Caitlin asked Michael J. Sullivan:

In the cliche spirit of SATC: Are you a "Royce" or a "Hadrian" and why? (Queue girlish giggles and comments of "OMG he's such a Myron!!")

Michael J. Sullivan Hey Caitlin, thanks for asking. First, I have to say I had to look up what SATC was...but given I doubt I'm the demographic of that show, I guess that's not too unusual.

My answer in the past has always been, both...it depends on the situation, but an incident happened the other day here in D.C. that made me realize I'm probably more Royce.

We have an underground metro system here, and a train was trapped in a tunnel that was filing with smoke. It got pretty serious. If I recall correctly, one person died, and several others passed out.

My wife and I had had several conversations about what we would do if on that train...all of which meant not hanging around long enough to pass out. But it seemed that a lot of people didn't try to leave. One article mentioned a man who did use the emergency release, walked down the track, found a ladder leading to the service and got out. Later he noticed just one (or maybe it was a few) people followed him but the vast majority stayed behind. When all was said and done, he had a lot of regret that he didn't try to convince a lot the other people to come with him...a very Hadrian like thing to do. Then it struck me. His actions were very "Royce like" - and probably exactly what I would have done.

I guess if I were going to be completely honest - in an emergency situation, or if my family is threatened - I'm Royce. When my wife is feeling low, the Hadrian in me comes out.

With all that being said...Myron is my favorite - and I wish I could say I was more like him. ;-)

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