Ten Things I've Done That You Haven't

Phil at Umbrae Canarum gives a list of ten things he's done that you, the reader, probably have not. Sounds like a fun Saturday night's blog, so here's mine.

1. Lived in Sierra Leone for a year and a half, with my visa stating that I was a "medical missionary".

2.Worked in a factory manufacturing fiberglass insulation.

3. Lived for three years, alone, in a cabin in the mountains with no electricity, telephone, or indoor bathroom.

4. Hitchhiked in the Orkney Islands.

5. Met the film director Howard Hawks while I was playing golf at age 11 in Palm Springs.

6. At age 13, I had a homemade incendiary device go off in my face, burning my eyeballs and melting my hair. Also in Palm Springs.

7. Walked, with a backpack, across the Czech-Ukraine border, nine months after the dissolution of the USSR.

8. Ran a marathon in 3:50:00.

9. Was a guest DJ on a radio station in Castelvetrano, Sicily.

10. Lived and worked for 9 months on a kibbutz in, you'll never guess, Israel.

OK, I've already got 10, but I have one more.....(drum roll please)

11. I converted a lesbian to heterosexuality. (Rimshot.)