Metatalktail Hour: The Sweetest Taboo February 6, 2022 1:44 AM Subscribe
Following on "normal things that make you cringe," evilmomlady has suggested “next can we do things that MOST people find gross but you secretly (or openly) like? I’m thinking of my partner who loves the smell of cow manure spread on the fields (smells like home?!) and wants to put down the car window and inhale deeply while the rest of us in the car are gagging or turning blue from holding our breath as we drive by said field.”
So, yes, we must ask: what are some ordinary things that bring you joy, but that most other people are united in disliking? We're not interested in true confessions about your weird-ass paraphilia or depraved Flintstones fan fiction, just everyday stuff that usually gets jeers instead of cheers. Instant coffee? Velvet wall paintings? Cheese product? Circus Peanuts? Man from Porlock?
Go ahead — spill those delicious, protein-rich beans, and share your unloved darlings! (Or just talk about whatever is on your mind, but nopolitics, please!)
So, yes, we must ask: what are some ordinary things that bring you joy, but that most other people are united in disliking? We're not interested in true confessions about your weird-ass paraphilia or depraved Flintstones fan fiction, just everyday stuff that usually gets jeers instead of cheers. Instant coffee? Velvet wall paintings? Cheese product? Circus Peanuts? Man from Porlock?
Go ahead — spill those delicious, protein-rich beans, and share your unloved darlings! (Or just talk about whatever is on your mind, but no
I can’t speak for all cats, but I don’t really mind the smell while cleaning the cat boxes. I wouldn’t say I like it, but it’s just another smell. Every so often, though, one of them distills some sort of stink bomb in their innards, and that’s a bit of a shock.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:06 AM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:06 AM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
I don’t eat meat anymore but when I did, I really used to like what they call Hawaiian pizzas. I like the pineapple. A lot of people I knew thought that was sacrilegious.
posted by gt2 at 4:26 AM on February 6, 2022 [20 favorites]
posted by gt2 at 4:26 AM on February 6, 2022 [20 favorites]
Dirt! People would like for me to call it soil but I always think of it as dirt. Dirty wonderful dirt. If I could spend all of my waking hours covered in it I would be happy.
I also love snakes and lizards and have always wished that everyone could appreciate their majesty.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 4:47 AM on February 6, 2022 [10 favorites]
I also love snakes and lizards and have always wished that everyone could appreciate their majesty.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 4:47 AM on February 6, 2022 [10 favorites]
I love doing the laundry.
I find it very soothing. I used to love it even back before we had a machine, and I had to wash everything in the bath, (I used to stomp on it while reading) and carry the heavy wet laundry down several sets of stairs (we were living in a flat at the time) to the communal washing lines.
I think it's because it's so predictable, and watery (I love anything to do with water) and it's quite sensual too. In summer, pegging things up on the washing line outside (these days in my garden where I can hear the sea) and in winter hanging the clothes on a rack over the heater which is so cozy.
I suspect I would not feel this way if I had children, but doing only two people's laundry is always a manageable amount.
Other things I like that not many other people seem to: rats tails. They are beautiful. Not naked, but covered in little diamond scales and tiny hairs. They are graceful and expressive too. So sweet when the tail curls firmly round your wrist, holding on for balance.
Also, unlike dogs or cats, rats don't mind their tails being touched. Or at least, mine don't.
posted by Zumbador at 4:58 AM on February 6, 2022 [20 favorites]
I find it very soothing. I used to love it even back before we had a machine, and I had to wash everything in the bath, (I used to stomp on it while reading) and carry the heavy wet laundry down several sets of stairs (we were living in a flat at the time) to the communal washing lines.
I think it's because it's so predictable, and watery (I love anything to do with water) and it's quite sensual too. In summer, pegging things up on the washing line outside (these days in my garden where I can hear the sea) and in winter hanging the clothes on a rack over the heater which is so cozy.
I suspect I would not feel this way if I had children, but doing only two people's laundry is always a manageable amount.
Other things I like that not many other people seem to: rats tails. They are beautiful. Not naked, but covered in little diamond scales and tiny hairs. They are graceful and expressive too. So sweet when the tail curls firmly round your wrist, holding on for balance.
