25 Things About Me

In celebration National Egotism Week, I recently posted this on my Facebook:

1. My cat Xanthippe is named for the wife of Socrates. Like her namesake, she is opinionated and never silent. She is my one true love.

2. I have a large teddy bear puppet named Tacitus.

3. My grandfather Ramsey was a union organizer for the United Mine Workers. In his youth he marched with Mother Jones and was a card carrying member of the IWW. He died the year I was born, but stories from his life formed my political worldview.

4. I put olive oil and parmesan cheese on my air-popped popcorn.

5. All of my World of Warcraft characters are female.

6. I once drummed for 4 hours with Babatunde Olatunji.

7. In 1631, a rival sheriff walled up one of my ancestors in an alcove in a Scottish castle and left him to starve to death. The rest of my family decamped to the Pennsylvania frontier soon afterwards.

8. I am a compulsive reader. I've read over 6000 books and l read every bit of print that crosses my vision. I can read an upside down bit of type as fast as a right side up one. And until my 50's I could remember 95% of what I read...

9. I love music. All kinds...Mongolian folk, West African pop, New Guinean rock, French chanson, salsa, American roots, classical, electronica, oldies, country.... all of it..anything authentic. That said, I don't think there is a commercial radio station in North America that's worth listening to...

10. I have been on the committees for 10 World Science Conventions and over 25 regional ones. I have also chaired 5 regional cons. I am the founder of both the Penn State Science Fiction Society and the Central Pennsylvania Science Fiction Association.

11. I am the oldest of 10 children.

12. I once walked the length of Broadway from the northern tip of Manhattan down to Battery Park.

13. My handwriting is so bad that sometimes I can't decipher it myself. There are some killer poems in my notebooks lost to the ages...sigh...

14. I love movie musicals and secretly long to star in one...

15. I was once the operations manager of a 1500 person food co-op. This experience led me to formulate Ramsey's First Law of Life: Never be the only paid employee in a large all-volunteer organizarion.

16. Ramsey's Second Law of Life: Whenever someone tries to tell you Science Fiction is predictive, remember that all the stories said our phones would be in our watches. In fact, our watches are now in our phones.

17. I am living proof of the adage that you will keep the bookstore open until whatever money you have runs out.

18. I get along with most dogs and all cats far better than I get along with most people.

19. I am a happy drunk, was a sleepy stoner and have been a very, very bad person to piss off.

20. I once spent 25 minutes talking to Jim Henson in the green room at a World Science Fiction Convention. When we met again 3 years later, he asked after Beowulf, my chief puppet, and told me to tell him that Kermit said hi.

21. Once, in a Sunday School class, I had a loud argument with the pastor over evolution during which he told me to just shutup and learn. I left the church and never went back.

22. I have been a secular Taoist since age 14. My Path hasn't been the easiest or the most difficult, but I have tried to stay with it. 

23. In 2007, the Juniata College Library established The Loyal F Ramsey Science Fiction Collection. There are currently 4500 volumes cataloged. 5000+ remain to be cataloged.

24. I starred as one Ivan Troglodyte, minion, in James Morrow's short film "Naomi Netherreach and the Recycling Saboteurs" 

25. Along with our worthy Kolchak I was a founding member of Slobbovia, the very first role playing game. Played by mail in monthly issues of the Slobinpolit Zhurnal, the object of the game was storytelling. Anyone who actually tried to "win" the game became an object of scorn from the other players...