I’m putting this in Cafe Society, because I’m mostly thinking of songs, tv shows, movies, etc, but really if this needs to be moved to IMHO I understand.
The other day as I was listening to public radio, and another episode of Engines of Our Ingenuity came on, and I just flipped out and turned it off. I realize that I hate it, even though it’s something I should love. For those unfamiliar with it, it’s a short 4 minute podcast type thing that explores how some person came up with a brilliant idea that has become important to every day life or industry. It goes into explaining some depth behind some piece of trivia, which is something that I would normally eat up, as I’m a naturally curious person who loves to learn about such minutia.
But something about that show just grates on me to the point I can’t stand it anymore. I think it’s because John Leinhard sounds like he’s talking down to you, instead of teaching you something. There’s something about the way he speaks and the words he uses that just sounds very preachy and annoying, almost as if he’s saying you’re stupid if you don’t know this stuff already. But even when I do stay tuned in and it’s a guest reader for the episode, I still end up hating the way the information is presented. I just can’t quite put my finger on it.
So how about you? What media, food, or other things do you hate that you should enjoy, and why?
Also, am I alone in Engines of our Ingenuity and hating it so much for indescribable reasons?
Shredded Parmesan cheese on top of spaghetti. I know it sounds random, but it’s strange: I love topping millions of dishes with cheese - chili, toast, soup - but I prefer spaghetti with no Parmesan. In that same vein, Swiss cheese. I love all kinds of weird stinky cheeses no one else will touch with a ten foot pole, but I can’t stand Swiss.
Also, the Rolling Stones. I’m a big fan of lots of bands from their time and place, yet I just don’t get the appeal of their music.
I’ll agree with you on swiss.
As for parmesan. I put a ton of it on pasta. At restaurants, I’ll used to ask them to leave the grater. At home I pop the top off rather then use a spoon/shaker, I use a lot. But I never understood why people put it on lasagna or baked ziti. There’s already 9 pounds of cheese on there, what’s the point of adding another spoonful.
Speaking of cheese, what about baked feta? Normal feta is not my favorite cheese, but I can eat it - once baked, I swear it smells exactly like vomit. No one else apparently notices, but it’s that slightly acidic scent that makes the back of your mouth burn, if that makes any sense.
I wouldn’t say that I hate it, to the extent that you seem to do, but yes, there is something distinctly annoying about it. I think, more than “talking down” it is the way that everything is wrapped up so neatly in these little 4 minute stories, when it is actually quite obvious, if you have any sort of clue about how history really works, that the real stories must be be much more complex and messy. Thus Leinhard is not only being smug about all the obscure knowledge he likes to pretend is coming straight out of his brain, but he is actively falsifying the real history (and you can sort of tell that, even if, as is often the case, it a bit of history you never heard of before).
Tomatoes, I’ve tried to like them, gave it my best shot, I don’t like the flavor and I don’t care for the “snotty” goo inside them. I can eat a small bit only if smothered in salad dressing. I like ketchup though and other tomato derivatives, just can’t eat them raw.
Swiss cheese on the other hand is heavenly. Roast beef hoagie with melted swiss on it? C’mon!
all the cop tv dramas… they make me tense or something. I never watched a full episode of any of them starting way back to Hill St Blues. I may have watched Barretta or something but they do not appeal to me. I like the science the shows but not the shows.
Swiss cheese is icky.
I wish I liked creme brulee or pudding type desserts.
Beautifully made film, I’ll cheerfully grant. Very entertaining. 'Did notlike the story.
Maybe it’s because of my own oddball politics—I think my alignment is somewhere between “Neutral Vicious” and “Lawful Nihilist”—since just about every time a work gets political, there’s usually at least one aspect that leaves me on the outs. Maybe it’s just my own artistic bent concerning storytelling. Maybe it’s my fine-honed geeky nitpicker instincts, getting riled up about mistakes or changes to the established setting—especially, combining all those categories of objections, when it felt to me like they were ramrodded in to enforce the film’s Moral and The Message.
Maybe it’s just sour grapes, because some part of me thinks I could do better.
Or maybe I’m just a cantankerous old cuss, with increasingly bad taste.
Game of Thrones. Books and TV series. I’m a fan of medieval-style fantasy, dragons, realism wrt political systems and fighting in said medieval settings, and I’m a sucker for a multi-book epic…but I could just never get into it. I don’t know why…maybe it’s the lack of a real protagonist, but nothing about it ever grabbed me.
Couldn’t stand the Game of Thrones books. The only character who seemed to have an IQ above room temperature in the South Pole outdoors in July was the Imp; everybody else caused me this conflict where on one hand I wanted to strangle them and on the other I would have needed to do it wearing a full bodysuit to avoid contaminating myself by touch.
Watching the first season made me realize what the problem was: the Imp is about the only one whose thought processes are explained in any way. Since it’s always as dialogue, and often in the form of guesses by his enemies, the explanation may or may not be true, but at least it is there, you can see that there is more to him than “I am House Bananas! House Bananas does it this way!” (and how long has House Bananas been doing it that way? Some of those Houses are complete parvenues). Turns out that watching someone talk and do things without having their thoughts explained is fine by me when it’s a movie but not in a book.
Fennel. It looks so fresh, crisp and inviting. The green parts remind me of dill, which I love. The bulb reminds me of fresh celery. I want to devour it every time I see it. But I can’t abide the black liquorice smell and taste and so the desire shall remain forever unrequited.
The music of Philip Phillips. He’s doing much of the same acoustic folk revival stuff that I love hearing when Mumford & Sons or the Magnetic Zeroes or Passenger do it, but for some reason it just sounds so phony coming out of him. Ditto the Lumineers.
Game of Thrones. I love character-driven dramas like this, but I watched the first few episodes and just couldn’t motivate myself to care about what happens to any of the characters.
Cheeseburgers. I like cheese. And I like burgers. And I like other dishes that combine melted cheese and ground beef. But for some reason, I’m incapable of eating a hamburger with a slice of cheese on top of it without gagging. (Crumbled bleu cheese on a burger, for whatever reason, I can handle.)
Dogs. “hate” is way too extreme a word, as I love ALL animals, but on the entire scale, I’m not that fond of dogs. Oh, I scratch their heads, will take one on a walk on a leash, I compliment the owners for owning such remarkable animals, and actually do admire some of them for their looks, or ability to do tricks, or rescuing orphans from a burning building. I have owned one in the past and enjoyed moments. But I don’t want to own one now or clean up after it. I think it’s the
doggy smell, and the barking gets on my nerves. I can see why people love them, but they’re not for me.
Hamburgers and fries. Pepperoni and sausage on pizza. Pancakes. Grocery store cakes with icky shortening based frosting. Melted yellow cheese and bacon on everything. Sick unto death of all of them.
Grateful Dead. Based on other music I like, my age and demographics, etc, all say I should like the Dead. Don’t. Just can’t stand them.
Even though there are a few Dead songs that other artists cover, and I don’t mind those. Bruce Hornsby does a cover of Jack Straw that I love. Same song by the Dead? Makes me all stabby.