Also, unlike dogs or cats, rats don't mind their tails being touched. Or at least, mine don't.
posted by Zumbador at 4:58 AM on February 6, 2022 [20 favorites]
I like seeping and mopping. It’s soothing and meditative. I also like washing dishes. People often react react oddly when I admit to any of this.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:13 AM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:13 AM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
Obviously this isn’t utterly unique, but I think mine is math. I didn’t really consider it a career option because as a teenager I basically thought the only career for people who liked math was a math teacher, which I definitely could not do. Most math comes pretty naturally to me, which made it virtually impossible for me to explain it to anyone (a necessary teaching skill), though I’ve definitely gotten better about this over time. I still get to use math every day (as a critical care/nutrition support dietitian), and even though most of the math is pretty basic and/or coded into my excel spreadsheet, it makes me happy to see so many numbers.
posted by obfuscation at 5:55 AM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by obfuscation at 5:55 AM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
All my mom friends hate Play Doh because it gets ground into the carpet. I like prying it out of the carpet, it's how I meditate.
posted by champers at 5:56 AM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by champers at 5:56 AM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
Fun suggestion. For me, the most notable is probably diesel bus exhaust. It's the smell of childhood freedom and adventure. It's the smell of going on a trip. Gimme your enclosed bus depots! It's worth the increased risk of disease. Well, for me, not for the people who work there all day. Moving to cleaner fuels is great! But, I will genuinely miss the old bus smell. These days you rarely get it around here, but it's a traveling highlight.
I'm also a fan of cow manure, and horse manure, probably for similar nostalgic reasons. Not the smell of the huge Stockton, CA yards, but the back side of a small farm or the shit they spread on grass. Also, skunk spray that's not actually on you. And wet dog. (I grew up hanging around grooming shops.)
I also have a great fondness for pigeons and rats, but I think that's more philosophical than visceral or nostalgic.
posted by eotvos at 5:59 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm also a fan of cow manure, and horse manure, probably for similar nostalgic reasons. Not the smell of the huge Stockton, CA yards, but the back side of a small farm or the shit they spread on grass. Also, skunk spray that's not actually on you. And wet dog. (I grew up hanging around grooming shops.)
I also have a great fondness for pigeons and rats, but I think that's more philosophical than visceral or nostalgic.
posted by eotvos at 5:59 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I like skunk smell, in its earthiness, and mostly because I have a very poor sense of smell and may go a day smelling nothing, but skunk is strong enough for me to detect.
posted by latkes at 6:46 AM on February 6, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by latkes at 6:46 AM on February 6, 2022 [12 favorites]
I like leftover dressed (i.e. soggy) salad. Even soggy croutons.
posted by Pax at 7:09 AM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Pax at 7:09 AM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
The sound of jet planes. Most people complain about jet noise but having grown up on SAC bases in the Cold War, jet fighters and bombers taking off and landing are the background noise to my childhood and I still stop and look up anytime I hear a jet.
Folding laundry - I find it relaxing.
posted by COD at 7:10 AM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
Folding laundry - I find it relaxing.
posted by COD at 7:10 AM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
I like Pu-Erh tea. It seems that it's a tea than many people in the US and Europe either haven't heard of, or love to hate.
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:12 AM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by Too-Ticky at 7:12 AM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
Chopping vegetables! Do you want to cook more, but hate the "tedious" food prep - I'm your sous chef.
posted by the primroses were over at 7:15 AM on February 6, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by the primroses were over at 7:15 AM on February 6, 2022 [11 favorites]
I like leftover dressed (i.e. soggy) salad.
My mother called this "marinated" salad.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 7:35 AM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
My mother called this "marinated" salad.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 7:35 AM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
I also enjoy doing laundry. I like the smell of clean clothes, I like putting everything away in its place, and when I’m done… SO MANY POSSIBILITIES for what to wear!
In other news—I got two job offers this week and accepted the one I’m most excited about. I’ve been out of work since Dec 1 when I left a library job that had turned into a horribly toxic environment. This new library position has some similarities to what I was doing before, but also some big differences (in a good way!) and it’s also 5 minutes from my house. I start in a week and I’m really happy about it and ready to get back to work.
posted by bookmammal at 7:38 AM on February 6, 2022 [42 favorites]
In other news—I got two job offers this week and accepted the one I’m most excited about. I’ve been out of work since Dec 1 when I left a library job that had turned into a horribly toxic environment. This new library position has some similarities to what I was doing before, but also some big differences (in a good way!) and it’s also 5 minutes from my house. I start in a week and I’m really happy about it and ready to get back to work.
posted by bookmammal at 7:38 AM on February 6, 2022 [42 favorites]
Upgrading ham and pineapple pizza with other taboo items: anchovy, jalapeño, capers and sweetcorn.
