The Bakerina has bestowed five questions upon me.

1. What brought you to the study of rhetoric?
Coincidence. Luck. Good advice.

When I went back to school at 21, I was an English major. The English and Rhetoric Departments had split about five years before that in a division not unlike a Southern Baptist church split. In other words, the twain rarely met. But I needed to declare a minor, and since I did a lot of technical writing in my job it made sense to pick Professional and Technical Writing. That program was housed in Rhetoric. I took some classes, and at one point Barry Maid asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said I wanted to teach literature at the college level. He asked me if I wanted to ever actually have a job or make any money, and explained the state of the Literature job market to me.

The next year I met with Rich Raymond, who did all the undergrad advising even though he also bore all the duties of Department Chair, and he pointed out that I had enough hours left in my degree to do a double major. So I did. And at some point along the line, I figured out that I was more inclined toward the study of Rhetoric than Literature. I adore novels and poems and plays and short stories, but I much prefer to enjoy them and put them back on the shelf rather than pull them apart to see how all the parts work. On the other hand, there's nothing I like better than dissecting everyday texts and the problems that surround them, and that eventually led me to graduate school and a specialty in intellectual property issues. And now here I am.

2. Which of Mister Husband's signature dishes is your favorite?
Well, the spicy beef is definitely a favorite, but I already blogged it the other day. So, having eliminated that... Mister Husband makes two things that I adore and do not cook myself. One involves flinging things together, but the flinging must done correctly: tacos. He makes proper, hardcore tacos pollo and tacos cerdo. These consist of lightly griddled corn tortillas, spicy meat, roughly chopped onion and cilantro, and salsa verde. The second dish is the opposite of flinging. He makes amazing ice cream using a process that involves beakers, metric measures and darkroom thermometers.

3. What is the most satisfying moment you've ever had as a teacher?
The ones who stay in touch are pretty satisfying. Those times when everyone is actually fully engaged in a discussion are awesome. Watching my Internet Tools & Issues students study IP issues this semester and seeing the light bulbs click on has been a lot of fun. But this still ranks as one of the all-time most satisfying moments in my short career.

4. Obligatory Music Nerd Question: If you could only have one Minutemen song on your music device of choice, would you pick "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?", "Courage" or "I Felt Like a Gringo"?
One Minutemen song??? OK. “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” is a default song around the house, but I’ve been put off my feed since I just saw a TV ad that featured Rod Stewart singing it. I can’t listen to “I Feel Like a Gringo” every day for the rest of my life, because it would depress me too much. So out of that list, it would have to be “Courage.” Unless it was “Jesus and Tequila.” Or “History Lesson Pt. 2.”

If the device is a video iPod, then it would be the video for “This Ain’t No Picnic.”

Unless it was one of the extras from We Jam Econo. Specifically, one of the songs from the Acoustic Blowout set, which is so gorgeous and tight.

My dear Jen, this is an entirely impossible question for me, even though you thoughtfully limited the variables.

5. You once wrote a post in which you compared the tag end of the long Minnesota winter to The Shining, with highly-strung, excruciatingly polite people being just one step away from unleashing rivers of blood at the supermarket; if you were given the opportunity to make this movie, complete with unlimited, Gilliam-esque budget, who would you cast in the starring roles?

I think this would be a short film that has one central character, and everyone else is an extra who’s a gonna die. Like One Hour Photo, only way more so, with no objects of fixation, and about one-quarter as long, which would be not at all like One Hour Photo, but perhaps you get my drift. If the lead was a guy, it’d have to be Philip Seymour Hoffman. I think he could do a polite, contained, secretly murderous Swede very well. His sort of face is fairly common around here. If the central character was a woman — which might be much more interesting— then, hmmm.... Claire Danes? (The Hours Claire Danes mixed with some Terminator 3 Claire Danes, not My So-Called Life Claire Danes.) Her facial features are also fairly common in the parts, and she does contained well. I’d say Frances McDormand, but there’s the whole Fargo thing. (Although what would happen if Marge Gunderson finally did lose her shit?)

Also, Steve Buscemi would have to cameo, because there’s a law that says Steve Buscemi has to be in every movie about the upper midwest, especially if they’re creepy. Seriously.

If you want to play, let me know in the comments. I’ll send you five questions to be answered at your leisure.