Touch Me... in Whimsy

What is there really to say about this?

For more amazing delights, check out

this link.
(Thanks to Suzanne Somers for the title of this post. From her collection of poetry entitled "Touch Me".)

Something That No One I Know Has Ever Tried

Pretzel salad recipe with strawberries, gelatin, and other ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups crushed hard pretzels
3/4 cup melted butter or margarine
3 tablespoons sugar
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese
2 cups whipped cream or whipped topping
1 package (6 oz) strawberry gelatin
1 package (10 oz) frozen strawberries, thawed
2 cups boiling water
1 cup sugar

I'm not going to tell you what to do with the ingredients. Half the fun of this recipe is in guessing how to make it. The other half is in making it. Zero percent of the fun is in the eating of it.

Barbara Kingsolver

I forgot to mention her in my list of things that everyone likes except me.

I haven't even read anything by her. But I just know. I know.

People have been recommending her to me since first-year university. At that time, the big book was "The Bean Trees." More recently the big book was "The Poisonwood Bible."

Is it the ethnican design of her book covers? The titles? ("The Bean Trees" -- pisses me off.) Her author photo? Ms. Kingsolver, I am sorry. You're probably a perfectly nice person and you're right in having a huge fan base of my peers. You're probably very skilled and intelligent. It's just that I hate you.

Things That Everyone Likes

... Except Me.

The other day Thor and I were trying to think of things that all our friends liked (or people in our peer group, to be more precise) but we hated. I had a short list, but since so many things make me cranky, it's just a matter of time before it grows.

1. Sex in the City. I just don't get it. It's like a Disney fairy tale for grown-up girls, with sex. And if you're still going "So?", I have nothing to say to you.
2. Coldplay. Whiny white guys.
3. The Spanish language. I'm learning it 'cause it's useful, but inexplicably, it gives me the creeps. Why couldn't Italians have colonized half the world instead? That's a great language!

In the interests of being positive, something I'm really really trying to do more these days (Disney comments notwithstanding), I could start a counter-list,
Things That Everyone Likes, Including Me.

1. Ikea
2. No Logo, Naomi Klein
3. Yoga
ZZzzz. This is so predicable, it hurts.

So let's try
Things I Like that Nobody in My Peer Group Likes

1. America's Next Top Model. OK, so some people I know like this show. Well, I'm mentioning it anyway because it needs more exposure. Watch this show. It RULES. I so want to be on it as, like, their plus-age model. I would be so fierce.
2. Sacred steel gospel music. This shit's so funky, you could remove wallpaper with it. Also, Aretha's Amazing Grace album. AAARRGHH!
3. Paul Theroux. Although I've never really talked about him with anyone.

Great Things That Defy Categorization

1. Singing along to a favourite album at the top of one's lungs
2. May
3. Bicycling on residential streets at night in the summer
4. Any dessert involving coffee and chocolate
5. Dogs
6. Nicholson Baker
7. The BBC, and their accents
8. 1950s advertising
9. The rug I bought six years ago
10. Sleep