I recall Sesame Street with tremendous fondness. I always had an especially soft spot for Ze Count (”vun bat, two bats!”), but I loved Cookie Monster too, and the gentle Mr Snuffleupagus. Mind you, I’d have to love a beastie with such a wonderfully onomatopoeic name. Don’t worry, I had to use the spell check for that one. *blush*
I was reminded of those days of sticky little fingers when I came across this online interview with Cookie Monster. Go and watch, it’s the sweetest thing. Persevere through the short ad beforehand. The interviewer asks Cookie Monster a number of questions from the “Proust Questionnaire” and I got the strongest sense of deja vue when I heard them.
Then I remembered. Not long after I first signed with Ellora’s Cave, I did an interview with Just Erotic Romance Reviews and they asked a couple of the Proust questions. Here are all the questions Cookie Monster was asked and I’ve included my answers to ones from the JERR interview. The whole JERR interview is here on my website if you’re curious about the rest of it. Seems a long time ago now…
1. What is your favourite word?
2. What is your least favourite word?
3. What sound do you love?
An operatic baritone like Bryn Terfel reduces me to a puddle. Gotta love a man who can sing! Then there’s that chirrup of greeting cats offer to a beloved human. So sweet.
4. What sound do you hate?
Angry shouting - and it’s worse if the combatants are drunk.
5. What is your favourite curse word?
[I must admit, I thought long and hard about how to answer this one. So does Cookie Monster.]
Aussies aren’t known for being mealy-mouthed, so I’m afraid I let rip with all the usual obscenities, but my favorite cussword is “Pox!” You can say it in almost any company and it has a lovely virulent edge to it. Muttering “pox-rotted trollop” at some idiot (don’t care about gender) always relieves my feelings. Very eighteenth century.
6. Who would you like to see on a new dollar bill?
7. What profession other than your own, would you least like to do?
8. If you were reincarnated as some other animal or plant, what would it be?
9. If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you as you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
I hope She’ll say something like - “Not bad for a first try, little one. Want another go?”
I’d love to hear your responses to any or all of these questions. They’re interesting, aren’t they? And quite revealing too.Clever guy, that Proust.
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I had not known that those questions were called the “Proust Questionnaire” - since they have been used by two very intelligent talk show hosts over the last 20+ years - first by Bernard Pivot on the French interview show Apostrophe, and more relevant to the English-speaking world, by James Lipton (who unashamedly borrowed the questions from his idol, Pivot) on the one-to-one interview show, Inside The Actor’s Studio, which is produced by and airs on the American cable channel Bravo. Lipton and ITAS have become something of a cultural Zeitgeist, and the questions asked at the end of the interview are now used by many others - including the magazine Vanity Fair.
So, I did a little Wikipedia research, and found that the Proust Questionnaire is actually quite different from the Pivot/Lipton questions that you, Cookie Monster, and thousands of other interview subjects have been asked. In fact, the questionnaire is wrongly attributed to Marcel Proust, and none of the nine questions posited are on the questionnaire he wrote and answered. For a list of his actual questions, see this article.
But that being said, I’d love to answer the questions:
1. What is your favourite word? Palimpsest
2. What is your least favourite word? Diet
3. What sound do you love? It’s a tie – a children’s choir or bagpipes playing Amazing Grace
4. What sound do you hate? Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy – and mommy ignoring her child
5. What is your favourite curse word? Ballocks!
6. Who would you like to see on a new dollar bill? (Not a Pivot/Lipton question, BTW) Eleanor Roosevelt
7. What profession other than your own, would you least like to do? Actuary
8. If you were reincarnated as some other animal or plant, what would it be?(Another question that isn’t on the Pivot/Lipton or Proust questionnaire) Golden Retriever
9. If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you as you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Here’s your library card
Thanks for a great blog post!
Hi Denise,
1. What is your favourite word? SOLUTIONS
2. What is your least favourite word? CAN’T & HATE
3. What sound do you love? MY SON READING
4. What sound do you hate? PEOPLE SCREAMING
5. What is your favourite curse word? F**K–I KNOW POTTY MOUTH
6. Who would you like to see on a new dollar bill? DONE LIKE THE NEW 5′S, 10′S, 20′S, 50′S, 100′S
7. What profession other than your own, would you least like to do? GARBAGE COLLECTOR OR FAST FOOD
8. If you were reincarnated as some other animal or plant, what would it be? TIGER OR WOLF
9. If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you as you arrive at the Pearly Gates? WE SCREWED UP IT WAS THE ONE NEXT TO YOU, SO WE ARE SENDING YOU BACK TO WHEN YOU WERE 21 TO START OVER!!!!
I had to think about these.
Have a great day,
Susan
What a great questionnaire.
1. What is your favourite word? Trollop
2. What is your least favourite word? Awry
3. What sound do you love? Rain on a tin roof
4. What sound do you hate? Motorbikes
5. What is your favourite curse word? Bullshit
6. Who would you like to see on a new dollar bill? (Not a Pivot/Lipton question, BTW) Bob Dylan
7. What profession other than your own, would you least like to do? Bus Driver
8. If you were reincarnated as some other animal or plant, what would it be?(Another question that isn’t on the Pivot/Lipton or Proust questionnaire) Giraffe
9. If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you as you arrive at the Pearly Gates? The bar has just opened.
Thanks for doing the research, Lita. Isn’t it interesting how things get altered as they’re passed along? Like the game we used to call Chinese Whispers.
Now this is downright spooky.
