Pop Quiz
by Melinda Nowikowski
 

"I have lived in Rantoul, Illinois; Alamogordo, New Mexico; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Felicity, Amelia and Batavia, Ohio (all in the same 30-mile diameter near Cincinnati). Soon I'll add Dayton, Ohio to the list, which is about 50 miles north of Cincinnati. Each place I live provides me with rich inspiration once I leave it, though I have to admit Alamogordo was a gold mine like I never suspected it would be when I moved there. I can recommend nothing more highly for inspiration than the desert Southwest of the U.S.A. It makes everyone feel small -- for the unimaginative, that's a bad thing. For everybody else, it's a revelation..."

 
 
1.   What is your name?         (Melinda) Mindy Nowikowski
2.   How old are you?         34
3.   Where do you live?         Currently, in the eastern suburbs of Cincinnati, OH -- within six months it will likely be Dayton.
4.   What do you do for a living?         Clerical scutwork for a small computer cabling company.
5.   Do you drive?         Oh, yes.
6.   What do you do for joy?          Drive in the car singing harmony with Mr. Nowikowski
7.   What is your pet peeve?   And how much does it weigh?  Does it sleep by the door?  Is it housebroken?         Arbitrarity. It weighs too much. It never sleeps, not even by the door. If it didn't piss all over me constantly, it wouldn't be a peeve.
8.   Do you write, paint or play?  All at the same time?  (While juggling a dozen eggs and riding a unicycle?)          I write character fiction, the occasional poem. My mother is terribly disappointed I never learned to paint, but I didn't. I'm not terribly disappointed.
9.   Who is the most impressive character you've ever met?         Are you kidding? I've met Bobby.
10.   Have you ever read, acted, performed, thrown up, etc. in public?         School choir and elementary musicals, one high school class play, several public readings of poetry and/or fiction.
11.  What piece of literature or art moved your soul to ecstatic waves of bliss?         My first true epiphany of reading was Madeline L'Engle's "A Wrinkle In Time". I know it's not great literature, but it was the first thing I read that made me want to write.
12.  What was the first thing you ever encountered that made you realise that art is important?         "Alice In Wonderland", which I read when I was eight or nine the first time.
13.  Would you consider yourself an artist?  A good one?  Why or why not?         I'm a writer. Inasmuch as that's art, I'm an artist. I'm a good technician -- however I've never been sure the inspiration makes it through the technique.
14.  What are your favorite things that have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with anything else?          Watermelon flavored hard candy. The mandolin break in the Replacements' "I Will Dare". The hundredth time I've driven a good, winding road.
15.  What are your favorite things that have ABSOLUTELY everything to do with everything else?         Mr. Nowikowski. Our cat, whose name, "Tink", derives from the word "stink", not from "Tinkerbell" as the vet's secretary always assumes. The fact everybody in my family acts like a responsible adult.
16.  What's the meaning of life?         "The love of money is the root of all evil."
17.  Why?         Because greed is destroying the world.
18.  True or false: the Three Stooges represent the apex of American cultural achievement.         They represent the apes of American cultural achievement. I prefer the Marx Brothers.
19.  True or False: Shemp was funnier than the original Curly.         [...]
20.  Who's da man?         Toni Morrison