our favorite things (besides cryptos)

[LLapp]

Oh, Fudi, I'm so happy to hear that you made it to the Wharton Esherick Museum, and that LLapp was your docent! How special is that?! The photos from the website look amazing. One day maybe I'll make it there.

Eureka, it was indeed special! Not mere coincidence, though; Ms. Fudi and I arranged it in advance. And wow, what a great group!! I've led hundreds of tours through Esherick's house, but only occasionally do I get a group with so many interesting questions and observations. I actually lost count of the cool details that the Fudi folk and others in the group pointed out that I had never noticed before. When that happens even once in a tour, it makes my day. Yesterday was a beautiful experience.

To anyone here - let me know if you ever want me to take you through the place. I'd be happy to. (See comment #3 in this thread for details and links.)

[gavinl]

HI All...Never posted anything though I've been doing these cryptograms for a few years now. I enjoy reading the comments and seeing the various personalities of fellow players revealed. There are some very witty people here. As for favourite things...music would be my biggest love. I can generally find something interesting in most genres. I've played in bands for 35 years so I've had a wide exposure to lots of styles...but at the moment I'm pretty much exclusively listening to classical. This has been such a revelation for me. As for favourites, too many to note, but The Beatles will always be top of my list. Wilco (from Chicago) is probably my favourite American band. For TV, mostly like to be distracted with comedy...The Simpsons would be my favourite, though it's not as funny as the earlier seasons and I've been enjoying Brooklyn Nine Nine lately. For movies, I generally like epic fantasy/sci-fi or dystopian futures. I do enjoy the theatre..the last show I saw was The Book of Mormon, which I thought was brilliant.

[nedzeppelin1453]

Great post, Fudi! Although I feel like I've gotten to know some fellow crypto addicts through the comments, it's great to learn a little more.

I love hardboiled detective stories, and my favorite is The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. In terms of more recent writers I'm a fan of Jasper Fforde, who writes very clever comedy/mysteries and Emily St. John Mandel, whose books I've never made it through without tearing up (with a long e sound). I like classic movies, and my favorites are Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia. In terms of visual art, I love Surrealism and the Bauhaus; my favorites are Magritte, Kandinsky, and Feininger. I listen to a lot of music genres, mostly from the 50s-80s, but my favorites are the Beatles, Parliament/Funkadelic, and Jacques Brel (Belgian singer and songwriter not too well known in the U.S.)