David Dayen, a blogger at Calitics and Hullaballoo, was born in Philadelphia and moved to California in 1998. Before taking the stage at the Autry National Center to chat about whether California should be its own country, Dayen told us a bit more about himself.
Q. What’s the last habit you tried to kick?
A. Trying to get through the mass of media that used to come into my house, newspapers, magazines, stacks and stacks and stacks. I finally said I’m ending my subscriptions.
Q. Who was your childhood hero?
A. Mike Schmidt because I was into sports, but my personal hero is my father. He has worked from the time he was 13. He came from nothing and raised a family and was able to give us everything we needed.
Q. What do you consider to be the greatest simple pleasure?
A. A bowl of pho and a book to read on Sunday afternoon.
Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a typical Saturday?
A. In bed, and if not there, we just remodeled our house so I’m probably at Home Depot.
Q. What do you do to clear your mind?
A. Sudoku.
Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?
A. I do have a slight fear of heights, so daredevil stuff like skydiving.
Q. What is your favorite word?
A. Kiefer Sutherland said his favorite word was gravitas. That’s my favorite answer to the question, so that works for me.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. I want to go everywhere, but I would probably go back to Argentina. I have some family from there and I really want to see Iguazu Falls.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. The Peace Corps or some sort of social work.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Screwdriver, or, every now and again, a Long Island Iced Tea.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most want to meet for dinner?
A. Anyone from the Monty Python troupe, living and dead.
To learn more about Dayen’s panel at Zócalo, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.