I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by a delicious blog, foodvox, just when I was in the middle of writing about Marxist Gramscians and ZemZem.

Puzzled? So was I. I've never been tagged before.

Now you'll have to wait to find out what a zemzem is, as I postpone my serious stuff and play tag instead. (There's an impatient editor, too, thrumming his fingers on the desk, waiting for a chapter from me, but I'm used to that ... and can tough it out.) It's summer, after all.

The tag descended in a purely foodie line until it reached me. How does foodvox know that I'm a foodie at heart? Vibrations through the ether, perhaps. But tagged is tagged, and I'm a game old girl.

The rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you. Done.

2. Post the rules on the blog. Doing.

3. Write six random things about yourself. Attempting.

4. Tag six people at the end of your post. Dare I tag a total stranger?

5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. They'll hate me.

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. Risky. What if they retaliate with a meme?


Six Random Things About Me

1. I'm a terrible procrastinator and a time-waster (but you already knew that).

2. In a previous existence, I was one-half of Weingarten & Chaplin b.v., an international direct marketing agency.

3. I had an unexpected encounter in a helicopter once and was fool enough to talk about it.

4. French provincial and Tuscan cooking mix very well and I bastardize frequently. As Sopater, the writer of a play called Lentil Soup, said, "I can carve meat for myself, and I know how to take Tuscan wines with any party of eight."

5. Speaking of wines, I am not named Weingarten for nothing. Old wine, but the flowers of new songs, as Pindar says.

6. I have never won anything in any lottery. I'm sure that tells something about me; but what?

These random remarks are not (to quote Plato) the light jests of a young and noble Socrates, but the serious thoughts of a tagger.

Now the moving finger moves on, as I tag another six unfortunates.

David Derrick at The Toynbee convector, who often provokes me into saying something sensible.

Gabriele C at The Lost Fort, whose blog is an engaging mix of history, fiction, and ruins I've never seen before.

Ridger at The Greenbelt, whose Monday Science Links keeps me on my toes.

David Powell at Studenda Mira, who should blog more, much more.

Debra Hamel at Blogographos, not so much a blog as an open posting place.

Carla Nayland at Historical Fiction, who just reviewed my Zenobia: the rebel queen, and doesn't deserve this in return.

Well, that's another day's work. Not.


* The wonderful photo of a cat burglar (at the top of this post) is shamelessly stolen from I-know-not-who: sent to me by a friend, without any credits, I've not been able to find out who photographed (and photoshopped) it. If anyone knows the creator, please send me the name so credit may be given.