This is an interesting concept: list 5 facts that very few people know about you. It sounds easy, but it isn't. In its original form, this meme had a component enticing readers to ask any questions they'd like about the facts, and I'm sticking with that. If for some reason you have a question, we can make a conversation out of it. Now for the facts, which I am struggling to come up with while remaining the slightest bit interesting. :)

1. I was born in Uganda, in a bike taxi en route to the Mulago Hospital in Kampala, from a settlement in Nsenya. Most people assume I was born in Brooklyn, which is a reasonable guess, or in Israel, which is almost as reasonable.

2. Yitzak is my middle name, not my first. My first name is Benjamin. (My mother's name was Rachel, and as she died in childbirth, my father felt that calling me Benjamin would be the most appropriate thing.)

3. I lived in Uganda until I was less than 1 month old, then Nigeria until the end of the Civil War, then Singapore until I was 3, then Yugoslavia until I was 4, then Singapore for another few months, then Zimbabwe until I was 8. Then we finally settled in Brooklyn and my father became a rabbi.

4. I almost died of the Marburg virus in Zimbabwe in 1975, and then again in Angola in 2005.

5. My sky-diving jump count is, as of last month, exactly one half of Kat's. Hers is 848.

That was fun. Toki and Shelley are having a great time dancing around to Toki's new collection of blues and gospel music. I love being in Pittsburgh.

Toki's new musical fave is Solomon Burke's "None of Us Are Free," courtesy of Uncle Achi. She's a rising star in the blues and soul categories. Kat and I are trying to catch it on video. She belts along with the soulful tunes and plays "tabletop piano" at dinner in a very passable Ray Charles impression. Sometimes she forfeits tabletop piano in place of air microphone, which she pulls away from her mouth slowly during the softening parts of the song, in very dramatic style. Today Kat asked her, "Toki, what do you think this song is really about?" Without batting an eyelash, Toki belted out in a style befitting a gospel congregation, "Freeeeeedom." She's got quite a point, whether she understands it or not. Solomon Burke seems to, anyway. If one of us is chained, none of us are free. Most things cute six-year-olds say turn out to be true. The other day she told me I was a fat old guy. See?

She's very excited to see her uncles tomorrow. I think she's mostly excited to deploy her reign of terror along with her Pittsburghian cohorts. I'm not foreseeing anything good for John and Uncle Jack's kitchen appliances. Especially the more fragile, expensive ones.