Professor of Art History, Dr. Taylor answers the Proust Questionnaire:


1. What is your favorite quote? 
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.  ~Pablo Picasso

2. What is your most treasured possession? 
My wedding ring

3. When was the happiest moment of your life? 
The birth of my daughter

4. Who is your favorite fictional hero? 
Heracles

5. Which talent would you most like to have? 
Classical guitar

6. Who are the people you look up to as heroes? 
Historical figures who endured great stress, like Lincoln and Churchill  

7. What are you most looking forward to in the future? 
The summer  

8. In what historical time period would you most like to live? 
1900 Paris

9. What do you most value in friendships? 
Humor

10. Who is your favorite musician? 
Vivienne Taylor (my daughter)

Director of Study Abroad, Jill Russell takes time to answer the Proust Questionnaire:

1. What living celebrity do you most admire?  
Entertainment celebrity:  Ellen Degeneres;  Political celebrity:  Hillary Clinton

2. What living celebrity do you most despise?  
Any of the Kardashians

3. Which talent would you most like to have?  
Olympic figure skating skills

4. Where would you most like to live?  
Tie between the southeast Australian coast or Victoria, British Columbia

5. What is your most treasured possession?  
Emotional possession:  my children; Material possession:  my grandmother's china cabinet

6. What was the happiest moment of your life?  
There are two - the births of my children

7. Who is your favorite fictional hero?  
Charlotte of Charlotte's Web

8. If you knew you only had one day left to live, how would you spend it?  
With my family, at my favorite childhood beach on Long Island, eating a Carvel ice cream cone (chocolate/vanilla twist with rainbow sprinkles) while "finding" objects in the cloud shapes with my children

9. What are you most looking forward to in the future?  
Personal:  I am excited to discover how my children will contribute to the world;  Global:  I look forward to the day society revolts against the fast-paced world in which we live.  People need to slow down, learn more about each other, and breathe in the fresh air of the outdoors.  Put down your smart phones and talk to each other, face to face!

10. In what historical time period would you most like to live?  
The roaring 20s - jazz and flapper dresses 

Acting Director of the Writing Center and Adjunct Instructor of English, Professor Julian answers the Proust Questionnaire:

1. What makes you happiest?
Definitely when I'm around my family and friends. That includes teaching my classes because I always feel like I make 20 new friends each semester. There's nothing like good conversation, laughter, and learning new & interesting things about people.

2. What living celebrity do you most despise?
Wow. I have a lot of answers for this one. It's a three-way tie between Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, and Judge Judy.

3. What living celebrity do you most admire?
I'm not embarrassed to say it: Justin Timberlake. He has the ability to make people laugh and not take himself seriously.

4. Who is your favorite writer?
Even though I teach English, I honestly don't have a favorite writer. My favorite genre of literature is 20th-century American literature. Among that genre, I like Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allen Poe, and Toni Morrison. My favorite book is 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' by Betty Smith. I love any "coming-of-age" novel.


5. What are you most looking forward to in the future?
 World Peace. Just kidding--that was my beauty pageant answer. I am most looking forward to the sheer excitement of NOT knowing what lies ahead of me! 

6. Which talent would you most like to have?
 I have always wished that I could paint! I love art, but I just don't have the talent for it.

7. What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?
Definitely my job as a teacher at LVC. My dad has always told me since I was little that he never minded going to work because he liked his job so much that it didn't seem like work. I didn't understand that until I started working and experienced what it was like to be discontent in a job. There was a time when I was convinced I would be stuck in a dissatisfying job forever. But now, I know exactly what my dad was talking about!

8. Where would you most like to live?
I would live in Rome for the crispy pizza & rich culture, Paris for the architecture & the sheer aesthetic beauty of it, and New Orleans for the food and liquor.  

9. What do you most value in friendships?
Trustworthiness and loyalty. Your friends have to be people who have your back, make time for you, and will beat up anyone who tries to mess with you. 


10. If you could be any fictional character, who would you be?
Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Who wouldn't want to wear a seashell bra and sing songs all day?

Professor of Religion, Dr. Sayers, answers the Proust Questionnaire:

1. What is your greatest fear?
Being alone for the rest of my life. I have recently divorced and am having trouble seeing the future. I want someone to share my life with, but worry I won’t find someone.

2. What do you like most about yourself?
My sense of humor. It is the only thing I am completely confident in, even when no one around me finds anything I say funny, I am able to enjoy myself and laugh.

3. If you could change something about yourself, what would it be?
I would like to have more patience. I have been working on patience my whole life and only been making progress recently. The more patient I become the better my life is, so I want it even more.

4. What is your favorite quote?
Time ripens all beings by itself, in itself. But no one here on earth knows one whom Time has fully ripened. - Mahabharata 12.231.25

5. What do you think is your greatest achievement?
Surviving the crushing insecurity and the almost offensive arrogance I affected to compensate for it during my early adulthood.

6. Who is your favorite musician?
Just one? I don’t really have favorites of anything; I love variety too much and change my mind too often. I love Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Prince, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pete Drodge, the Beatles, Styx, among many others depending on my mood.

7. Who is your favorite fictional hero?
Drizzt Do'Urden. He is a character in a series of fantasy novels. He struggles with discovering, rejecting, and changing his true nature and is constantly working to identity and do the right thing.

8. What are you most looking forward to in the future?
Flying cars. It’s always been flying cars. Just kidding. I am looking forward to meeting the man my son will become. He is 12 and at that awkward tipping point between child and teenager and the person I see emerging is a hoot. I can’t wait to see what he does.

9. In what historical time period would you most like to live?
I am pretty happy living at this time. I am a product of the 20th century and would never survive the rigorous life necessary in the past. Besides these are interesting times.

10. What living celebrity do you most admire?
I am troubled by our notion of celebrity. I admire people who work to change the world, in small ways and big ways, yet remain true to themselves in the process. Celebrity tends to undermine efforts at the latter. Though he gets a bad rap for some things, I think I do appreciate Bill Gates’ shift from business to philanthropist. He has given away a significant portion of his wealth in the cause of making the world better and has championed causes around the world, not just here in America.

1. What makes you happiest? 
Time without pressing responsibility.

2. What is your greatest fear?
Losing the people whom I love.

3. If you knew you only had one day to live, how would you spend it? 
I would spend it in interactive activities with my wife and daughter.

4. What are you most looking forward to in the future? 
Time without pressing responsibility

5. Who is your favorite writer?
John Shelby Spong

6. What is your most treasured possession? 
My hard drive.

7. What is your favorite quote? 
"The goals to which I've committed myself to make full use of the time available to me."

8. What living celebrity do you most admire? 
Stephen Colbert

9. What living celebrity do you most despise? 
Fred Phelps, Sr.

10. Where would you most like to live? 
The United States

Lecturer Bob Vucic takes time to answer the Proust Questionnaire:

1. What makes you happiest?
Sunday barbeques with family, chilled white wine and a cigar.

2. What is your biggest fear?
Having none of the above.

3. What living celebrity do you most admire?
None of the people I admire is a celebrity.

4. What living celebrity do you most despise?
Most of them.

5. What is your favorite quote?
"And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose."


From "To An Athlete Dying Young," a poem by A. E. Housman

6. Which talent would you most like to have?
Song writing

7. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Family’s love

8. If you could be any fictional character, who would you be?
Eve's husband, Adam. I think that would be a real rib-tickler.

9. In what historical time period would you most like to live?
Colonial America

10. What are you most looking forward to in the future?
Knowing more than I know now.