Douglas McGray may be a savvy San Franciscan writer now, covering politics, science, tech and culture as a New America Foundation fellow, but he originally hails from “off in the woods” in Maine. Now settled in Noe Valley after moving to California four years ago, he says, “I’m never going back.” Read more about him below.
Q. What do you wake up to?
A. Lately I’ve been reading news on my iPhone. That may be a phase.
Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. Very little because I was writing today, but I did listen to The Dodos on the drive over.
Q. What’s your favorite word?
A. I actually don’t have a favorite word. They don’t do much for me until you start to combine them. That’s when it gets interesting.
Q. What do you find beautiful?
A. I really like my neighborhood in the morning, when a lot of people are out but it’s still quiet and a little cold.
Q. How would you describe yourself in five words or fewer?
A. Never been good with word limits.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. First I wanted to be a TV astronomer. I had a big Carl Sagan thing. Then I wanted to be an architect. Then more or less this.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Scotch.
Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. I’m sure there are things that are extravagances, but nothing comes to mind. If something feels like an extravagance I end up not doing it.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. No idea, just somewhere I’ve never been before.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. I’d do this one again. I love my job.
Q. What would be your death row meal?
A. I have trouble believing you’d enjoy it, so I think it doesn’t really matter.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Camping with my parents.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. I could take or leave all of them. I don’t think there’s anything I’m more attached to than anything else.
Q. What promise do you make to yourself that you break the most often?
A. I don’t make a lot of promises, but I’m generally pretty good with them.
Q. What should you throw away but haven’t been able to part with?
A. I’m actually more of a jettisoner. I don’t think I regret anything I’ve thrown away, but there are probably a few things I’ve thrown away that I shouldn’t have.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead that you’d most love to have a beer with?
A. I’d probably answer differently if you ask me again tomorrow. Maybe Studs Terkel. He’d probably end up asking all the questions and I’d do all the talking and I’d blow it. I wouldn’t learn anything.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.