Thursday, May 12, 2005

I don't get it

John (CatholicPackerFan) sent this meme my way:

List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can't really understand the fuss over.

My "peer group" is pretty difficult to define at the moment, but here goes. (I hope I don't sound too petulant.)

1) shoes
I am the only woman I know who just doesn't get excited about shoes. I like having comfy footwear and all that, but shoe shopping and admiration are lost on me.

2)Pinot Grigio
Yes, yes, yes, Sideways is an amazing movie and I really should see it someday, but the film seems to have popularized the Pinots, red and white. I dislike the white so much that I have no interest in trying the red. Give me a glass of Chardonnay any day.

3) Ford vs. Chevrolet
I'm throughly baffled by the enthusiasm that truck owners bring to this topic, including the little icons of a boy who used to resemble Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbs) expressing his feelings toward one brand or the other in a very, er, physical and dramatic way. I'm all for brand loyalties, but the frenzy associated with this one seems very silly.

4) Brad Pitt
He's not unattractive, but neither does he make me swoon.

5) contemporary phrasing of the Lord's Prayer
Don't like it, not one little bit - one of my students, a priest in training, tried to convince me otherwise by explaining that the contemporary version is actually older than the traditional one. Apart from the beauty of language issue, the critical word for me is "trespass." Debts are not always a bad thing. I owe several large ones to various people in my life, but none of them qualify as sin. Trespass includes the choices made, knowing that they were wrong (sins of comission) as well as the choices made, unknowingly, that had greater adverse long-term consequences (sins of omission.)

(tosses meme to Swankette, Hugh, and Alison.)

(Throws meme with great force at Greg. Now that the semester is over, we the Indiana bloggers need you to come back.)

Words Written: a few hundred - also eliminated some verbs. Almost threw Green Bookacross the room, but luckily remembered that it is a library book and desisted
Lessons Graded: seven really good, solid, thoughtful book reviews

6 comments:

John Burzynski said...

'DESISTED'

Yes, you have officially graduated to 'teacher' status in my book.

I have only ever heard one other person in my life use the word 'DESIST', and that was my 4th grade teacher. When we (OK, me) were behaving badly, our teacher always used to shout 'cease and desist with that bad behavior at once'. When she said those words, we knew she meant it....

:)

torporindy said...

Make my drink beaujolais. I have never understood the ford v. chevy thing either. They seem more similar than they are different.

lemming said...

John - I even use "ergo" in casual conversation, proof positive that I am a nerd.

Topor - you know, I've never sampled Beaujolais, and I probably should.

torporindy said...

It's my favorite, but I am a red guy. It's not one of the heavier reds though.

Swankette said...

I'm right there with you on Brad Pitt, but am in the exact opposite camp from you on shoes.

Here's the thing: Fat day, skinny day, whatever time of the month it is, a great pair of shoes is always a great pair of shoes, will always basically fit, and never needs to be ironed, is stuck in the wash the day you want to wear it, and rare is the stain that can't be removed.

I have often said that I'd be totally happy if I could wear a white t-shirt and blue jeans every day for the rest of my life, and just change my shoes to suit the occasion.

Joe said...

Trespass is also not always a bad thing... c.f. "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign" and "This land is your land." :-)

That said, I like it when someone takes the time to explain the poetry of the original language, but not when they just change words to sound more modern. Got in a bit of a dustup once explaining to someone that "Our Mother" was not inclusive, it was just incorrect.