Self-sufficiency, geography, Lingüistica, potentiality, wordplay, warm water, thru-hiking, Allemansrätten, tourism in Antarctica, hot whiskey, Latin America, mountaineering, swimming, yoga, the Upper Peninsula, zoology, being your sous chef, the OED, the American Dialect Society, labours of love, mermen, animal-assisted therapy (c'mere kitty), being read aloud to.
A clever and companionable mentor for life.
Bjork, Le Tigre, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Mum, Chan Marshall, My Bloody Valentine, Os Mutantes, Van Morrison, Sonic Youth, Pelican, Neutral Milk Hotel, Iron and Wine, rjd2, Baroness, Simon and Garfunkle, Alasdair Roberts, New Order, Joy Division, Bone Thugs, Novos Baianos, Guyana Punchline, Jarabe del Palo.
Midnight Cowboy, Return to Oz, Once Were Warriors, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the Shining, Apocalypse Now!, Swiss Family Robinson, the Thin Red Line, City of the Lost Children, la Battaglia di Algeri, Pan's Labyrinth, Sex and Lucia, the Dreamers, Joyeux Noël, the Science of Sleep, the Great Dictator, Russian Ark, Todo Sobre Mi Madre, Shortbus.
Merrie Melodies, Six Feet Under, Arrested Development.
Nabokov, Bulgakov, Joyce, Beckett, Nin, Kundera, Eco, Rushdie, Orwell, Sontag, Hugh Leonard, David Sedaris, Joe Simpson, dictionaries, atlases, cook books.
Jean-François Champollion