Janet Smith

Q.If you won the lottery tonight what would be the first thing you'd do?
A. I would start planning a long trip to a far away place and line up my family and a few select friends to visit me there. But only those who can keep a secret, because I wouldn’t want just EVERYBODY to know that I am suddenly very rich.
Q.One word that describes your personality
A. Depends on who you ask. I think my 7th grade Spanish teacher thought I was a real “idiot.” My husband might say “volatile.” Most friends would say “tardy.” Any one of my bosses throughout history might say “procrastinator.” But oddly enough, the word I hear most often is “laid-back.”
Q.Childhood ambition
A. Either be a librarian or own an ice cream parlor. No real searing ambition there.
Q.What natural talent do you wish you had
A. That’s easy. I wish I could sing, but effortlessly like Natalie Merchant and Nora Jones seem to do.
Q.First job
A. Snack bar chickie at a swim club.
Q.Best day ever at work
A. I’ve never had an over-the-top, utterly fantastic, Oscar-winning day at work. But I often get to meet really interesting people in really cool places in the documentary business. That keeps me going.
Q.Favorite virtue and favorite vice
A. Hmmm...answer pending. Note to self: need more time being virtuous and viceful (is that a word?)
Q.Perfect day
A. Waking up, crawl out of the tent at dawn at some perfectly secluded, maybe water’s edge camp site, get the coffee brewing. Go out on a nice long hike to some incredible vista. That’s good way to start. Too bad it only happens about once a year.
Q.Which fictional heroine are you
A. Lucy from Peanuts. Can you be a heroine if you are super bossy?
Q.If you could be on the cover of any magazine or newspaper, what would it be?
A. Let’s see. How about the trade periodical of limited distribution “State Lotteries Weekly.” I, of course, would be profiled as the biggest winner ever.
Q.Your favorite word and your least favorite word
A. My two favorite words are in Spanish. Alcachofa and aquacate. It doesn’t really matter what they mean, they are just fun to say. But google them if you must know. My least favorite word is one that I find nearly unpronounceable --
Q.Favorite food
A. A beautifully ripe red tomato.
Q.Guilty pleasure
A. I can only tell you something really benign, because guilt is something that can get you arrested, if you know what I mean. So let’s just stick with chocolate chip cookie dough by the spoonful.
Q.Two people not alive that you would most like to have dinner with
A. Eleanor Roosevelt and FDR. My husband will join us and it will be double date. We will go dancing afterwards and they will find us incredibly charming and invite us to visit them for a few days at the White House.
Q.Your most prized posession
A. Allow me to be completely sappy and say my children. But only for a few more years until I cut them from the payroll and I won’t technically “own’ them anymore.
Q.What makes you happy
A. Not having to answer a million questions about my personal life and feelings. This is only something that makes people who live in California feel happy. For the rest of the world it is excruciatingly uncomfortable.