I’m minding my own business when TK apologizes for whacking me with one of those what-did-we-do-before-the-Internet? things (which, in Internet World, is a “meme”):

  1. Answer this question: if you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?
  2. Pick 6 people and give them this award. You then have to inform each that she has gotten this award.
  3. Thank the person who gave you the award.

A bit ago Facebook has a meme in which people listed something like 25-things-people-don’t-know-about-me which I found in some cases quite interesting because I found, well, things I didn’t know about some folks, not like favorite colors but important stuff. Such can be a useful exercise.

Anyhow, here’s my response to this meme.

Cha-cha-cha-cha-changes

Apply to Stanford Law School. The longest stretch in which I’ve not slept in either New York or Westchester County is 14 days. I’m not the adventurous sort — in contrast to my brother who’s spent significant time all over the world — and college and grad school provide the chance to physically go to a new place. Had I gone to California for law school, I could always have returned to New York to practice, but at least would have had a great new experience. (Indeed, for the first time someone in my immediate family is attending school outside of the east coast; my niece is at Stanford B School.)

Of course, my life would be different in a fundamental way; although I met my wife in college I solidified the relationship in law school. And there’s something to be said about having had, getting back to running, the chance to live fifty yards from Central Park while I was in and for years after law school. (The item in the “Here’s To You” link? We heard that concert in our living room and stopped by the night before during rehearsal, which we heard as we came home from the market.) Nor did my legal education suffer for staying in New York.

So to the if-you-could-would-you? question, the answer is no.

Running-wise, my regret is not trying to run for a Division 1 college. I attended Manhattanville College (where, as noted, I met my wife) and we had a rag-tag cross-country team in my first three years. I don’t know if I was good enough to run in Division 1 — the half and the mile would be my events if I were — but I’d like to have given it a shot. Back in 1974, things were not as they are today with all sorts of information available about such opportunities. Running was important to me then, but I never did connect the dots to figure it out.

For the record, I ran off-and-on in college and picked it up again during my first year of law school. And on day 2 of the NY Bar exam in July 1981, which I took at Columbia, I wore shorts and a t-shirt, finished early, and ran home through Central Park.

Here’s To You

I’m going entirely with the running world here. If you’ve done a road relay, you know how important it is to have an interesting, varied gang of six in a van. You could do worse than the following, and you could hardly do better:

  1. Dave
  2. Ewen
  3. Flo
  4. Herb
  5. Julie
  6. Robert

Each is interesting, articulate, honest, curious, and athletic.

Who Are You?

The deal is that I must “thank” the donor of this honor. “TK” means “to come” in the publishing biz (if you’re reading this in 2012 or later, that was an industry that made books (Google it) and, no, it had nothing to do with public houses (except in the getting of inspiration)), but TK has arrived. If she has a deficiency as a blogger it is the infrequency of her posts (and the frequency of her use of “fuck”). If you don’t read her stuff, you should.

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