I'm persuaded that eating nose boogers gives your immune system things to train on that are caught and dried out in your nose, but I live with cats that I'm already allergic to so I don't need to have extra response to their hair and saliva-protein.
posted by k3ninho at 8:12 AM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'm persuaded that eating nose boogers gives your immune system things to train on that are caught and dried out in your nose, but I live with cats that I'm already allergic to so I don't need to have extra response to their hair and saliva-protein.
posted by k3ninho at 8:12 AM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Since I began working from home in March 2020 I have this daily ritual where I break for lunch, come down to the kitchen, and wash any dishes that are there and clean the entire kitchen. Then I have lunch, usually with my wife, and then I clean up the kitchen again. Then at 5:00 I come down and clean up any more mess in the kitchen.
I sit in front of a screen all day so having that physical thing to do, and a problem I can clearly see and easily solve, has taken the place of the hour-long commute that previously was my transition from work to home. Now that transition is doing dishes.
I enjoy it. I enjoy standing at the sink, looking out the window at the bird feeders, and making messy things clean. If we have a party or a holiday gathering I always tackle the dishes as soon as everyone leaves.
My family sure as hell enjoyed this development.
posted by bondcliff at 8:17 AM on February 6, 2022 [40 favorites]
I sit in front of a screen all day so having that physical thing to do, and a problem I can clearly see and easily solve, has taken the place of the hour-long commute that previously was my transition from work to home. Now that transition is doing dishes.
I enjoy it. I enjoy standing at the sink, looking out the window at the bird feeders, and making messy things clean. If we have a party or a holiday gathering I always tackle the dishes as soon as everyone leaves.
My family sure as hell enjoyed this development.
posted by bondcliff at 8:17 AM on February 6, 2022 [40 favorites]
I prefer my vegetables cooked more in the direction of limp and mushy rather than lightly sauted or...ugh...raw. I will eat from a crudite platter if there's no other option out of a sense of moral obligation to keep myself from Dying From The Cancer while I still have others dependent on me.
Relatedly, I like a lot of 1950s-70s cooking that is the butt of jokes for many people younger than myself--casseroles, jello salads, things involving Spam.... As an older Gen-X, this is the food of my childhood, and in particular of eating the homecooked meals of people other than my mother (grandmas, aunts, childhood friends, church potlucks, etc.), because my mom--god bless her--cooked proper "healthy" family dinners 5-6 nights a week for 40 years and never got very good at it.
posted by drlith at 8:20 AM on February 6, 2022 [12 favorites]
Relatedly, I like a lot of 1950s-70s cooking that is the butt of jokes for many people younger than myself--casseroles, jello salads, things involving Spam.... As an older Gen-X, this is the food of my childhood, and in particular of eating the homecooked meals of people other than my mother (grandmas, aunts, childhood friends, church potlucks, etc.), because my mom--god bless her--cooked proper "healthy" family dinners 5-6 nights a week for 40 years and never got very good at it.
posted by drlith at 8:20 AM on February 6, 2022 [12 favorites]
I love the smell of horses/barn. I think within a subsection of people (i.e. Horse People) this isn't so unusual. But I've been told by non horse people that they find the strong aroma of Horse to be unappealing. I think it's truly the best smell in the world.
I also tend to like repetitive, small scale organizing tasks. I find them soothing. Like as a kid, I collected change, and I loved the process of separating the coins, then counting them out to the right denomination, and putting them into the coin roll wrappers so I could bring them to the bank.
And it doesn't have to be something remunerative! But this only works if it's something where there's a clear process and order. I hate sorting through my own crap and having to make decisions about what to keep and what to throw out.
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:20 AM on February 6, 2022 [12 favorites]
I also tend to like repetitive, small scale organizing tasks. I find them soothing. Like as a kid, I collected change, and I loved the process of separating the coins, then counting them out to the right denomination, and putting them into the coin roll wrappers so I could bring them to the bank.
And it doesn't have to be something remunerative! But this only works if it's something where there's a clear process and order. I hate sorting through my own crap and having to make decisions about what to keep and what to throw out.
