A Piece of Bub and Pie

The lucky ladies attending BlogHer next weekend have been exchanging interviews to get to know eachother a little in advance of the big event.


Her Bad Mother suggested the TO Mamas put together some interviews so she can introduce us at the conference.

My interview can be found here at the home of the lovely Sunshine Scribe.

A complete list of links can be found here.

Without further ado, I'm pleased to host the interview of one of my favourite bloggers, the eloquent Bub and Pie.....

What is the quality you most admire in a blogger?
I most enjoy bloggers who are unflinchingly honest about really private things (hence my addiction to Her Bad Mother’s Basement). I most admire bloggers whose posts are full of mind-bending leaps of free-association (lildb at i-obsess comes to mind).

What is your most marked blogging characteristic (or, how would you describe your blog)?
Two urges seem to drive most of my blogging: confession and preservation. I confess my lapses of etiquette and shortcomings as a parent, and I preserve the ordinary moments of sweetness that might otherwise go unremembered. (Does this make it sound as if my blog were made out of strawberry jam? It’s really not quite that sweet.)

What is your greatest virtue as a blogger (what do you most like about your blog)?
I like my cultural analysis posts – of Linda Hirshman or Thomas the Tank Engine – though I don’t actually do all that many of these. And I always enjoy writing a good bullet-list, though I try not to abuse this form. I like it on the days when I have two or three little nuggets – of cuteness or complaint – bumping around in my head, ideas that aren’t significant enough in themselves to warrant a whole post. And since I’m a bit of a control freak, the bullets provide a sense of structure within which I feel free to throw out random ideas – like the five things I was afraid of when I was six years old (including quicksand and bottomless pits, among other things).

What do you regard as the principle defect of your blog?
I am only ever funny by accident.

What character of fiction do you most wish had a blog?
Elizabeth Darcy. To refute all those they-didn’t-live-happily-ever-after sequels.

What historical or real life person do you most wish had a blog?
C.S. Lewis. Not from curiosity about his daily life, but simply because I enjoy the workings of his mind: the relentless logic, the elegant illustrations, the abstract analysis of faith and literature.

What is your present state of blog (present state of mind as a blogger)?
Overworked, distracted – and desperately looking forward to the day (hopefully before the end of August) when I have time to really blog properly.

What is your blog motto?
More is more.

***

What is your idea of earthly happiness? Silence and chocolate.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent? I find it easy to forgive the faults that arise from trying too hard – being too intense, talking too much, saying all the wrong things in a misguided effort to impress or entertain. It’s often embarrassing to witness this kind of spectacle, but I have a soft spot in my heart for those who are incapable of coolness.

Who are your favorite heroes of fiction? Mr. Darcy and … sorry, nobody else. Only Mr. Darcy.

Who are your favorite heroines of fiction? Elizabeth Bennet, Anne Elliot, Jane Eyre, Anne Shirley, and Emily Byrd Starr.

Who are your favorite characters in history? Winston Churchill, Martin Luther, and Elizabeth I.

What historical figures do you most despise? I suppose it’s too obvious to say Hitler? Or George W.? How about Henry Tudor, with his cowardly smear campaign against the memory of Richard III?

What is the quality you most admire in a man? Attentiveness to his children, and a visible delight in their personalities.

What is the quality you most admire in a woman? The politically correct thing would be to say “same as above,” but of course that’s not true – I expect a woman to be attentive to her children, and I admire (and envy) her if she seems able to cope, with unruffled calm, with all the challenges they present.

Who or what would you have liked to be? I would have liked to be a Victorian – to still be me, but in the Victorian period with a big, sprawling English house (where one might plausibly imagine a wardrobe that leads to Narnia), an enormous garden, and six children who call their father “Papa” with cute little British accents and an emphasis on the second syllable. (Anglophile, much?)

Where would you like to live? In a century home, on a tree-lined street, a few blocks away from the library, with a good restaurant nearby, and friends I can call to meet me there in five minutes for coffee and dessert (a really, really good cheesecake).

What do you most value in your friends? Virtues are important, especially loyalty, but above all I value an incisive mind, an ability to penetrate to the quick, to understand motives and analyze the roots of emotions and relationships.

What is your principle defect? Inflexibility – difficulty accepting disorder or change.

What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes? The accidental death of one of my children, where there was something (major or minor, foreseeable or unforeseeable) that I could have done to prevent it. Any kind of death would be unbearable, of course, but I cannot imagine coping with the torture of replaying all the tiny decisions that might have led to a different outcome. If misfortune must come, I’d rather believe that it was inevitable.

Who are your favorite prose writers? Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, L.M. Montgomery, and D.E. Stevenson.

Who are your favorite poets? Robert Browning and Christina Rossetti.

What are your favorite names? Hugh. Bronwyn. Wesley. I love those good Scottish/Irish/Welsh names. It would almost be worth it to have a few more children, just so I could get to use them.

What is it you most dislike? Mess. Procrastination. Feeling out of control.

What natural gift would you most like to possess? I would love to be able to figure skate (though that might require more than one gift: I could supply the artistry, but I would need the balance and physical courage).

What is your motto? When I was a teenager I liked mottoes that started with “Life is,” as in, “Life is a never-ending tragedy” or “Life is a party but I wasn’t invited.” Nowadays, if by motto we mean a phrase I say a lot, it would have to be, “I would like my fair share, please.”