I just finished reading High Fidelity so I’m making random lists now. Everything in the book and the movie is listed in 5’s—Top 5 Songs About Death, Desert Island, All-Time, Top 5 most memorable breakups, etc. As my friends would attest, I have trouble being that brief, so most of my lists tend to run a bit longer.

My newest list is People To Know. These are the people you should absolutely have in your life in one way or another.

1. A good mechanic—the kind of person who will tell you if the Firestone down the road is screwing you over with the estimate they just called you with, and will tell you the right questions to ask when you call back so you don’t sound like a complete moron.

2. A nurse. You might think a doctor would be on the list, but I’ve always found nurses to be much easier to talk to. Like a mechanic, a nurse can listen to your symptoms and tell you if anything already in your house will make you feel better. They can also tell you to drop everything and go immediately to the hospital, and you can usually trust that judgment.

3. A Tech Guy (or Woman). You should always be friends with someone who knows more about all things geeky than you do. This used to be hard for me to find, but it’s depressingly easy now.

4. A writer. I love people who can express themselves through the written word the same way other people love musicians. I toy with writing, but someone who’s really talented in this area should be, in my opinion, as venerated as anyone in the world.

5. Someone with similar-but-not-exactly-identical reading tastes. This is easy for me to find, because my tastes are so diverse. Currently I’m in the middle of a biography on John Adams, but I also just finished The Sparrow, A Prayer for Owen Meany and a somewhat trashy vampire novel. I’ll read pretty much anything with a good recommendation, and when I meet someone who will let me borrow from their bookshelves, it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

6. Finally, a good cook. My tastes in food are pretty simple, and I really enjoy it when someone who knows how to cook can show me a new recipe. I just have no imagination for what foods will work together, so it’s fun to have someone teach me something new.

That’s all that’s on the list for now. I used to have a lawyer on there, but I haven’t been sued yet and I figure that’s the kind of thing I can deal with if it happens. Is there anyone else I should have on the list? Let me know!

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