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:20 AM on February 6, 2022 [12 favorites]
The smell of silk immediately comes to mind. It's so weird and unpleasant and addictive.
I'm a picker, so all manner of things that people find gross, weird, taboo or whatever is probably somewhat gratifying to me. That said, I probably don't want to know about it and let's pretend none of this happens.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:41 AM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
I'm a picker, so all manner of things that people find gross, weird, taboo or whatever is probably somewhat gratifying to me. That said, I probably don't want to know about it and let's pretend none of this happens.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:41 AM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
Thought of another one. Although I don't know if this is something most people don't like, as I don't know anyone else who does it.
Formatting ebooks.
I taught myself to do it from scratch using notepad just so I could be sure I understood how it works. I don't do that any more, but my method is probably still far too tedious (I don't find it tedious)
I compile the book to epub out of Scrivener, then I edit it in Sigil, replacing all the CSS and doing all the custom bits I like in my books like scene dividers and decorative chapter headings.
I love figuring out the most efficient way to use regular expressions to find and replace stuff.
It's finicky and it takes all my attention, but I know that (unlike writing fiction) if I just keep going for long enough it will all work out perfectly.
A lot like embroidery.
Or digging big rocks out of the garden.
posted by Zumbador at 8:47 AM on February 6, 2022 [14 favorites]
Formatting ebooks.
I taught myself to do it from scratch using notepad just so I could be sure I understood how it works. I don't do that any more, but my method is probably still far too tedious (I don't find it tedious)
I compile the book to epub out of Scrivener, then I edit it in Sigil, replacing all the CSS and doing all the custom bits I like in my books like scene dividers and decorative chapter headings.
I love figuring out the most efficient way to use regular expressions to find and replace stuff.
It's finicky and it takes all my attention, but I know that (unlike writing fiction) if I just keep going for long enough it will all work out perfectly.
A lot like embroidery.
Or digging big rocks out of the garden.
posted by Zumbador at 8:47 AM on February 6, 2022 [14 favorites]
I love all the stereotypical shit English food that the rest of the world makes fun of us for. Beans on toast. Mushy peas. Canned rice pudding. Canned mushroom soup. Frozen peas. Malt loaf. Sausage rolls. Deep fried anything. Haven't tried smack barm pea wet but I reckon I'd like it.
I'm a fan of musty, cheesy smells, like that of a dog's foot. I also don't mind strong body odour as long as it's not really rancid and unhealthy-smelling. Just some nice honest sweat.
posted by Balthamos at 8:55 AM on February 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
I'm a fan of musty, cheesy smells, like that of a dog's foot. I also don't mind strong body odour as long as it's not really rancid and unhealthy-smelling. Just some nice honest sweat.
posted by Balthamos at 8:55 AM on February 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
*queue evil laughter*
~~MOIST PANTIES~~
BWAH HA HA HA HA HAH!!!!!!!
posted by supermedusa at 9:15 AM on February 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
~~MOIST PANTIES~~
BWAH HA HA HA HA HAH!!!!!!!
posted by supermedusa at 9:15 AM on February 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
Dowdiness. I'm all about it right now. Babushka? Elbow purse. Old blouses? Yes, yes. The whole bit.
The smell of car exhaust is GREAT.
Actual mayonnaise. But also Miracle Whip.
I used to be revolted by bread pudding. Then someone made it correctly with left over blueberry muffins and some other muffins. And it had a sauce.
Tom Ford's 'Rose Prick' perfume. There's something about it. It's awful, I would never wear it in public (or any perfume, to be honest), but as something to ponder, it's very interesting. And in doing so with a small sample I have, it's grown on me. There's something about it that I can't figure out. Does it have a hospital 'note' in it or something (mercurochrome maybe?)?
posted by marimeko at 9:39 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
The smell of car exhaust is GREAT.
Actual mayonnaise. But also Miracle Whip.
I used to be revolted by bread pudding. Then someone made it correctly with left over blueberry muffins and some other muffins. And it had a sauce.
Tom Ford's 'Rose Prick' perfume. There's something about it. It's awful, I would never wear it in public (or any perfume, to be honest), but as something to ponder, it's very interesting. And in doing so with a small sample I have, it's grown on me. There's something about it that I can't figure out. Does it have a hospital 'note' in it or something (mercurochrome maybe?)?
posted by marimeko at 9:39 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Congrats, bookmammal !
