PROMPT: Scared

What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?

Going to a cocktail party with no one I know in attendance. FYI —Things that would generate less anxiety include: cage-fighting, gator-wrestling, skydiving, and (admittedly with the appearance of irony) giving a speech to a large audience.

A battle-hardened phalanx with pointy sticks.

PROMPT: First Impression

What’s the first impression you want to give people?

There is no first impression I’d like to give everyone. For most people I’m good with “seems decent enough,” but there are people I’d be quite happy to think me a lunatic. I guess the most useful first impression would be to be seen as one who can spot someone who is manipulative, a friendship “level jumper,” or of nefarious intent so as to minimize the approach of such people in the first place. [The problem is that most such people see themselves as charismatic and gregarious rather than as manipulative. They don’t realize their stank shows through.]