduran man sing a spanish love song, and not particularly well. during the song, several other old men joined in with the singing, and it was unlike anything i have ever heard (perhaps not in a good way). i had completely forgotten about this event until about two days ago.