Who's your favorite author?

That’s not a theoretical question for me these days.

A maddening glitch occurred when I recently updated my iPhone and entered my password information for one of two email accounts. The email works just fine for the phone (and for my iPad—am I too Mac-happy?), but I lost connectivity (as they say) on my main computer, the iMac.

Basically, I kept getting the message that I was entering the wrong password. I wasn’t, but who’s going to argue with a computer?

The situation got more frustrating when I asked to have my password sent to me. The “security question” was—you guessed it—Who’s your favorite author?

Good grief! Who knows?

I’ve read a gazillion books over my lifetime, loved many, liked a lot more. But which, of all the possible authors, was my favorite?

I’m pretty compulsive about keeping a list of my passwords, but never bothered to jot down answers to security questions. Dumb, I know.

So, I tried. First, Trollope. No dice. (Maybe if the security question had been “Who’s your favorite 19th century author?”)

Next, I tried Harper Lee (for family reasons). Nothing.

At this point, I realized that guessing my “favorite author” was an exercise in futility. So I gave up and now am dreading the hours-long call to so-called help desk so I can be assigned a new password.

In the meantime, I’m using my alternate email address and left to ponder, who, really is my favorite author? Have I failed him/her by failing to remember? Is it even possible to name a single favorite?

Ruminations aside, I vow to write down answers to my security questions from now on. And I’m hoping I can remember where I put that piece of paper….