“A crank is a person with strong feelings about too many topics.”
— Marcia Brom Smith
1. Favorite Professional Sports Franchise: Kansas City Royals
2. Favorite Breakfast Cereal: Puffed Rice
3. Favorite Classic Car: 1973 Corvette Stingray T-Top
4. Favorite Warplane (Propeller Conference, American Division): P-38 Lightning
5. Favorite Warplane (Propeller Conference, Foreign Division): Supermarine Spitfire
6. Favorite Warplane (Jet Conference, American Division): F-4 Phantom II
7. Favorite Warplane (Jet Conference, Foreign Division): Saab JA-37 Viggen
8. Favorite Commercial Airplane: Bombardier CRJ900
9. Favorite Progressive Rock Album: Tarkus by Emerson, Lake and Palmer
10. Favorite Metal Album: Time Waits for No Slave by Napalm Death
11. Favorite Jazz Album: Iron Man by Eric Dolphy
12. Favorite Synthesizer: Prophet-5
13. Favorite Frozen Pizza: Newman’s Own Thin and Crispy Four Cheese Pizza
14. Favorite Bottled/Canned Pasta Sauce: Muir Glen Portabello Mushroom Pasta Sauce
15. Favorite All-Purpose Seasoning: Old Bay Seasoning
16. Favorite Album to Listen to When Going to Bed (Alone): The Broadsword and the Beast by Jethro Tull
17. Favorite Albums to Listen to When Going to Bed (With Company): Ça Va by Slapp Happy
18. Favorite Restaurant (Local Division): River Street Cafe, Troy, New York
19. Favorite Restaurant (National Division): Cafe Marquesa, Key West, Florida
20. Favorite Restaurant (International Division): Hotel Búðir, Búðir, Iceland
21. Favorite Manned Spacecraft (American Division): McDonnell Gemini Spacecraft
22. Favorite Manned Spacecraft (International Division): Soyuz TMA
23. Favorite Planet: Saturn
24. Favorite Minor Planet: Pluto
25. Favorite Natural Satellite: Enceladus
26. Favorite Man-made Satellite (Earth Orbit Division): Echo 2
27. Favorite Man-made Satellite (Non-Earth Orbit Division): Cassini
28. Favorite Regional Golf Course: Winding Brook Country Club, Valatie, New York
29. Favorite Professional Hockey Team: Washington Capitals
30. Favorite Professional Basketball Team: Washington Wizards
31. Favorite Professional Football Team (American Division): Tennessee Titans
32. Favorite Professional Football Team (Canadian Division): Saskatchewan Roughriders
33. Favorite Animal (Mammal Division): Three-Toed Sloth
34. Favorite Animal (Likable Bird Division): Great Blue Heron
35. Favorite Animal (Grumpy Bird Division): Common Grackle
36. Favorite Animal (Invertebrate Division): Mantis Shrimp
37. Favorite Animal (Extinct Division): Trilobites
38. Favorite Protist: Euglena
39. Favorite Poetry Collection: Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
40. Favorite Poem: “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
41. Favorite Song Lyric as Poetry (Songs That Should Be Played at My Funeral Division): “The Black Angel’s Death Song” by Lou Reed
42. Favorite Song Lyric as Poetry (Songs That Should Not Be Played at My Funeral Division): “Mutiny in Heaven” by Nick Cave
43. Favorite Visual Artist (Living): Douglass Truth
44. Favorite Visual Artist (Not Living): Joan Miró
45. Favorite Internet Browner: Firefox by Mozilla
46. Favorite Bloggers (Three-Way Tie): Chris Molla, Rob Heinsoo, Mikalee Byerman
47. Favorite Magazine: The Economist
48. Favorite Local Charity: AIDS Council of Northeastern New York
49. Favorite Shoes: Bass Weejuns
50. Favorite Skyscraper: Chrysler Building
51: Favorite Band: It’s complicated . . .
J. ERIC SMITH 
Pingback: Best Of . . . What? « INDIE ALBANY
Hmmm, based on Marcia’s definition, I’m not yet a crank. I am in training, so there’s hope for me yet.
I don’t see vegetable. That would be important.
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Favorite Vegetable: Okra. Preferably fried in corn meal. With a side of country ham.
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I’m always interested in the Mitchell Field pics. I’m pretty sure the cops do driver training on that old stretch of runway. http://goo.gl/maps/pDPL
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Yeah, I saw that aerial view too . . . I can’t tell whether or not they’ve abandoned it at this point, since a lot of the course had knocked over or missing pylons . . . maybe just from a tough winter.
If you pan over on that aerial view at the detailed level to the parade grounds in the middle of the base, you can see the Nassau Community College Lacrosse Team in action at bottom left (southwest) corner!
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I spent a lot of time thinking about the favorite protist category, actually . . . it was a toss-up between Euglena (linked above) and Volvox.
I’m still not sure I made the right choice. I might have to subdivide that one into two categories:
38a. Favorite Protist (sort of like an animal): Euglena
38b. Favorite Protist (sort of like a plant): Volvox
This will probably keep me up tonight, wondering if I made the right choice. I’ll be sure to wake you up at 4 AM to discuss further . . . .
Love you too!
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The exact conversation went as follows:
Me: You are a crank.
You: Why am I a crank?
Me: Because you have strong opinions about too many things.
This list provides all the evidence I need to prove this point.
Only a crank has 4 categories of favorite warplane, 5 types of favorite albums, 5 types of favorite animals and a favorite protist, whatever the hell that is.
Love you and your weirdness.
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Um, ‘scuse me, but Jupiter is SO much cooler than Saturn. Just sayin’…
And WOW! I’m honored to have made your list. Thank you so much — you’re now my favorite blogger who has included me as one of his three favorite bloggers on his “51 Favorite” list. Of all time. As of today.
😉
Seriously: humbled and honored. Thank you!
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I must admit that I did have to mull the Jupiter vs Saturn conundrum . . . but when I included their entire planetary SYSTEMS in my calculation, the scale tipped in Saturn’s direction, since its rings are just so much sexier, and Enceladus has replaced Europa as the most cool place where strange space critters might live in my book. Plus it has a weird hexagon at one pole and an obscene looking vortex at the other pole. So there’s that . . .
Glad to be a reader of your blog . . . keep up the great writing in face of psycho adversity!
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I can’t do books or movies in a list of less than 25 . . . too many variables, too many nuances . . .
Songbird, I’d probably go with Northern Mockingbird.
The best bike I’ve ever owned was/is my 1984 Bianchi Specialissima.
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Fascinating list– but personally, I’m a huge fan of the A-10 Thunderbolt.
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The Warthog is a fine, if supremely unattractive, airbeast.
For sheer elegance of form, at the opposite end of the spectrum, it’s hard to not be awed by the SR-71 Blackbird . . .
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I built one of those. It was most likely later blown up behind a shed in Carle Place.
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Ha! I actually have an Estes SR-71 Model I built in my office . . . I launched it a couple of times, but it took enough effort that I actually decided to save it, and blew up some other things instead.
I drove by the Ham and Eggery last weeked a couple of times, but out schedule got squashed for a variety of reasons, so I didn’t get to have Sunday breakfast there. Foo.
I did get some awesome snaps in and around Mitchel Field, though . . . http://www.flickr.com/photos/19378052@N06/sets/72157626399821001/ . . . an interesting surprise when I went to walk the last major surviving piece of runway . . .
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This is magnificent.
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