Game: Ask the Person Below You

[Clockwise]

Wanted to say a Hemingway code hero but must admit it's probably Kafka's K.

Do you read adventures / mysteries and, if so, who is your favorite author in this genre?

[Pendragon]

I don't really have just one: Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Peter Tremayne, John Dickerson Carr, James Gardner, Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, and more

Favorite Sci-Fi show?

[bounty]

Sherlock holmes is one of my top two favorite fictional characters, and ive read all the conan doyle stuff and many of the the contemporary authors and have really enjoyed laurie king and larry millet in that regard.

ive also enjoyed matthew reilly and james rollins in that genre. they both write what id call archaeological/thriller/adventure/mysteries with a military flavor. a little like Indiana jones I suppose.

also, but very different from the other two, lee child's jack reacher novels. jack reacher is an ex military cop who wanders the country falling into one adventure after another that always has some mystery behind it...and he's really really good at kicking the bad guys' behinds too!

if I had to read only one, itd be a battle between reilly and child, with maybe a slight nod to child but oh what to do with Sherlock!

if you've read westerns, who have you read and who's your favorite author?

and if you've not read westerns, how come not?

[bounty]

oh star trek for sure pendragon! probably the only actually.

if you've read westerns, who have you read and who's your favorite author?

and if you've not read westerns, how come not?

[Pompey Bum]

I've read Lonesome Dove, Butcher's Crossing, and Blood Meridian. I liked them all, but thought Blood Meridian had the most going for it as literature. So of those, Cormac McCarthy.

What ending of a novel would you most like to rewrite, and how would you have ended it?

[Pendragon]

Leaves of Grass

It would have began and ended with "Leaves of Grass in the dooryard bloomed."

Was it really any surprise that the character of Captain Kirk has never been allowed to actually die? This goes beyond movies and TV and into the official novels.

[bounty]

I was actually really happy pen, but yes a little surprised when after he died in star trek: generations, that he was brought back to life shortly afterwards in one of the books (the name escapes me) by some sort of alien resurrection technology.

one of my favorite lines in all of star trek is in the search for spock, when after faking the Klingons out and luring them onto the enterprise when the self destruct sequence was going, and the ship blew up, he said to dr McCoy, "my god bones, what have I done?" and dr McCoy said, "what you had to do, what you always do, turn death into a fighting chance for life." (or something really close)

and oh---I don't remember ever really being dissatisfied with the ending of a novel---what I think I would have done is, kept the ending of moby dick and rewritten everything up until that point!

what was your favorite best star trek original series character meeting the next generation series? (there was McCoy during the encounter at far point, kirk and picard in generations, spock and data and picard in reunification, sarek and picard in a couple of episodes, and scotty being rescued after 75 yrs in the transporter beam)

[Pompey Bum]

I liked the "Scotty on the transporter" episode because I thought it was a clever way to have kept the character around (and a typically clever trick of Ensign Scott). And okay, dammit, I didn't see a whole lot of the others.

If the Saudi oil fields were threatened (as, for example, by a war with Yemen), would the United States intervene with ground troops (not should it, would it)?

[Pendragon]

They shouldn't but the oil companies have enough influence that they probably would.

If Hitler had not wasted resources on his horrible fixation on eliminating the Jews, do you think Germany would have ruled the world?

[Pompey Bum]

No, not without a hell of a lot more oil, which is what he was doing in Stalingrad.

Which LiNetter would make the best president/prime minister?

[Clopin]

You of course. I would vote for Kiki or JBI as well.

If elected (you must serve) you have to pick your cabinet from litnet members, who gets what position?

[Pendragon]

Secretary of State: Madhuri AKA Memsahib
Secretary of the Treasury: TonyWalt
Secretary of Defense: Logos
Attorney General: Mona Amon
Secretary of Agriculture: Pompey Bum
Secretary of Commerce: Clopin
Secretary of Labor: YesNo
Secretary of Health and Human Services: Dark Muse
Secretary of House and Urban Development: Pensy
Secretary of Transportation: Bounty
Secretary of Energy: Papayahed, AKA Grover
Secretary of Education: Scheherazade
Secretary of Veteran's Affairs: Mtpspur
Secretary of Homeland Security: Captain Pike
Vice President: Virgil
Whitehouse Chief of Staff: AuntShecky
Director of The Office of Management and Budget: qimissung
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: Niamh, AKA The Froud Fairy
Trade Representative: Samercury
Ambassador to the United Nations: Ampoule, AKA Lady Amp
Chairman of The Council of Economic Advisers: Cacian
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: MotherHubbard

This one was hard!

If you ran for President, which party would you represent?

[Pompey Bum]

Secretary of Agriculture: Pompey Bum

Very funny. I appoint you Undersecretary of Bullsh*t .

If you ran for President, which party would you represent?

Art Linkletter's House Party?

Who was the best Monty Python?

[bounty]

in my position as secretary of transportation, can I make bike paths everywhere?? laughs...

oh good question---I couldn't say "best" but rather who I enjoyed the most.

I know I loved how they often had terry jones playing a woman. his portrayals always cracked me up.

I enjoyed them all, id go with slight nod to john cleese.

asked this one before---whats the funniest scene in holy grail?

[Clopin]

Chairman of The Council of Economic Advisers: Cacian

haha, flawless plan.

And it has to be the duck/witch scene from start to finish, so many good lines.