Last week we gave you a taste of the CR staff’s nonliterary talents (it turns out that in addition to being experts at polishing manuscripts for publication, we’ve got mad skillz in quite a few different areas). Today, the fun continues. To give you another deeper look into the CR family, we extracted (using gentle voices and promises of Tootsie Rolls) some more highly classified, super-secret talents:
Senior Associate Editor Matt O’Keefe: I’m too modest/embarrassed to reveal all my secret talents, but here are a few of the more interesting ones: beekeeping, urban trapeze, cat whisperment, “baking,” and also, I do a killer but PG-13 karaoke version of Britney Spears’s “If U Seek Amy,” where I play up the seeming incongruity of Britney using the word “seek.”
Editorial Assistant Michael Peterson: Before becoming the unbridled reading force that I am now, I toiled in various metal shops as a welder and fabricator. Strangely common customer request: Could you weld a bottle opener to my bike seat? Yes. Yes I could.
Associate Editor Lisa Ampleman: I am a pretty organized person. One example: When I go grocery shopping, I create the shopping list in the order of my movement through the store. I also have a great memory for detail sometimes; I can tell you what day of the week we had lunch together and what we were wearing. My husband thinks it’s scary and says it’ll get him into trouble someday.
Oh, what these chopsticks can do--in the hands of Brian Trapp.
Editorial Assistant Lisa Summe: Couldn’t think of any talents outside of school. Had to ask outside sources. Apparently I’m the best at finding the most coveted colored pants. I have two pairs that glow in black light. Pants are my favorite accessory; I have over 20 pairs.
Assistant Editor Brian Trapp: Growing up, I was never allowed to have a drum set in the house. So after college, when I went to China to teach English, one of my first executive decisions was to purchase a drum set. I formed a blues band with other ex-pats. We would often hang out in bars with music instruments on stage just waiting to be played. One problem: There were usually no drumsticks. So I would go to the nearest restaurant and borrow their heaviest pair of chopsticks. I brought them back cracked or bent, but the guitar solos had a solid backing beat. The drum rolls were harder, but the chopsticks came in handy for late-night stir fry.
