The city of Constanta, Romania.

Does Pixar count? Because if so, I'm totally going for WALL∙E.
If Pixar doesn't count, I'll say Scrooge McDuck, possibly followed by the narrator from Donald in Mathmagic Land.

In theory I get at least 45.5 hours of sleep each week, exercise three times with an emphasis on cardio, and eat three solid meals with lots of grains and veggies. And a vitamin supplement.

In practice, since having a kid and a book published, my only exercise is running various errands, I'm too tired to keep track of how much sleep I am or am not getting, and I graze on crappy processed foods and coffee throughout the day. And a vitamin supplement.

Pineapple and Ham!

Hi Burton, I know it's taken me forever to answer this. I like Dayne. I haven't been following his specific moves closely enough to have a truly informed opinion, plus I'd want to hold off on expressing that until I've moved back (hopefully next month).

To your second point... it's an in-between issue. Much as Jennifer Granholm (and, to be fair, Engler) couldn't have done much on a scale to solve the industrial exodus from Michigan in the last 30 years, there is nothing any of Flint's mayors could have done on the scale of GM's departure. Whoever takes that job is going to take the heat for the inevitable decay of the city; it strikes me as a very hard, very thankless job.

That said, Flint mayors (and the Flint City Council) have done an abysmal job using the resources at their disposal to mitigate the damage. The first and most essential order of business is simply transparent and competent administration, which our elected mayors have sadly been unable to deliver (note: I'm not a fan at all of the Emergency Managers). Look at how quickly city hall has improved after our recalls when a City Administrator was put in the mayor's office. Darnell Earley and Mike Brown did incredible jobs with just a few months notice.

Creative planning and brilliant inventiveness are important too, but not as important as experienced administration. And in fact, they aren't even as important as capable leadership. Flint is a very segregated city with a lot of poverty and a history of instituional strife and discord, and until there is a more cooperative spirit among residents, these other tools are not given good room to grow.

I would say Flint's leaders have had the order exactly backwards. The right priorities are:
1. Capable administration.
2. Good leadership.
3. Creative urban planning.

Every time this question stares me down, I draw a blank. There have been so many. Too many... I keep coming back to how much fun All Your Base Are Belong to Us was (until it was driven into the ground).

Well, I generally make myself as scarce from such a scene as possible, but I would have to go with Bug-a-Boo by Destiny's Child.

Cargo shorts and a v-neck undershirt. Because while I did the laundry yesterday, I haven't folded a damn thing yet.

If the question presumes that any restaurant would be *available* to me (ie. wherever I go, there it is) I'd go with the Calypso in Hyde Park. It's a great restaurant, and it absorbed the menu and power of the Dixie Kitchen, which is also a great kitchen, and they've got healthy stuff and bad stuff too, and good drinks to boot.

If it's just any physical restaurant, no magic involved, like there's a law that prohibits me from visiting any others, then I would go with the Atlas in Flint. Because that restaurant is primal to me.

Help! I'm a prisoner in this stupid cookie factory!!

Indiana.

Standard Disclaimer:
∙ Who am *I* to speak for 6 million Hoosiers?
∙ It's a big place, and I'm sure I'm just missing a lot.
∙ Right Connor, right, and Flint, MI is such a prize!

The snark's opinion: At first I thought it was just Northwest Indiana, and then I made a bunch of trips to Ohio and Kentucky through Indianapolis, and I realized Jeez, the *whole state* is like that?! The big cities are big cities, but they seem like a pale shadow of Indiana's neighbors big cities: ie. Indianapolis is a pale shadow of Columbus.

Indiana's conservative politics are not to my liking, which combine oddly with the same sort of blue-collar retreat which is a feature of most of the states in which I've lived.

I've been to some of the prettier parts of Indiana, but again, this is a pale shadow of the prettier parts of Michigan, Ohio, and even flat-as-a-pancake Illinois.

Finally, the Indianapolis' mass-annexation was a slap in the face to cities like Detroit who need federal support and investment far more.

In all likelihood, Indiana is probably not my least-favorite state, but it is certainly my least-favorite state I'm familiar with.

Primo Pizza is the best place I know of near the Edgewater Beach neighborhood, but the wife and I think that Art of Pizza is the best stuff in the city.

My first "job" was when I was 15 years old, as an usher working for Whiting Auditorium in Flint. And the first show I ever worked was The Touring Brady Bunch Show Starring Davy Jones of the Monkees. At some point we realized that we didn't have flashlights to seat people after the show had started. So I went back to get some more from backstage.

As I was walking along, there was Davy Jones, probably two or three inches shorter than my 15 year old self. Maybe he was just having a bad day, or maybe he thought that performing a live Brady Bunch show to a half-full house in Flint, MI was a low-point in his career... I can't say. But basically I said, "Hey, you're Davy Jones!" and he said, "Righto, and who the Hell are you?"

The most famous person I've met was Joe Biden. But the most fascinating famous person I've met was Davy Jones of the Monkees.

Beastman AIDS.

Spring.

I'm more of a listener. Whenever I see someone anywhere I never talk and I always stop and listen to whatever they say. People are amazed at how good I am at just listening to them and my patient, unimposing, unobtrusive presence in their lives, like a delicate snowflake that is visible while it sails through the air but that melts on contact, a bit of invisible liquid, that observes (in its watery way) the world around it. Yes anyone who has ever encountered me would surely opine that I am the soul of discretion and reticence.

Now *that's* a question. The answer would be Sarajevo, without question. It's not currently in the midst of a major war, and as far as I can tell, has done an admirable job rebuilding itself. I have a friend from Sarajevo, and it's located in a beautiful beautiful part of the world. It would also be cheap and easy to visit Greece, Italy, and Romania.

I don't know, and I don't have marshmallows here to find out with.

Megaman 2. Final Fantasy 4. Castlevania 2.