My interview with a Superheroine

I was reading Pam's blog today and I saw that she had been interviewed by another blogger and as I read her answers I realized how much I had just learned about her from that interview. I already love her blog, and her progressive views so when I got to the end of the piece I saw where she was offering to interview others. Like I told her, I love talking, or in this case, writing about myself so I agreed to answer her 5 questions.

Her first question was, would I run off and live in a tree house high in the Costa Rican jungle with her. I reminded her she was married and had a child and that I had a girlfriend. Her second, third, fourth, and fifth questions were variations on the first so I had to let her down gently. It's never easy crushing someone's dream so I was as nice as I could be. I can only hope that she can muster the strength to go on.

Just kidding folks, Pam was and is a perfect gentlewoman, it's no wonder she is one of my blog heroes, and here are the questions she actually really honestly asked me:

1. You write a lot of snarky things about our government and politics in general. When did you first become politically active/aware? Was it a slow, gradual process or did one event spur your outrage/satire?

I have always been politically aware but only recently have I become active in doing something about the things I feel passionately about. I can remember reading about the political events of the day in the newspapers when I was a young boy. I followed politics all my life and I remember watching both 1972 political conventions, I did not understand much of what I watched because I was only 10 but I was fascinated by the whole spectacle of it. I kept up with it as I grew and when I got to college I double majored in history and political science. After college I went to work and most of the jobs I held until my heart attack required me to keep silent about my political beliefs and opinions. This past spring my girlfriend, who is very politically aware in her own right, saw where MoveOn.org was sponsoring a screening of The Ground Truth, we went to see it and it affected us deeply. We had both been anti war from the start and after seeing that film we finally got off our butts and did something about it. We joined with a local progressive group in our area and we began going to war and impeachment protests and attending other progressive events in our area. We've met some of the smartest and nicest folks through our activism and I hope we meet many many more as we continue to become more progressive and work to end the war.

2. When and why did you start blogging? What is your favorite blog post (that you wrote) of all time? Why is it your favorite?

I started blogging after I read a post by Dr. Zaius this past spring that had been linked on Crooks and Liars. It was about a convention of all the various Jesuses(or would it be Jesusi?), the Baptist Jesus, George Bush Jesus, etc. and it was howlingly funny and oh so dead on the money. Once I saw that that was the type of thing some people were putting on their blogs I knew I had to jump in with both feet and so after a few shitty first tries I finally came up with this submarine sandwich of a blog.

My all time favorite post that I wrote is Ingmar Bergman Reviews the 2nd Republican Debate. I only watched two minutes of a five minutes of the debate wrap up, it was all I could stand, and then I wrote that post. It combines my love of surrealism, foreign film, the arcane and esoteric, and mockery. I just pulled pictures off the web and wrote it off the top of my head. As I was writing it I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes and I was afraid I would wake my sleeping girlfriend up. It still cracks me up when I read it now.

I'm also partial to my Deep in the Bowels of the White House posts and my Interviews with the Republican Presidential Candidates posts.

3. Where/how did you come up with your blog alias (I'm assuming it's not your real name). Is there any deep meaning attached to it, besides being freakin' hilarious?


I've always found our simian cousins interesting and amusing. I've loved Jane Goodall and her work with chimps since the minute I heard about her and the late Dian Fossey as well. I'm a sucker for most every monkey or ape related documentary on TV. I also love aliteration and repetition, it's must be one of the results of all those years I spent doing improv comedy. So I chose the alias because I thought it was funny that a blog could be written by a monkey, a monkey with a doctorate no less. I also loved how stupidly crazy the name sounded, it made me laugh when I wrote out 'Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein.'

4. What childhood event(s) helped shape who you are today? Where/how did you develop this wicked funny sense of humor?

I got my sense of humor from my Mom. She was a joker and I learned to follow suit and the biggest childhood event that shaped me was her death when I was ten. We kids were sent to live with an aunt and uncle because my Dad was not able to care for us properly. It was during those years that I honed my sense of humor, it was a defense mechanism because life with them was so bizzare and fucked up at times. Also when I discovered that the hot chicks in high school would let me hang out with them if I made them laugh, then I really went into high gear. When I got to college I discovered that there were other people out there who were as funny as I thought I was and or who were a different kind of funny, so I just rolled with it and let it grow organically.

5. If you could sit across from Dumbya, what would you say to him? How do you think he would respond?

I'd say, "Man you sure lied your ass off didn't you? You said you were a uniter and not a divider but you kept this country divided for 8 fucking years because it suited your political needs to do so. You're place in history is assured but it's not gonna be a good place you idiot. You will be thought of as a stubborn stupid ass of a man who put his hard right wing agenda ahead of the good of the country. You started a war for no other reason than to make money for your pals in the corporate world and you have the blood of hundreds of thousands of people on your hands. If it was up to me your stupid ass would be in Gitmo right this second and your guards would be family members of Iraqi's and Afghanis who died in your useless war."

He'd respond like he always does, with a patronizing little chuckle and he'd give me that stomach turning little wink he gives. Then he'd send in Dick and Mary Cheney to kick my ass because he is too much of a chickenhawk to do it himself.

Thanks Pam for the opportunity to give my readers a peek under the fez!!!

Here's where I pay the price of my interview:

Now, do YOU want to be interviewed?

Interview rules:

1.Leave me a comment saying "Interview me."

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

3. You will update your blog with a post containing your the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.