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This alternative CV includes my past addresses, family, interests and hobbies, and
eccentric beliefs. It is a bit whimsical. The last significant update to this page was
sometime in 1996.
(I've had an address at these places.)
- Montreal, Quebec:
where I grew up in an English ghetto, from ages 0 to 19, and attended medical school from
age 22 -26.
- Chicoutimi, Quebec:
where I learned the seductive appeal of a socialist state, the most French I'd ever know,
and knowingly had a very good time.
- Pasadena, CA: my undergrad days, at an institution
who's unofficial slogan was: "What does not destroy me makes me stronger."
- Corona del Mar, CA: a summer on the beach, partly spent in a windowless lab, partly
spent at the Wedge.
- Williamstown, Massachusetts: a great place to go to school
if you're on scholarship (as I was), or rather wealthy.
- St. Anthony, Newfoundland: the
most remote place I've ever lived. Good parties. Viking excavation. Used to serve fabulous
club sandwiches to on-call doctors. People go swimming in oil rig survival suits. Ninety
years ago, life for indentured fishermen was a living hell.
- Williamsport, PA: There really are Amish
buggies in the lost valleys of central PA.
- Escanaba, MI: A surprisingly remote town, where I learned how to be a family physician
and a teacher. It's remarkable for many small things, but not for any large thing. Maybe
that will allow the world to pass it by.
- St. Paul, MN (current)
- Bangkok, Thailand: Khun-Ying Krong
Keo owned the house, and I had my own entrance to the side. Drank gin and tonic with my
Peace Corp buddies, who had their own home on the compound. Walked through the fish market
to catch my bus, sometimes carrying my shoes. The Clash once partied with the British
tenant, I slept through it. I suspect everything I knew there is now gone.
- Jerusalem, Israel: Where if the stones could speak, they wouldn't. I was a
most grateful guest of Hebrew University and the Hadassah
Medical School
- Geneva, Switzerland: I'm not sure I ever
really spoke with a Swiss person there. The pension had an impressive bomb shelter. I
could walk from the pension to France in 20 minutes, and pretend I knew how to live well.
- Dakka, Bangladesh: More
attractive than many would imagine, as is much of Bangladesh. The place where I decided
one less tariff was worth a vast amount of charity. Dickens would have understood Dakka.
- Puli, Taiwan: The very center of
Taiwan, a un-nation as curious and as proud as any nation.
I don't actually do any of these things since the coming of the boys.
- Bicycling
- Skiing: especially bushwacking with Emily and Molly, but just about any kind of skiing.
- Backpacking: I'd like to learn winter backpacking -- and we're planning to buy a North
Face tent real soon. Long ago I hitchiked thousands of miles and slept on roof tops. My
guardian angel quit in disgust and now we drive ourselves to the trails.
- Computers: ok, you knew this.
- Exploring/Travelling: I like to feel my prejudices or preconceptions get smooshed.
Happily Emily is a committed traveller.
- Cafe and Pastry: I grew up in Montreal. I know what good pastry is.
- Bookstores: When Emily and I visit a strange city we
magically find the best bookstores.
- Space Exploration: I wanna be in that final frontier.
- Music: I'm tone deaf -- really. I proved it to a music teacher who thought no-one was
truly tone deaf.
- Canoeing: I know what end of a paddle to put in the water. One of the nice things about
living in Chicoutimi was the incredible white water canoeing.
- Snorkeling: I have my SCUBA certification, but I've not pursued that. Maybe one day. In
the meanwhile I enjoy snorkelling, and I was once a decent swimmer.
- People: Ya gotta find people interesting to be a family doc. Turns out just about
everyone's a survivor, with a story to tell.
- Academic Stuff: history, economics, anthropology, pre-Marxist sociology, physics (esp
cosmology) : none of which I know well.
- Science Fiction: I confess.
- Personal honor is important.
- There are more people of good will than of ill will.
- Barring disease and injury we don't really change. Any of us would be recognizable to
our first grade teacher.
- An interesting and honorable life is the answer. The question is 49.
In the state of nature life is nasty, brutish and short. Hobbes.
It is better to be happy than right. Anon. (I like this one precisely because it's so
annoying.)
Author: John G. Faughnan. The
views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. Pages are
updated on an irregular schedule; suggestions/fixes are welcome but they may take weeks to
years to be incorporated. Anyone may freely link to anything on this site
and print any page; no permission is needed for citing, linking, printing, or
distributing printed copies.