User:AstroPoodle

Previously known as editor User:HowiePoodle.

I am a former high School Spanish and French teacher. I spent 1985-2007 in the Seattle area. have lived in North Florida since July 2007. My parents were both born in Poland and spent World War II in Siberia. I love literature, travel, and cats and dogs, especially cats, poodles, and pomeranians. I am the co-parent of two poodles and a Pomeranian. I am gay and married to a man who introduced me to Wikipedia. I have lived in France and Spain for one year each, in Paris and Madrid. I have traveled to many countries in Europe and also Israel and some of the Americas. Education, B.A., World Languages and Literatures Sarah Lawrence College (1984); M.A., English, University of Washington, 1987;and M.A., Spanish Middlebury College.

Politics: I am a believer in Social Democracy. I am a member of the Democratic Party (United States). In addition, I am a lukewarm supporter of Barack Obama.

My favorite living American Politicians: Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Howard Dean, Jared Polis, Tammy Baldwin, Dianne Feinstein, Walter Mondale, Steny Hoyer, Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Lincoln Chafee, Daniel J. Evans, Annise Parker, John Lewis, Charles Schumer, Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Ron Wyden.

My favorite US historical figures are: Roger Williams John Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, Henry Clay, Dolly Madison, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Hubert Humphrey, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eugene V. Debs, Warren Magnuson, Henry M. Jackson, Gerald R. Ford, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Sacajawea, Crazy Horse, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jefferson, Harvey Milk, Haym Solomon, Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Susan B. Anthony, Barbara Jordan, Jacob Javits, Chief Joseph, Edward M. Kennedy, Mary McLeod Bethune, Moses Alexander, and Chief Seattle.

My favorite US Supreme Court Justices, living and deceased, are: John Marshall, Joseph Story, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Louis Brandeis, William O. Douglas, Benjamin Cardozo, Earl Warren, William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sandra Day O'Connor, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor.

American writers I like include: Henry D. Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain,Thomas Paine,Patrick Henry,Thomas Jefferson,Ralph Waldo Emerson,Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Henry Adams, Isaac Bashevis Singer,David Leavitt, Alice Munro--okay, she's Canadian--,Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, John Guare, Lillian Hellman, Arthur Miller, Alice Walker, Lorraine Hansberry, John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, Richard Wright, Raymond Carver, Theodore Roethke, Barbara Kingsolver,Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty, David Guterson, Michael Chabon,Rudolfo Anaya, N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, Ken Kesey, Anne Tyler, and Ralph Ellison.

My favorite American cities and towns are: Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Florence, OR, Bainbridge Island, WA, Friday Harbor, WA Boston, MA, Quincy, MA, Middlebury, VT, Stowe, VT, Ashland, OR, San Francisco, CA, Ojai, CA, Santa Barbara, CA, San Diego, CA, Tucson, AZ, Juneau, AK, Santa Fe, NM, Boulder, CO, Missoula, MT, Olympia, WA, Newport, RI, Scarborough, ME, New York, NY, Austin, TX, New Orleans, LA, Mobile, AL, Saint Augustine, FL, Key West, FL, Charleston, SC, Ashville, NC, Charlotte, NC, Chapel Hill, NC, Pittsburgh, PA, Ann Arbor, MI, Madison, WI, Anacortes, WA, Rapid City, SD, Bend, OR, Cle Elum, WA, Ocean Shores, WA, Annapolis, MD, Minneapolis, MN, Saint Paul, MN, Savannah, GA, Burlington, VT, Montpelier, VT, Portland, ME, San Antonio, TX, Poulsbo, WA, Miami Beach, FL, Hot Springs, AR, Steamboat Springs, CO, Jackson Hole, WY, Cody, WY, and Lexington, KY. I have been to every state except Hawaii.

Ojo: que no me llames ni norteamericano ni estadounidense. Soy AMERICANO. Ningún otro país del hemisferio contiene la palabra "América" dentro de su nombre oficial. Hay, por ejemplo, "Los Estados Unidos de México" y ciudadanos de Costa Rica y del Canadá caben también dentro de la categoría de "norteamericano". No me molestes con tonterías.