Melanie Mattson, the sardonic voice behind Just a Bump in the Beltway, is getting into the habit of offering her readers five-question interviews. After seeing how much fun they had the first time she did it, I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring.

1. Someone new is coming for dinner at your invitation. What will you cook and why?

Ummm. . . toast? The truth is that my wife is a chef. To protect the health and taste buds of our guests, she handles the cooking when we have visitors (I serve as bartender/dishwasher/dj). If, for some reason, she was unable to cook, we’d cancel the dinner. If they insisted on coming, we’d order take-out. If all the restaurants were closed, and I was forced to cook, I’d prepare my one and only specialty: linguine with clam sauce. One “trick” my wife has taught me is that, upon sauteing garlic in olive oil and adding clam juice, pepper, and a touch of pasta water, the sauce should be simmered for a long time over low heat until the liquid has reduced and the sauce has thickened. The concentration of flavor produced by this technique can be pretty stunning, even when performed by a know-nothing cook like me.

2. You are headed for the library looking for something new to read. What will you check out? Do you know?

All too often, I judge a book by its cover. And, of course, the author photo (general guidelines: the quality of the book is inversely proportional to the attractiveness of the author).

3. Your part of the world is about to be treated to a complete lunar eclipse at about 4 AM. What will you do? The range of options here is huge, by the way.

Indeed.

Fantasy: A bacchanal. Wine, mood-altering drugs, dancing, shouting at the moon until the shadows swallow it.

Closer to the Truth: A movie night. 2001. Star Wars. The Werewolf of London. Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Warriors. Walk outside at 3:55 to watch the real show.

The Truth: Snore. I’m sleeping through it.

4. You get a coveted invite to one of Bush’s Social Security roadshows. What do you do?

I put on my cheerleading outfit and join the party!

5. When was the last time you wrote to one of your legislators, municipal or national? What did you write about?

I wrote to my city councilman about Philadelphia’s recent effort to cut hours and staff at local libraries in many of Philadelphia’s poorer neighborhoods, an issue that I wrote about in this post.

Thanks to Melanie for the great questions. Now head on over and see what the other respondents wrote.

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