I am from New Orleans, Louisiana.

What kind of high school did you go to?

Oh God. I went to, honest to God, an all-girls' private Catholic high school.

Do you think that the government should reallocate NASA funding to terrestrial concerns, such as domestic problems of poverty and hunger?

I don't think anybody's going to be able to talk about re-allocating NASA funds anytime soon. I'm betting they'll need even more money to investigate the space shuttle disaster, and that's all right with me. Their families deserve to know what happened to those

people.

Why do you think Michael Jackson has submitted himself to repeated plastic surgery on his nose?

Well, it's a way to fill up his spare time when he's not dangling small children off balconies.

Would you rather visit Mexico, the Czech Republic or Australia?

Czech Republic-I've heard it's absolutely beautiful.

Isn't the cheesy potato soup too cheesy?

It's entirely too cheesy. It is my rule not to touch soups that are semi-solid.

Is O.J. guilty?

Sure. But he beat the system the same damn way lots and lots of rich and powerful white people have in this country. So if we're going to complain about his acquittal, what we really have to complain about is the system itself.

What's your favorite thing about where you grew up?

There was a lot I loved about where I grew up. I guess, going back now, what I love most is the voices. People in New Orleans don't really have accents, but outside of town you hear a lot of drawl and twang. And, of course, if you go farther west, you can hear people with Cajun accents (that's if they're speaking English).

Where do you think you'll end up in five years?

God only knows. I laugh about ending up in Jackson or Baton Rouge or Nashville while my friends from school are up in New York or

Boston or London. But, who knows? I might surprise myself.

What's your favorite day of the week?

Saturday, because I can sleep late, and because of the afternoon

basketball.

How do you get creative with food at Valentine?

I'm not that creative. But that Cajun seasoning they have on the condiments table, even though it's not the real thing, makes a lot of stuff taste better. In town, I usually end up at the Black Sheep.

As a Southerner now living in the North, what do you feel are the most accurate stereotypes about the North and South respectively?

I think a lot of the stereotypes concerning the North and the South are meaningless. A lot of Southerners might get mad at me for saying this, but I think that the whole business about Southerners being friendly is not always necessarily true. Southerners can be mean as snakes. Yankee people are perfectly nice, although they don't have to be in your business like many Southerners are. Southerners want to know everything!