10 things about me

1.  As a baby, I bore an uncanny resemblance to Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 The Wizard of Oz movie. Actually, I still look like him, but my mom assures me there’s no relation.

2.  Like the Cowardly Lion, I’m afraid of some things, including:

• Public speaking
• Wax museums
• Global warming

3.  I’m NOT afraid of:

• Spiders
• Going to the dentist
• Swimming in weedy lakes

4. I still live in the city where I was born: Seattle. In fact, I live three blocks from my high school. At my 20th reunion, I got the award for having come the least distance.

5. I had to repeat second grade because I hated the private school my mom sent me to. When we moved and I entered public school, I was so afraid of failing that I graduated with a 3.8 GPA. (My Bs were in gym and choir.)

Ben

6. I’m a dog person. I’ll do face plants on my dog, Ben, and breathe him in. I love that he not only tolerates this, but seems to enjoy it.

7. The man who would become my husband, Mark Funk, asked me out after I threw a paperback dictionary over the pod wall that separated our desks. We were both reporters at The (Daily) Herald, based in Everett, WA.

8. My lay knowledge of most sports comes from countless hours watching my boys play baseball, soccer, basketball and football. I’d much rather watch them than the pros.

9. While working as a volunteer hall monitor at my son’s middle school, one kid compared me to Albert Einstein. I think it was my wild hair NOT my knowledge of physics.

10. I love chocolate, but it has to be dark. I’m a chocolate snob.

11. My favorite movie is The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn because the characters of Charlie and Rose are so well drawn. My favorite line, though, was delivered by the German boat captain: “By the authority vested in me by Kaiser William II, I pronounce you man and wife – Proceed with the execution.”

12. My favorite books from childhood: It’s a tie between Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Both have strong girl characters at their core.

I guess that’s really twelve things about me. Oh, well, I never could write short. Thirteen.

Bert Lahr photo credit: twm1340