I like bland food. Plain pasta, underseasoned meat and veggies, etc. Not all the time, but I dunno, there's something about tasting the food unadulterated, and for what it is.
This isn't necessarily gross, but is sorta in the same vein? I like to read spoilers and recaps before I consume media. My fiance is completely baffled by this. I think it's more efficient. If I don't like the way it ends or what happens, I'm not going to bother to watch/read it. Also I hate surprises, and enjoy feeling smart. If I have the ability to know something, I'm going to take advantage of it.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 10:32 AM on February 6, 2022 [15 favorites]
I like bland food. Plain pasta, underseasoned meat and veggies, etc. Not all the time, but I dunno, there's something about tasting the food unadulterated, and for what it is.
This isn't necessarily gross, but is sorta in the same vein? I like to read spoilers and recaps before I consume media. My fiance is completely baffled by this. I think it's more efficient. If I don't like the way it ends or what happens, I'm not going to bother to watch/read it. Also I hate surprises, and enjoy feeling smart. If I have the ability to know something, I'm going to take advantage of it.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 10:32 AM on February 6, 2022 [15 favorites]
Washing the dishes, by hand, just as bondcliff described, upthread. Also, removing old adhesive residues from shiny surfaces (since I always keep a can of Bestine around, which makes it easy).
posted by Rash at 10:35 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Rash at 10:35 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’ve been out of academia for ages but when I was still in the trenches (undergrad, grad and postdoc), I liked grading.
This is apparently the kind of statement that causes a millisecond of concern followed by unbridled glee in your colleagues.
posted by sciencegeek at 10:45 AM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
This is apparently the kind of statement that causes a millisecond of concern followed by unbridled glee in your colleagues.
posted by sciencegeek at 10:45 AM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
I had dinner with two people last night who both left their salmon skin behind and the reaction to inquiring if I could eat the leftover salmon skin of the first person was so horrified that even though I happily slurped it down I didn't also ask the other person for their salmon skin because I felt I had disgusted and disgraced the table enough so I just looked longingly at the salmon skin before dumping it to the trash as I cleared the dishes moments later.
posted by youarenothere at 11:23 AM on February 6, 2022 [20 favorites]
posted by youarenothere at 11:23 AM on February 6, 2022 [20 favorites]
Mr dbmcd absolutely *loves* the smell of skunk. I…don’t. Fortunately o’possums displaced the skunks in western Washington about 30-40 years ago, so we don’t have the opportunity to smell it.
I really like cleaning the kitchen- the orderliness and shiny-ness of the results are really pleasing to me.
I also like picking my nose (not to worry, I only do it in private), so satisfying.
posted by dbmcd at 11:47 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I really like cleaning the kitchen- the orderliness and shiny-ness of the results are really pleasing to me.
I also like picking my nose (not to worry, I only do it in private), so satisfying.
posted by dbmcd at 11:47 AM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don't mind the smell of brown marmorated stink bugs. I think they smell like cilantro... which, sadly, kind of put me off cilantro once I made that connection.
posted by evilmomlady at 12:43 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by evilmomlady at 12:43 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
Some people think ferrets smell bad, but they are wrong.
Some people think bananas are no good when they still have a lot of green on them, but they are wrong.
posted by Redstart at 12:46 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Some people think bananas are no good when they still have a lot of green on them, but they are wrong.
posted by Redstart at 12:46 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
I like Pu-Erh tea. It seems that it's a tea than many people in the US and Europe either haven't heard of, or love to hate.
I (an American) only learned of it a few months ago via a comment here on Metafilter, and I really like it. I'm mostly a coffee person, but Pu-Erh tea (or at least the relatively inexpensive stuff I got that claims to be Pu-Erh) is much less astringent than black tea normally is, and still packs a caffeinated punch.
While reading this thread I've been racking my brain trying to think of something I like that other people don't, but except for the above I've come up blank. I don't know what to think about that.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:54 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I (an American) only learned of it a few months ago via a comment here on Metafilter, and I really like it. I'm mostly a coffee person, but Pu-Erh tea (or at least the relatively inexpensive stuff I got that claims to be Pu-Erh) is much less astringent than black tea normally is, and still packs a caffeinated punch.
