Pop Quiz by Valerie Thompson
1.   What is your name?	Valerie Thompson
2.   How old are you?	19
3.   Where do you live?	Harrah, Oklahoma
4.  What do you do for a living?	journalism/psychology student
5.   Do you drive?	Oh yes
6.   What do you do for joy?	Read, write, fuck, listen to music
7.   What is your pet peeve?   And how much does it weigh?  Does it sleep by the door?  Is it housebroken?	sexism/racism...no...no...
8.   Do you write, paint or play?  All at the same time?  (While juggling a dozen eggs and riding a unicycle?)	I write, paint my fingernails and play the clarinet, sax and piano -- no unicycle involved. Eggs disgust me.
9.   Who is the most impressive character you've ever met?	My papa
10.   Have you ever read, acted, performed, thrown up, etc. in public?	I've only read my work in creative writing courses/workshops. I once played the virgin Mary in a church play (hehehe) and was also the narrator for my second grade's production of Peter Rabbit. I've never puked in public.
11.  What piece of literature or art moved your soul to ecstatic waves of bliss?	Pretty much anything by the Beatles/Lennon, Dylan, the Stones, the Doors, "America" by Allen Ginsberg, "Love Song" by Rainer Maria Rilke, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey, "A River Runs Through It", "Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, "On the Road", "Maggie Cassidy", "Visions of Cody", "The First Third", the Cassady issue of "Spit in the Ocean", recordings of Kerouac/Ginsberg reading pretty much anything, a reading I attended by Czelslaw Milosz
12.  What was the first thing you ever encountered that made you realise that art is important?	My father is an artist, so I've always known the importance of art -- had a mini-revelation when I heard the White Album for the first time.
13.  Would you consider yourself an artist?  A good one?  Why or why not?	I do consider myself an artist, because it's what I do...it's what I love. I think I have talent, but I'm still working to develop it.
14.  What are your favorite things that have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with anything else?	dolphins, the moon, rain, little notebooks, purple ink, my papa's vegetable garden, coffee, darkness, candles, incense, oil lamps, old letters, old family pictures
15.  What are your favorite things that have ABSOLUTELY everything to do with everything else?	books, writing, old rock 'n roll/jazz records, my sweetie, my Siberian Husky, my German/Polish heritage, old family stories, Beatles/Lennon music, journalism, psychology
16.  What's the meaning of life?	lieben und arbeiten -- to love and to work
17.  Why?	"Go find your soul," -Kerouac-
18.  True or false: the Three Stooges represent the apex of American cultural achievement.	False. Abbott and Costello were WAY cooler.
19.  True or False: Shemp was funnier than the original Curly.	I dunno...
20.  Who's da man?	Neal Cassady, always.