If I’m a guest at your house I will politely eat your sourdough bread, but please do not try to convert me into some kind of a sourdough enthusiast. I’ve tried it many different times throughout my life and am consistently turned off by it. And no, I truly don’t think it’s a matter of me not having tried the ‘right recipe’, or the ‘right strain’ of yeast. I will never love the stuff, why can you not simply accept that?
Ever run into folks who proselytize/witness the Joys of Running? Vegetarianism? What else do you merely tolerate that others seem to desperately want you to love for some reason?
Speaking of bread – beer. There’s maybe four times a year when I think “A beer would be good right now” and that’s me wanting some “beer-flavored water” mass market brew after doing yard work. I can suck your fancy microbrew down to be polite but I’m not going to be excited about it.
The movie “Christmas Story.” Evidently it’s considered by many to be a classic. It’s a ‘classic’ only in the sense that TBS tried so very very very very very very hard to make it one through continual repetition. It was mildly amusing the first time I saw it, but as far as I’m concerned never warranted a second viewing, much less a 15th! Yet every year some schmuck inevitably tries to get me to watch the danged thing.
Probably not a very popular view, but there you have it.
I’m even less tolerant – I hate beer of any kind, mass-market or microbrewery, off-the-shelf or hand-crafted artisanal. It’s all beer, and to me it tastes awful.
I almost agree about a Christmas Story. I was introduced to the joys of Jean Shepard by a friend when we were teenagers, and I liked his stuff. Even before I saw the movie, I knew from the imagery on the poster that it was adapted from Shepard’s books. I was mildly amused by the film. but it has been overplayed to death, and what was an interesting cultural blip has become a major annoyance.
I also dislike single-malt scotch, and coffees of all kinds, and Reality Shows.
This. Specifically car racing, NASCAR or otherwise. What’s the thrill of watching a bunch of guys driving around an oval for an hour. It’s boring to watch on TV, let alone in person with all the noise, fumes and slight chance of being maimed in a crash. No thanks.
Beer. I tolerate it, and can drink it, but it will never be my beverage of choice. This is an interesting issue as I am in the Army, and have a large number of friends from the East Coast and they are always trying to talk me into this beer or that beer. I have dated many men that have tried to convince me with this expensive infused brew or that craft IPA, nope. Again, I don’t hate it, but I don’t really like it. The fairly recent jump in Cider popularity has been a godsend.
Also, lobster. I even went to Hulls Harbour, Nova Scotia and had one directly off the boat, with the corn cob and potatoes. Meh. If you are going to spend that much, it should be for something you love.
I’m a 30-something suburban white woman so I’m supposed to be all about wine, and wine accessories, and obsessively thinking about when and where I’ll be having my next wine, and dreaming about being anywhere but here, drinking wine and posting about it on Facebook. But I got no love for the stuff.
I go to plenty of parties where everyone else is drinking wine and talking about wine, and I’ll occasionally bring someone a bottle of wine that I let my nieces pick out based on their appreciation of the label, and one time I even drove my friends around Napa to taste wine all over.
But I’m not going to drink it or have wine accessories around the house or post anything about it on Facebook.
I’m supposed to love Ranch. I live in Wisconsin. We put ranch dressing on darn near everything. Me, I can at most tolerate it. I don’t like Ranch flavored pasta salad, never put ranch on my salad, don’t dip my food into it. Occasionally, I will use ranch for Buffalo wings, but I usually prefer Bleu Cheese dressing. Sometimes, if there’s a veggie plate, I might take a little ranch for my carrot sticks. But usually not.
TV dramas and movies. Don’t like, so please stop telling me “Oh, you’d love GOT!” I don’t even like that acronym.
I don’t love vacations to packaged places. Disney and cruises? Package trip to Cozumel or something? No! People love these and assume I would. I’ll just go travel and do my own thing.
My god… I love doing stuff with the time and money not wasted on Disney World.
Wine
Bob Dylan
Mayo, ranch, pickles, ketchup, mustard, olives…pretty much any condiment (I don’t even tolerate those!)
Watching any sport (unless my kid/grandkid is playing)
Casinos
I fucking hate wine. I’ll drink it at a party or dinner if that’s what there is, because y’know, alcohol, but I don’t like it, I don’t want to talk about it, and I find it both disgusting and exceedingly boring. I like beer, but I don’t want to have an in-depth discussion about that either.
I’m the same. (Well, not the dating and being in the Army parts.) I’ve heard that some people just taste bitter things differently than others. I think there are even paper strips that can test for it; some people taste nothing from them, to others they’re very bitter. I’ve always wondered if that was the reason I don’t care for beer. I’m not a fan of dark chocolate, either.
Considering what I liked growing up and even the things I still like, and considering what my friends are in to, I should like Harry Potter, Avengers, and Dr. Who.
Babies and small children, boys in particular. Babies are featureless blobs that I don’t find cute in the least (including my own), and young boys are largely annoying little shits who should be locked away until age 13, when they should trade places with 13-year-old girls, who would in turn be released at age 17.
Watching sports. I have killed so many conversations this way. Someone asks me who my favorite sports team is, or if I saw the game last night, and when I say no, I don’t watch sports, there’s an awkward pause as the person who started the conversation tries to figure out where to go from here.