Five things you don’t know about me

Ok, this is the third and last time I will try to write this post - the first was interrupted over the weekend, and the 2nd completed-but-deleted. (And in the meantime, many of my prospective tagees have been spoken for.) Anyway, it went something like this. . .

This game is silly and i routinely delete chain emails without reading them, but it is [was] a rainy day. . . and something about this “chain post” game appeals to me. Maybe it’s the chance to obtain interesting new tidbits about my friends tagged herein, assuming I can think of five fresh victims who blog.

1. Because the person indirectly responsible for my being tagged is apparently a lady who loves cool James, I have to represent: I acquired and edited LL Cool J’s autobiography, spent a lot of time in limos with him, and once appeared in The Source after being photograhed at a party with him (not pictured: Heavy D, Russell Simmons). As a result of that, I became, for one brief shining moment, a go-to guy in the publishing industry for rap autobiograhies, and subsequently signed “Rev” Run.
2. I never ate a hamburger until about 2 years ago. Really. Much of my childhood was spent hoping there would be hotdogs at the barbeque and special-ordering non-apocryphal grilled cheeses at McD’s - which occasionally had to be asked for from strict cashiers as “cheeseburger hold the meat”. In fact, my friends called me Herb, after the mercifully short-lived ad campaign about the only guy in America who’d never eaten a Whopper(tm). Today, I love steak and burgers - but only really really good ones.
3. Speaking of restaurants, my favorite in LA isn’t - it’s a taco stand called Yuca’s. Maybe the only taco stand ever to win a James Beard award. If you don’t believe me, the chowhound review — or $1.79 — will definitely convince you.
4. I discovered my neighborhood - and Yuca’s for that matter - via a home exchange arranged on the internet with a complete stranger, who has now become a good friend. I think home exchange rocks and have spent a good deal of time looking at it as a niche travel business.
5. I am probably the only person you’ll ever meet with a Master’s in Victorian literature who can also adjust the carbeurator and valves of an air-cooled VW (pictured below with my cousin Jarret).
6. As a bonus, I can use all of the above in a true sentence: I am often seen driving my ghia to Yuca’s with my friend Nelson, who sometimes gets a burger (yes, they sell burgers there) - though we rarely listen to LL on the way.

Now the hard part. Ok, consider yourselves tagged: Spencer, Cameron, Sean, Goff, and Scott (who can hopefully do it in photos).