Chris

1. At various points in my life I've tried to learn 7 different languages. I'm not sure I've really got the hang of any of them. This includes English.

2. I'm reasonably certain that my three years in the boy scouts had no measurable benefit on my levels of reverence, thriftiness and cleanliness. It might just have made a bad situation worse.

3. In 1986, I was in the national spelling bee. I lost on "surrogate". I still think Americans say it funny.

4. I have a shameful, secret passion for outlet malls. Especially ones with Brooks Brothers stores. They make a damn fine dress shirt.

5. My 5 favorite things about America, in no particular order, include: the New Yorker, the breakfasts, NPR, dive Mexican food and the women.

6. Number of cousins who have joined the French Foreign Legion: 2.

7. Number of cousins who have joined the French Foreign Legion, deserted, sought refuge in the New Zealand embassy in Paris, been surreptitiously flown out of the country and are never allowed to reenter France and its territories all while their parents thought they were wind surfing in Indonesia: 2.

8.I was opposed to the Iraq War from the get go. To be fair, I was also against the First Iraq War and almost every other war dating back to and including the American Revolution.

9. I'm opposed to wear clothes (especially shirts) with logos or brandnames on them. I get most of my t-shirts off the internet because they say things that amuse me or have messages that I support. Why would I pay money to essentially advertise for a big money-grubbing corporation. Well, unless it was a big money-grubbing corporation that made really cool outdoor gear like REI or North Face.....

10. My 2 greatest fears are clowns and belly dancers. Dick Cheney is a distant third.

11. I might or might not have contracted Japanese Encephalitis in Cambodia.

12. My physical diagnosis teacher in Medical School was my dad. My final exam in that class had "Could do better" written in big red letters on the top.

13. My physical diagnosis skills are so superb that I was able to diagnose a gunshot wound to the head using nothing but a CT scan. I was also able to find the blood-engorged tick causing my patient's paralysis using a good old-fashioned MRI machine.

14. I used to kind of like Sean Cavanaugh. Then I saw his amazing pictures of him on the Otter Trail in South Africa. Now I hate him.

15. My son was in the 50% percentile weight-for-age when we moved to Puerto Rico. Now he's on the 10% percentile. I think it's all evaporative losses.

16. My three favorite places in the world are Siem Reap, Cambodia, Cape Town, South Africa and the canyons of southern Utah.

17. I spent most of my waking hours the last nine years thinking about how to help sick kids feel better. I'm glad I don't do that anymore. What a crap job.

18. I'm slowly turning into my dad, well a more cynical bitter version of my dad. I'm pretty ok with that.

19. I spend a good part of the last three months trying to make my son's first word be "Obama". It was dada. What an ungrateful little jerk.

20. There's almost nothing I would rather be doing than messing about in running water. Rivers, oceans it's all good.

21. I estimate I've made somewhere over 100 parents cry. A lot of them because I told them their child was going to die, but a surprisingly large number just by telling them I was their doctor.

22. I've only personally met 5 people that I'm certain are funnier than me. If you're holding out hope, only one of them has a facebook address that I know. One of the others is my five year old daughter.

23.I was left-handed until the South African educational system got a hold of me. Apparently they didn't approve of such things.

24. Now that we have 2 kids, I'm seriously considering becoming a stay-at-work dad.

25. I went swimming in the ocean today. I went yesterday too. I might go tomorrow.