Do you like any strange food combinations?

Chipotle pepper tabasco sauce on top of ginger snaps.

Do you have any hidden hobbies or talents?

I used to be a pretty proficient designer of computer game maps. 

What is one fictional town you would like to live in for a day?

Camelot.

What is one fun memory you have from college?

One night, my lab partner and I worked late in the engineering lab until 2 a.m. I had just purchased some cap guns because there was a dance at our college and the invitation to the dance had to be very elaborate. I was in charge of setting up my roommate with a date and I concocted some sort of James Bond scenario in which he had to come in and “gun down” a lot of people who were holding the woman hostage. So, when my lab partner and I came out of the lab at two in the morning, we ran around in the equivalent of Central Hall having a huge cap gun fight in the stairwells. It was thunderously loud. There were dormitories on the upper floors for women who wanted a quieter life. They did not have a quiet life that night.

If you were stranded on a desert island, other than the Bible, which three books would you like to have with you?

Howard Pyle’s book “The Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur.” That was my favorite book when I was a little boy. Bernard’s commentary on the Song of Songs, and the “Summa Theologiae.”

What is something funny or sweet one of your kids has said to you?

My five year old had been declaring for months that he didn’t love anybody in his household – he only liked them because I think somebody teased him about loving people or implied it was exclusively romantic. He gave that business up and decided that maybe the people in his family must be right about what love is. He whispered in my ear, “I love you Daddy. I love you so much that I want to live forever so that I can live forever with you.

What is one trend from the ’90s you think should come back?

Action figures. Affordably-priced, high quality physical toys for children that play on the imagination.

Who is your confirmation saint?

Nicodemus. There was a period when I did not feel comfortable being publicly Christian. I wanted to understand Christianity and God better and I felt that I didn’t. I really liked Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night and questioned him.

What is one piece of common knowledge you learned way too late in life?

It was not until I was 27 years old that I learned that dress shirts cannot be dried in the dryer without shrinking. In the ’90s, dress shirts were gigantic. It was like wearing a parachute. If I dried my dress shirts in the dryer and they shrank, that meant they were only one and a half sizes too big. In the mid-2000s, dress shirts began to fit closer to the body. That’s when I realized I had been shrinking the sleeves of the dress shirts.

What is one thing you used to believe that you have since changed your mind about?

I used to believe that the quickest route to becoming friends with someone was by telling them all of my deepest secrets. I have since learned that people need room to assimilate those things. It’s not that you have to wait for self-disclosure, but self-disclosure must be progressive rather than all at once.