SUNDAY Q & A: J.D. Smith

Published 8:45 pm Saturday, June 11, 2011

What is your name?

J.D. Smith is my birth certificate name; challenging at best.

What do your friends call you?

Jelly Donut. With a generic last name, one must be innovative or a tad childish.

How old are you?

69

Where do you live?

Athena

Where did you go to school?

Alliance Nebraska High School, Tufts University

What do you do?

Grant writer (fiction writer with a patina of law clerk)

What’s the best thing about your work?

I work in the non-profit arts and music realm, where people tend to be smart and gentle.

Who is the historical figure you most admire?

Eugene V. Debs

The living person you most admire?

Any one of the thousands of people who work as aides in hospitals.

What is your proudest accomplishment?

Two of them: SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), McComb, Mississippi, 1964, and winning the National Book Award for The Whole Earth Catalog in 1972.

What is the most difficult challenge in your life these days?

Chemotherapy and the roller coaster associated with it.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Chill. Some woodwork, some leatherwork, some writing, too much television.

What type of electronic equipment do you carry around with you?

One dumb phone

If you had to live in another country for a year, where would you go?

Some tributary of the Amazon where a Zippo lighter is way juju high-tech.

If you could change one thing in your community, what would that be?

Bring arts and music back into to the schools.

 What is at the top of your bucket list?

An extended camping trip by ultralight aircraft

What is your favorite beverage?

Straight soda water

Tell us about the best book you’ve read lately.

I rather thoroughly read The New Yorker and The Economist weekly, leaving very little time for big old conventional books, but I do sneak in a Tarzan novel now and then.

Your most prized possession?

I have too much stuff. Watch this space. Garage sale to follow.

What’s the funniest thing that ever happened to you?

I once fell down a flight of stairs while introducing a nervous young violinist who was auditioning for a youth orchestra. The tumble took the spotlight off her just long enough to relax her performance.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Nutella, peanut butter, air bread and Pepsi consumed in the prone position.

What’s the one question we didn’t ask that you’d like to answer?

Why haven’t we brought the troops home yet?

Sunday Q&A is a weekly feature. We believe that variety is the spice of life, and are always on the lookout for Eastern Oregonians to participate. If you’d like to volunteer, or if you have someone else in mind, e-mail Kathryn B. Brown at kbbrown@eastoregonian.com, write to her at 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801, or call 541-278-2667.