writing prompts

Courtesy of Mikal Belicove:

Q1: How do you feel about television, newspaper, magazine, or web site news reports that rely wholly or in part on ‘unnamed’ sources?

It’s acceptable in many cases, if there is follow-up reporting that supports the information from the source. The exception would be where the unnamed source does something illegal, like exposing Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, which compromised her ability to do her job and placed dozens of other CIA operatives in danger. In that case, the source should have been revealed and prosecuted, along with the reporter who helped commit the crime.

Q2: Do you think there should be government-mandated drug-testing for anyone who plays sports professionally?

Not at all. If the people who own and run the sports teams want to test their players, it should be up to them to do so. There’s no reason whatsoever that the government should have anything to do with it. Why on earth should the government care about testing sports figures, any more than they should care about testing me for drug use? Really, who gives a crap if some baseball player’s on steroids? It’s not as though the fate of the free world rests on whether Jose Conseco hit a homer or not. (He is a baseball player, right?)

Q3: When you prepare to eat a hamburger or a sandwich, do you prefer to cut the burger or sandwich in half before eating it, or are you okay eating it whole?

I eat them whole, unless I feel like they’re too big and are going to fall apart in my hands.

Q4: Restaurants are notorious for charging a 15-18% gratuity on groups of eight or more. Are you in favor of this practice or would you prefer to tip the wait staff yourself based on how you feel they handled your table/group?

It’s okay by me; I can understand why they do it… I used to be roommates with a waiter, so I know how hard they work and how easily they get screwed over by assholes who don’t bother to leave tips. Large parties make it very easy for jerks to get away with that sort of thing. You would not believe some of the tipping horror stories my roommate suffered through. The best were the ones on Sundays: no one ever wanted to work on Sunday lunches, because the Christians were terrible tippers. They’d come in after church with their strollers and children in tow, create mess, noise, havoc and broken dishes wherever they went, and then leave a religious pamphlet on the table as a “tip” instead of money. What would Jesus do, indeed. He wouldn’t do that.