E³ Writer Q&A — Paul Gardner
How long did it take you to type E³?
He’s 74, a retired academic, and has never, until today, typed a superscript number. For the title, he cheated by copying from another writer. But he couldn’t drop the challenge. No, sorry, that would be a subscript, as in E₃. He had to figure out the elevated 3. Maybe someday he would have something to say about E=MC².
One hour later, I discovered this YouTube video. For MAC users, the keyboard steps are easy: type E; type Control + Command + Space. That brings up Special Characters. Search superscript. Select 3, E³, easy peasy.
By the way, the photo was taken on March 23, 2020, on the Romanian-Serbia border. Ludovic was our tour guide. Four days later, before we flew back to America, we were the last guests at the only Bucharest Hotel open before COVID shut everything down. We would return to Romania in the fall of 2021. You can read that story here.
This makes me cry — Learning something new. Of course, E³ was preceded by shrieking. Think John Candy and the washing machine in Uncle Buck. You can view that scene here.
My favorite film — Hoosiers. It’s 37 years old, and I’ve watched it 37 times. I can smell the polished floor when Gene Hackman walks into the school. The ending makes me cry, something I should do at least once a year.
My favorite character — Ted Lasso, but Mary Tyler Moore is a close second. Ted is humble, understated, and a connector. My favorite scene — The Dart — Be Curious is the finest 4 minutes of TV I know. You can see it here. Mary’s Laugh for Chuckle's funeral scene is second. You can see it here.
I write about — These things. I wish I had something profound about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perhaps someday.
I love this about Medium — The audience, the writers, the outlet, the cost, the civility, the creativity, the ease, and the challenge of E³.
The advice I would give a new Medium writer — Allow yourself time to find your niche. Explore.
This is on my mind — The Speaker we purchased in Romania the week before that photo was taken has just died. It was so ugly, but we loved it.
Two books that changed my life — Lee Baer’s The Imp of the Mind: Exploring the Silent Epidemic of Obsessive Bad Thoughts and Ian Osborn’s Tormenting Thoughts and Secret Rituals. I read both books about twenty years ago, and they set me on a path to manage my OCD.
The book I am reading — The Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 by Tim Madigan. I taught American politics to college students for 40 years, retiring in 2018, and never said a word about this event. How was that possible? The title of the last chapter is “The Veil Lifted.” To know America, we’ve got to know everything.
My favorite statistic — 85% of Americans over 85 ARE NOT IN A NURSING HOME.
I still regret — Not making it home 33 years ago to say goodbye to my dying father.
Check out this new publication. Thank you to Malky McEwan.
An E³ story by one of my favorite writers that will teach you a lot about Medium.
