Answers, the sixth!

As usual, I'm taking forever to get this done...but soldier on, we shall! Two questions up first from an anonymity-preferring soul, on a matter near and dear to my heart:

Since you seem to enjoy a pie in the face, did you do the wedding-cake-smashing thing when you got married?

No, we did not. And in all honesty, I'm glad, because -- and this may come as a surprise -- I hate that. I have never found it enjoyable to watch; it always strikes me as a very out-of-place and inappropriate chunk of mean-spiritedness shoehorned into a ceremony that is supposed to be a celebration of love and kindness. I had zero desire to do that, and The Wife agreed with me. At least, I assume she did. I don't even recall bringing it up for discussion.

(Now, I don't judge other couples who do this, and I've seen it at a bunch of weddings I've attended. I don't think it implies anything for the marriage, one way or the other, and if it's your wedding and you really think the cake-smashing thing is what you want to do, then by all means, have at it. I just won't be one of the ones laughing.)

Do you find it funny when protesters hit politicians with pies?

Again, this may be a surprise, but no, not really. The fact is, when you get hit with a pie, you're getting hit with something. If you don't know it's coming, then it seems to me it very well could be taken as assault. Plus the fact that the human response to having something shoved toward their face is to flinch, turn away, duck, all that. It's certainly not to just stand there, close your eyes, and take it. When that happens in movies or teevee shows, it's because it's in the script.

So basically, I don't think a pie should ever be dispatched toward the face of someone who isn't expecting it and likely doesn't want it. (I think both of those questions may have come up in a previous AskMeAnything, but I didn't go back and check. I treat each question as new, anyway.)

Chris asked several questions, one of which is:

Which imaginary planet would you most like to live on?

Oooooh! Tough one. Very tough one, actually. Maybe one of those Star Trek desert planets? The ones that all look like Vazquez Rocks? Nah, probably not. I wouldn't want to live on Coruscant, either. Or Trantor, or any of the other city-planets. Those might be cool places to visit, but to live there? Knowing that all you'll ever see are buildings? Nah.

We only saw it very briefly, but I very much like the look of Alderaan. Well, you know, before the Imperial genocide of its people. Soaring cities in high mountain ranges? Sign me up!

But in reality...and I hate to say this, because none of you (aside from those who beat-read the book) know about it yet, but the main planet of Princesses In SPACE!!! (not the actual title) strikes me as a nice place. And it's got lots of mysteries, the cool part of that being that I get to be the first one to see how they turn out!

More answers to come.