The Letter M

Max

My much maligned Maximilian was a soft, plushy cat with a kind disposition. He was never the fastest, the friendliest, or the baddest, but he was a good, fine cat. Max has been maligned by my brother; if you've popped over here due to his pitiful page in the ersatz Cat Hall of Fame, let me assure you of this, my brother is an idiot.

More: Cat Wars

McClure, Troy

My favorite recurring character on the Simpsons. You may remember him from such self-help videos as "Smoke Yourself Thin" and "Get Confident, Stupid."

Memory

It's interesting what sticks in your head; in my mind, Brussels sprouts were on of the great evils of my childhood. I really hated them. Yet, my mother was shocked when I mentioned this in her presence. She claims to have had no concept of this. I was a ham as a child. I'm sure I must have fallen off my chair while faking death by Brussels sprout.

More: Memory

Mickey Mouse Lamp

My favorite childhood possession was a made-in-Hong-Kong bedside lamp, in which a large Mickey leaned against lamp pole When the lamp is turned on, the bulb behind the lightshade lights up - and so does Mickey. It's utterly charming, and I've just gotten it back from my Haack relatives after a 15 year loan. Whoo hoo! I recently found a bank that matches it at a flea market.

More: Found: Mickey

Millenium

Schmillenium.

Miro, Joan

The first time I saw The Farm, I stood transfixed before it for hours. It was the closest thing to a religious experience I'd ever had. I had written facilely about it for my Spanish class the previous month, and as I stood there, I realized that I hadn't even begun to really understand what I had written and what the painting said.

Morbecks, The Pennsylvania

My uncle also took to the web like a fish in a water. Speaking of fish...

Movies

The best thing about getting my driver's license was that we no longer needed a parent to drive us into Charlottesville for a movie. Our patronage at the theaters went way up. That kicked my movie-going habit into high gear. It's never recovered

More: Movies

Munson

The pretender to the throne ... My brother's coddled cat, doted on excessively. Needing validation, my brother thought I should set up a web poll between my cat, the fabulous Griselda, Munson, and recent family cats to determine whose cat is best. My failure to do so forced him to set up his own little Cat Hall of Fame on the web.

Music

Most "official" musical divisions are a big stinking pile of... that said, I like music with texture and meaning. I am a big sucker for story-telling: traditional ballads of murder, death, and betrayal will get my attention, and a nice mournful woe-is-me or I've-been-done-wrong song will sucker me in. That's not
to say glorious melody and fabulous rythmn don't get my toes tapping, but if they are accompanied by lyrics that are insulting or the implication that I'm too dumb to recognize a decent lyric, I'm peeved. But the worst crime is when a musician embraces the bland, strives for the bland, and encourages blandness in others. You know who you are.