In my Pentacle universe, there is a world called Palimpsest. I chose the word because of it’s one of my favourites - not only the sound of it, but the meaning. (A palimpsest is a manuscript page, whether from scroll or book that has been written on, scraped off, and used again. Usually medieval. More here, on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsest)
I don’t quite know how yet, but the Muse tells me this meaning will be important later on. And as it happens, I am currently immersed in Palimpsest, writing the second book in the Four-Sided Pentacle series. My novella, Rubies and Black Velvet in the UNLACED anthology, gives you a glimpse of this world. http://www.deniserossetti.com/unlaced.html I’m very happy there!
And last, you see Heaven as an endless library? Oh, I love, LOVE it! Well, I would, wouldn’t I? *chuckle*
Susan, I have a thing about tigers too. wolves not so much, though they’re admirable creatures in many ways. But tigers? Oh yes. They represent many things to me, power, beauty, self-sufficiency - a paw the size of a dinner plate. My Grandad used to go tiger shooting for sport in India. He was a good and decent human being. It was a different world then.
And yes, you do have to think about them don’t you? Thought-provoking questions.
Ah, Danielle, I learned “poxy trollop!” from you. Wonderful, wonderful term of abuse. Has real class, IMO.
I love rain on a tin roof too, something quintessentially Australian about that. But a giraffe??
Are you sure?? 
1. What is your favourite word? Green
2. What is your least favourite word? purulent
3. What sound do you love? water babbling over rocks
4. What sound do you hate? Chalk squeaking on blackboard
5. What is your favourite curse word? Crap
6. Who would you like to see on a new dollar bill? (Not a Pivot/Lipton question, BTW) Freddie Mercury (and the rest of Queen)
7. What profession other than your own, would you least like to do? Podiatrist - all those skanky toe nails
8. If you were reincarnated as some other animal or plant, what would it be?(Another question that isn’t on the Pivot/Lipton or Proust questionnaire) Black Labrador
9. If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you as you arrive at the Pearly Gates? How the hell did this happen? (staring pensively at his clipboard).
1. What is your favourite word? Success
2. What is your least favourite word? Can’t
3. What sound do you love? Kookaburras laughing in the early morning
4. What sound do you hate? Thumpy music
5. What is your favourite curse word? Not sure I have one - no one close to me remembers me swearing (sweet things).
6. Who would you like to see on a new dollar bill? Oscar Wilde
7. What profession other than your own, would you least like to do? Carer for the aged and infirm (the old people are fine, it’s the infirm bit I wouldn’t like)
8. If you were reincarnated as some other animal or plant, what would it be? Ivy - in the right conditions - unstoppable.
9. If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you as you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Welcome home, boss.
1. What is your favourite word? Wench
2. What is your least favourite word? F..k - when used as a profanity especially at little children.
3. What sound do you love? Storms, rolling thunder, rain on a tin roof
4. What sound do you hate? People Fighting- anger
5. What is your favourite curse word? Sh.t(under extreme circumstances)
6. Who would you like to see on a new dollar bill? May Gibbs
7. What profession other than your own, would you least like to do? PrimeMinister
8. If you were reincarnated as some other animal or plant, what would it be? A mermaid if possible. Save all those hunky pirate captains and sailors.
9. If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you as you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Straight to the Art department Missy, there’s a few reubens that need some work…
Fi, a black lab is totally “you”. And you’d have to be sure to land with owners as loving as you are with your dogs. Also independently wealthy for all those vet bills.
Freddie and Queen on the dollar bill? OMG, I love it!
You know, Elaine, when I read over your answers, I think I discern a plan for World Domination.
Unstoppable ivy? “Welcome home, boss.”??? No wonder you’ve accomplished so much in your life!
Hi there, Mary, you wench you!
Couldn’t agree more about being the PM. The thought of undertaking any high public office fills me with horror. The incredible responsibility, together with all those people criticising and hating your guts - not to mention the difficulty of hanging onto your moral principles in the face of the ugly realities of world power. Yuck! 
Hi Denise, I thought these were familiar - from the Inside Actor’s Studio (well most as Lita discovered). BTW - Cookie Monster - my favourite all time Sesame Street character. Love his responses to 1) and 2)!! cracked me up…..
1. What is your favourite word? D’Oh! (ok not really a word). It makes me laugh. As well as the word ‘bullsh*t” (i even bought my dad for his birthday a ‘bullsh*t’ button - has 5 different sayings…. like ‘warning, warning, this is a bullsh*t alert! Take precaustions).
2. What is your least favourite word? it’s actually a greek word - tsoula (equiv. to slut)
3. What sound do you love? My godson calling me Nouna (godmother).
4. What sound do you hate? cats fighting/being amorous near my window.
5. What is your favourite curse word? I have a whole list - but F*ck would have to top it.
6. Who would you like to see on a new dollar bill? Joss Whedon - Buffyverse, Firefly verse….what more can I say?!!
7. What profession other than your own, would you least like to do? Anything from the Dirty Jobs program - eewwww!
8. If you were reincarnated as some other animal or plant, what would it be? unicorn with wings (hey i can hope can’t i?) Tiger.
9. If Heaven exists, what would you like God to say to you as you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Can I have your autograph? (hee hee) No? Then - ‘You’ll have plenty of time to tackle the TBR pile’.
Eleni, I think Joss Whedon would be fabulous to have on the dollar bill. What a brilliant storyteller that man is! And I love your idea of Heaven - an endless TBR pile of great book. Yeah, mama!
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