There are a number of fun thinking games you can do to pass your time at work or in life. The ones I like are those that require a little bit of thought and reveal something about those answering the question.

A favorite game 25 years ago at my previous place of employment was "A Dozen to Dinner," for lack of a better name. You'd select 12 people with whom you'd like to sit down for a meal. You could restrict the list to fictional or real people, or living or dead, or whatever you liked.

Somewhere, I still have reams of typewritten lists we passed back and forth, giving our own lists, predicting others', giving explanations, making jokes.

My argument is it made us closer, because it helped us understand each other and helped us see how others saw us.

Of course, now we have motivationally based tests and "interactive exercises" that purport to tell us the same thing, tests mainly used to figure out how bosses can used psychology to make employees work harder and more efficiently.

Does it seem like a little bit of the humanity has been lost?

Here's a chance to recover a bit of that and educate yourself about yourself.

A recent article on theonion.com discussed which artists get a "lifetime pass" from you. Broadly defined, this is the artist(s) or performer(s) who, regardless of whatever they do, you will like them and continue to enjoy, appreciate and pursue their work. Their work, in quality or volume or both, has moved you in such a way that you can honestly say you will always be a fan and will always pay attention to what they're doing.

Who is yours?

I asked a group of arts-loving friends the question. The e-mail concluded with this paragraph:

"Don't feel like you have to limit it to one. If film is your passion and there are three actors or directors, that's fine. If you want to pick an author, someone from film or TV–;and someone from music, that's great. I'm just looking for a cross-section of selections. I will be surprised if the same name shows up three times based on the 30 people I'm sending this out to."

I have six on my list, three musicians (one dead) and three actors. I'll list them later (although they're already included in the upcoming list, in case you want to take a guess at who mine are), after I supply the unbelievably varied list of those who responded to my query.

I expected a lot of doubling up, and I expected a lot of names from mainstream popular culture. What I got was a wild variety, and some names I frankly had to look up.

Try this out with your friends and co-workers. They might point you toward some new venues of entertainment. And you might learn something about yourself.

Some of my responders had lengthy explanations as well. Those are printed today in my blog. The names are left out to protect the easily embarrassed, and the people who listed Flea and Milla Jovovich.

Musicians

Bon Jovi, David Cassidy, Eric Clapton, Billy Corgan, Elvis Costello, Neil Diamond, John Denver, Bob Dylan (2), Jason Falkner, Flea, The Floating Men, Barry Gibb, David Gilmour, Dave Grohl, George Harrison, Kris Kristofferson, John Lennon (2), Wes Hollywood, Matt Mahaffey, J Mascis, Paul McCartney (6), Mac McCaughan, Dolly Parton, Neal Peart, Rascal Flatts, The Rolling Stones, Todd Rundgren, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Pete Townshend, Keith Urban, Roger Waters, Neil Young, Frank Zappa

Film

Scott Bakula, Brad Bird, Jack Black, Don Bluth, Bruce Campbell, Dan Clowes, the Coen Brothers, Jamie Lee Curtis, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford (2), Michael J. Fox, Terry Gilliam, Tom Hanks (2), Hugh Jackman, Milla Jovovich, George Lucas, Steve Martin, Hayao Miyazaki, Bill Murray, Liam Neeson, Jack Nicholson (4), Al Pacino, Pixar, Sam Raimi, George A. Romero, Kurt Russell, Will Smith, Jimmy Stewart, Meryl Streep, Jean Claude Van Damme, Wachowski Brothers, John Wayne, Kate Winslet (2), Reese Witherspoon

Authors

Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Jonathan Maberry, Cormac McCarthy (2), Alan Moore, Ann Rule, Salman Rushdie, Richard Russo, Nicholas Sparks, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut (2)

TV

Jim Gaffigan, Monty Python, The Muppets, The Simpsons (2), Joss Whedon.

That's a pretty diverse list. What impresses me most is just a handful of artists were mentioned more than once, and only two artists, Paul McCartney and Jack Nicholson, were mentioned more than twice.

And as much as I hate to run with the crowd, and as much as the performer frustrates me any more as often as he delights me, McCartney was the first name on my list, and for a time I felt comfortable leaving it at him. The guy wrote two of the greatest songs in history, "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude," before he reached age 30, and while the ensuing years have not always been as valuable, I can't resist checking in. Sometimes he unexpectedly floors me, as he did with 1997's "Flaming Pie." And sometimes he disappoints me. But I'm almost always listening.

I'm always listening to Elvis Costello as well. He's gone well off the beaten path often, and I'm less fond of his classical- and jazz-based detours. But every once in a while, the brilliance that kept me enthralled for the prolific first decade of his career returns, and I'm again stunned.

Frank Zappa has been dead for 15 years and was just 52 when he died. But he released hundreds hours of music during his lifetime, and his family continues to release previously unheard material. There are hundreds of Zappa concert tapes circulating, and his shows generally ran two hours or more, so there's a plethora of material from which to choose. I like some eras more than others but find in all interesting.

My actors are Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet, all for the same reason: even if they're in horrible movies, they're always fascinating. (Of Pacino, Roger Ebert wrote, "People have accused him of overacting, but you can never accuse him of bad acting.")

I look forward to more reader lists of lifetime pass artists.

timcain@herald-review.com|421-6908