Oh, James Say You Didn't Meme It.

Imagine our surprise when we stumbled over to our little electronic window on the world today, brushed away the empty Cheetos bags, flipped the switch and brought down upon us the bodacious internet tubes, only to find out we'd been tagged.

Now, we'd be the first to admit that we aren't a bunch of what you might call technomages here in the marbled halls of IM Central, in fact we actually did think the internets were a bunch of dump trucks until Senator Stevens straightened us out. Still, we are vaguely familiar with this whole tagging thing where one blog calls out another blog to perform some sort of exercise--usually something that can be accomplished without violating any local ordinances, or causing Michelle Malkin to retire to the fainting couch with a case of the vapors. Leave aside for the moment why anyone would want to publicly admit they know about the existence of this blog.

So, James has thrown us a challenge that goes something like this:

The Rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
   
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog

OK, eight things you now know about us, but probably wish you didn't:

1. We used to race motorcycles when we were young and supple (and stupid) but our worst crash was on the street two years ago when we rode into the back of a Chevy Impala which had somehow managed to leave the factory without brake lights. At least that was the owner's story.
2. In college, our summer job was working on the iron ore boats that sail the great lakes. One day, while we were unloading cargo, the bosun came back from shore leave drunk and jumped in the hold. Luckily it was still full (it's about 60 feet from the deck to the bottom of the hold) and he just sunk in the pellets up to his waist. Because this was a "workplace anomaly" a report had to be filed and we were called before a Coast Guard panel as a witness. They were not pleased that we couldn't get through the story without bursting out laughing.
3. We're left handed.
4. We've never been to Lichtenstein.
5. In high school, we bought ourselves a medical dictionary and went into business as the excuse letter writer for people who wanted to get out of gym class. Just want to miss a day? $1.00. A week? $5.00. Want a disease that will get you on TV? $50.00.
6. In our first teaching job out of college we slipped a copy of William Burroughs' Naked Lunch to an incredibly bright and talented 11th grader.
7. We've been married to Mrs. IM Central for 26 years. We attribute this to the fact that both of us are kind of lazy, and don't really like meeting new people.
8. We became vegetarians after watching this video.

OK, now we're supposed to tag some folks with this task and thus replicate the virus...er...keep the chain going...no...move the meme...ah, whatever. Who listens to us? Certainly not these folks:
1. World O' Crap
2. Anejo Mockingbird
3. INOTBB
4. Tbogg
5. Shakesville
6. Pharyngula
7. Slacktivist
8. Creek Running North

Update: Dang! upon actually reading the directions we find that George (INOTBB) is actually the one who tagged James. Kids, let this be a lesson to you. Don't drink and blog.