Categorical Favorites (Part One)

As Oscar Hammerstein wrote:

“When the dog bites, when the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad”

Here, by category, are some things that make me smile:

• Animated character: Edna from The Incredibles (Of course, “Dahling!” Who did you think?)

• Animals: Ring-tailed Lemurs

• Smell: The scent of spaghetti cooking at a nearby campsite in a grove of redwood trees (Runner up: Sidewalk after rain)

• Foreign Film: Amelie

• Place I’ve Been: Westminster Abbey

• Place I’d Like to Visit: Angkor Wat

• Childhood Memory: Riding in a jet boat so fast that my eyes watered and tears flew horizontally back past my temples

• Mathematician: Paul Erdös

• Painting: La flèche de Zénon by René Magritte

• Object I’ve Seen: The Rosetta Stone

• Mathematical Idea: Infinities come in different sizes.

• Scientific Idea: Time Travel

• Part of Nature: Water flowing in a river

• Statement by My Youngest Child (7): “Mom, it’s really hard to think about when God started.”

• Math Joke: “There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don’t.”

• Way to Spend Time: Engaging in a great conversation

What makes YOU smile?