In our January issue, we asked our staff to name a skill they've always wanted to learn.
Welding. Because I need another expensive hobby.
— Jenny Kiefer, associate writer
The skill of dunking a basketball on a regulation 10-foot goal. I’ve often dreamt of flying high and casually slamming it home. (In my sleep, I can leave the ground for 10 or 12 seconds at a time, landing as softly as a kitten.) Back in high school, a group of us played games in the summer on an outdoor kids’ court with eight-and-a-half-foot baskets, and I was quite the dunker, especially driving diagonally across the lane for left-handed slams. At 5’11” (I may have shrunk an inch since) I could just barely reach one of those little orange curlicues that hook the string loops on a regulation goal. But had I spent hours and months and years building up my thighs and calves and feet (and grown longer legs and arms), the effort might have been rewarded. Look at Welch, way above the rim!
— Jack Welch, copy editor
Anything involving home improvement, I’m useless. And therefore I end up paying people way too much money to do things I could probably fix with a little time and skill. Also, one of these days I want to master a perfect lattice pie crust.
— Anne Marshall, senior writer
I wish I could read Rimbaud in French. I also wish I had even a thimble’s worth of talent for photography, but alas.
— Dylon Jones, web editor
How to sew. I always have delusions of grandeur about becoming a famous fashion designer, but I really don’t even know how to sew on a button. I dream of creating my own designs and bringing them to life in a new Louisville Fashion District, but for now I’d settle on being able to make my daughter a mermaid costume.
— Mandy Wood, advertising account executive
Coding. If I could code I could take over the world, I’m almost certain.
— Maya O. McKenzie, editorial intern
I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish because it is one of the most-spoken languages in the U.S.
— Dahlen Mitzalis, editorial intern
My musical career ended with one too many inadvertent swallows of slide oil as a grade-school trombonist. Now I wish I’d picked up the guitar. I wouldn’t have to be Jimi Hendrix, just an under-the-radar genius like Richard Thompson. I already sing like Bob Dylan, so I have that covered.
— Bruce Allar, contributing writer
I never learned an instrument. I think I’ve tried and quit roughly five different times over the years. But now, after living with a jazz-proficient partner for a couple years, I’m starting to think about picking up guitar (again). This time, I’m going to see it through and actually learn, instead of just memorizing the chords to pop-punk songs. Probably.
— Alexandra Winters, assistant web editor
To play Dylan’s “Desolation Row” on the harmonica.
— Matthew Barzun, publisher
Always wanted to learn how to play the piano.
— Brooke Wyrosdick, operations assistant
I started to write “Playing the piano,” then, instead, remembered that I need a better memory. I have a friend, Robin, and one day I couldn’t remember her name even though I’ve known her for a decade. I think she was offended because she wouldn’t tell me. I kept saying, “I know it’s a bird.”
There are many people in my life I would like to call by name.
— Suki Anderson, art director
Does getting up the first time your alarm goes off in the morning count as a skill? If so, I’d like to learn it.
— Katie Molck, contributing writer
This originally appeared in the January 2019 issue of Louisville Magazine as the Inter-Office Memo. To subscribe to Louisville Magazine, click here. [4] To find us on newsstands, click here. [5]
Cover photo: Pexels.com [6]