Your Majesty, Mr Prime Minister, Your Holiness, thank you for being here tonight. I’ve been presented the Liebster Award by my good friend, that mad Scotsman, Seumas Gallacher! Gawd, I just adore awards, don’t you? And, when I look over the list of people who haven’t received the Liebster, it makes me doubly proud!

These are the rules:

• When you receive the award, you post 11 random facts about yourself and answer the 11 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
• Pass the award onto 11 other blogs (while making sure you notify the blogger that you nominated them!)
• You write up 11 NEW questions directed towards YOUR nominees.
• You are not allowed to nominate the blog who nominated your own blog!
• You paste the award picture into your blog. (You can Google the image, there are plenty of them!)

11 random facts about Jim L Wright:

1. The first concert I ever attended was in 1972. Elton John was promoting Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It was, in my opinion, the pinnacle of his career.
2. I fancy myself something of a gardener. Succulents are my favorites.
3. Unlike many Americans, at least the ones I know, I’m a rabid Monty Python addict.
4. While I am somewhat technologically challenged, I am nuts about the new and exciting electronic world in which we live. Anything geeky fascinates me.
5. I like to think of myself as an artist. People who’ve seen my paintings generally like them, but I’ve yet to paint one I didn’t hate.
6. I spent many of my formative years living with my Grandparents. Thanks to my Grandmother, I think I’m a pretty good story-teller.
7. I was raised in the countryside, but at heart I’ve always been a city boy. I’d like a country place to escape to at weekends, but I don’t think I’d ever be able to live without all the conveniences within easy walking (or driving) distance.
8. Thanks to my Father, Aaron Wright, I’ve always been a student of history. Living in Jordan is a dream-come-true for me.
9. I can speak or, at least read to one degree or another, Spanish, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Arabic. You may have guessed already I have a basic knowledge of English as well. I’m well fluent in Blarney.

10. I have Scots, English, German, and Irish ancestry. The Scot/Irish is the part that fascinates me most.

11. I only ever fainted once in my life. I was working in a mortuary. I knew we had two “guests” in the embalming room. As I shifted my position, I felt the cold hand of a third “guest” touching my “nether parts” and down I went. As long as I worked at that funeral home, I never lived that experience down!

Questions from Seumus Gallacher:

1.  What’s your earliest recollection of anything?

I was around three or four when I discovered a nest of newly hatched snakes in our front garden. My poor Mother discovered me playing with them and very nearly went into cardiac arrest. I think that just may have contributed in some small way to my irrational fear of them nearly sixty years later.

2.  How old were you when you were informed that Mister Claus may not be for real? And how did you take it?

I was ten. My older cousin, Tommy Wayne, felt compelled to disabuse me of my childish belief. I didn’t take it well at all and I still resent him for it.

3.  What was the first book that you absolutely hated?

Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations because my high school literature teacher spent more than six weeks dissecting and analyzing it to death. Many years later, I read it again and discovered I actually loved it. I think I’ve read it nearly ten times by now.

4.  Money or Love?

Love from someone with great piles of money.

5.  Fantasy holiday destination?

Ireland. Especially Clare and Galway.

6.  First kiss?

A party game of “spin the bottle” when I was around 13. It was the birthday of my neighbor’s cousin. Afterwards, I couldn’t see the attraction of it. Fortunately, I’ve come to appreciate it far more in the years since.

7.  Favourite funny person?

Hands down; John Cleese

8.  What kind of music, if any, makes you cry?

Damned near anything played by a pack of bagpipes. That sound gets to me like no other. Southern Gospel will sometimes do me in, too.

9.  If you could remove any three letters from the alphabet what would they be, and why?

E, K, and Z. E and K because they are difficult for me to draw in an attractive way, and I do appreciate good penmanship. In this new age of political correctness, should I be saying “penpersonship”? Z simply because it seems completely unnecessary.

10. Favourite animal/pet?

Parrot. Oh, the things I’d teach him to say…

11. If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to?

Patrick. It’s far more Irish than… Jim.

Questions for my nominees:

1. What scares you the most, and why?

2. What three possessions do you think you just can’t live without?

3. When signmakers go on strike, is anything written on their signs?

4. If you could be a character in any book you’ve ever read, who would you be and why?

5. If someone wrote a book about your life, what would be the title?

6. Would you prefer to spend life in prison or be executed? Why?

7. What got you in the most trouble when you were younger?

8. If you could be a religious or spiritual leader, who would it be? Why?

9. What or whom do you most miss from your childhood?

10. Grab the book nearest you. What is the first sentence of the third paragraph on page 12?

11. When did you last write a letter on paper and send it through the postal service?

My nominees are:

Jase Rosenberg

Genevieve Dewey

Afternoon Popcorn Snack

Terry 1954

A H Amin

A M Schultz

Jaraad 

Honoré Dupuis

Jan Urban

Joanne Phillips

Lada Ray