The normblog profile 41: Scott Wickstein
Scott Wickstein was born in Melbourne, and grew up in rural South Australia. He has lived mostly in Adelaide but has also done stints in Melbourne and Sydney chasing the dot.com dream. Since 2002 he has returned to Adelaide where he leads a bucolic life working in minor jobs as well as on his major job, Ubersportingpundit, with occasional meandering postings at Sasha Castel's blog, Samizdata and White Rose.
Why do you blog? > I blog, therefore I am!
What has been your best blogging experience? > Meeting some incredibly smart and witty people in the Australian blogging community.
What has been your worst blogging experience? > Making an absolute fool of myself in front of same.
What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? > Blog about what you know first before branching off. Have a core topic that you blog frequently about - engineering, politics, knitting, cricket - and then branch out from there.
What are your favourite blogs? > Samizdata, Michael Jennings and Tim Blair.
Who are your intellectual heroes? > James Bennett, the author of An Anglosphere Primer, which has focused a lot of my thinking on international issues.
What are you reading at the moment? > A Carnival of Buncombe, by H.L. Mencken - 1920s and 1930s columns.
Can you name a major moral, political or intellectual issue on which you've ever changed your mind? > I'm really regretting my support for the war in Iraq. I thought that the Bush Administration would have had at least a clue what it is doing, but they really seem to have thought it was easy. There were lots of good reasons for war, but it has to be done competently, and these guys aren't competent.
What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to disseminate? > Cricket.
What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to combat? > US Football.
Who are your political heroes? > This is a strange one, but hear me out. I never saw John Major do anything as Prime Minister to get excited about, but reading his autobiography after he left office, I got the impression that being Prime Minister had not embittered him the way it has nearly every other PM in Australia or England that I have observed. As soon as he got beaten, he went to see Surrey play cricket. This is a man with an appropriate attitude to public life - it is important but should never be all-consuming.
If you could effect one major policy change in the governing of your country, what would it be? > From a sports blogger's point of view, I'd like to see the government stop funding a sports academy. It sounds like a good idea, but it really isn't.
What would you do with the UN? > Expel everyone, and then make them all reapply. Only those nations that can actually comply with the charter should be readmitted.
Do you think the world (human civilization) has already passed its best point, or is that yet to come? > I'm a raging optimist: we've only just begun. We've spent centuries relying in our development on the intellectual capital of Europe and North American scholars. Once you add India and China to that, and as mass education becomes prevalent there, who knows how far we can climb?
Do you think you could ever be married to, or in a long-term relationship with, someone with radically different political views from your own? > No. I tried dating a left-wing activist once. It didn't work - even though she was nearly as keen on cricket as I am.
What do you consider the most important personal quality? > Accepting personal responsibility for one's own life.
What personal fault do you most dislike? > Not accepting personal responsibility for one's own life.
Do you have any prejudices you're willing to acknowledge? > I have a curious dislike of South African cricket fans. The constant abuse that the Australian team copped touring South Africa in 1994 did it. So, since then, I've greatly enjoyed all the misfortunes to befall South Africa in Tests against us, and also their World Cup disasters.
What, if anything, do you worry about? > The latest damn-fool idea that the ICC is going to inflict on the cricket world; and what will happen to Newcastle United when Alan Shearer and Gary Speed retire.
If you were to relive your life to this point, is there anything you'd do differently? > Oh, hell, I'd do it all differently.
What would you call your autobiography? > 'Oops, I did it again'.
Who would play you in the movie about your life? > Andy Serkis.
Where would you most like to live (other than where you do)? > London.
What would your ideal holiday be? > Cricket-watching holidays overseas are great. I've only done New Zealand.
What do you like doing in your spare time? > Blogging!
What is your most treasured possession? > My collection of Wisden Cricketers' Almanacks. I have 39 so far, the earliest being the 1895 edition.
If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to? > I actually did change my first name. Scott is my middle name. When I was about 20 I ditched my real first name, which I've always detested.
What talent would you most like to have? > To be able to bowl leg spin like Shane Warne.
What would be your ideal choice of alternative profession or job? > First World War history scholar.
Who are your sporting heroes? > Alan Border, Shane Warne and Sir Donald Bradman (I'm soooo Australian, aren't I?)
Which English Premiership football team do you support? > Newcastle United.
If you could have one (more or less realistic) wish come true, what would you wish for? > To get paid for writing? Not sure how realistic that is; I've been told I'm good enough, but I'm hopeless at marketing myself.
How, if at all, would you change your life were you suddenly to win or inherit an enormously large sum of money? > I actually did inherit a reasonable sum of money and managed to spend it all on computer courses that proved to be a complete waste of time. It did change my life, and in a good way, even though I'm now more skint then ever.
[The normblog profile is a weekly Friday morning feature. A list of previous profiles, and the links to them, can be found here.]