While reading this thread I've been racking my brain trying to think of something I like that other people don't, but except for the above I've come up blank. I don't know what to think about that.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:54 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
The smell of fresh asphalt and untangling knots.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:03 PM on February 6, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 1:03 PM on February 6, 2022 [17 favorites]
I chewed road tar as a kid in elementary school; fresh, but not too fresh and I was very careful to get the pebbles out first. Chewing gum just didn’t have enough resistance, and while the tar tasted just as awful and acrid as you might guess, it also had an ethereal sweetness that hovered and flickered above the darkness. Not the smartest thing I ever did, but not nearly the dumbest, either.
posted by jamjam at 1:04 PM on February 6, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by jamjam at 1:04 PM on February 6, 2022 [10 favorites]
Smooth jazz. American cheese. Acrylic nails. The Riverdance soundtrack.
My husband has a minivan, and the damn thing is really growing on me.
posted by armeowda at 1:10 PM on February 6, 2022 [11 favorites]
My husband has a minivan, and the damn thing is really growing on me.
posted by armeowda at 1:10 PM on February 6, 2022 [11 favorites]
Chopping vegetables! Do you want to cook more, but hate the "tedious" food prep - I'm your sous chef.
Mrs. Ghidorah doesn’t like them, so I don’t often cook with green beans, but I can get downright meditative with them. I set up two bowls, a small one for the discarded tips, and a larger bowl for the parts I’ll be cooking, and just sort of sway back and forth between the bowls. Sway to the left, snap snap, drop the ends in the little bowl. Sway to the right, snap, drop the green bean, broken in half, into the large bowl and pick up another bean on the way back, repeat. I’m always sad when I run out of beans to snap.
And aside from that, I’ve always liked the prep side of things. Working in a pizza kitchen, chopping the vegetables was always the work I hoped for at the beginning of the shift. Far simpler, and more enjoyable than making the sauce, or doing prep at the salad station (making potato salad was always particularly joyless for me). Just boxes and boxes of produce to reduce down to thinly sliced pizza toppings, a cutting board, and an absurdly sharp knife, and an hour or so of heaven.
As I’m getting older, I find myself grateful for mindless, repetitive tasks. They keep me busy but give my brain time to figure things out.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:31 PM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
Mrs. Ghidorah doesn’t like them, so I don’t often cook with green beans, but I can get downright meditative with them. I set up two bowls, a small one for the discarded tips, and a larger bowl for the parts I’ll be cooking, and just sort of sway back and forth between the bowls. Sway to the left, snap snap, drop the ends in the little bowl. Sway to the right, snap, drop the green bean, broken in half, into the large bowl and pick up another bean on the way back, repeat. I’m always sad when I run out of beans to snap.
And aside from that, I’ve always liked the prep side of things. Working in a pizza kitchen, chopping the vegetables was always the work I hoped for at the beginning of the shift. Far simpler, and more enjoyable than making the sauce, or doing prep at the salad station (making potato salad was always particularly joyless for me). Just boxes and boxes of produce to reduce down to thinly sliced pizza toppings, a cutting board, and an absurdly sharp knife, and an hour or so of heaven.
As I’m getting older, I find myself grateful for mindless, repetitive tasks. They keep me busy but give my brain time to figure things out.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:31 PM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
Zumbador on Laundry is the nicest thing I've read all week.
(But then you had to add the bit about rats...)
posted by evilmomlady at 1:46 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
(But then you had to add the bit about rats...)
posted by evilmomlady at 1:46 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
I love the smell of horses/barn. I think within a subsection of people (i.e. Horse People) this isn't so unusual. But I've been told by non horse people that they find the strong aroma of Horse to be unappealing. I think it's truly the best smell in the world.
My 14yo has moved on to diving, but after years in gymnastics he still loves the stale-sweat-and-chalk-dust smell of a busy, poorly-ventilated, non-air-conditioned gymnastics gym.
I also enjoy the smell of skunk out the car window. My grandpa did too.
I also like to know what's going to happen before I read or watch anything with any suspense. I don't enjoy that anxious, what's-going-to-happen feeling, so knowing who's going to die and who isn't helps me enjoy things more.
I like the smell of clean dry dog feet. My 14yo thinks I'm weird.
posted by Well I never at 1:52 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
My 14yo has moved on to diving, but after years in gymnastics he still loves the stale-sweat-and-chalk-dust smell of a busy, poorly-ventilated, non-air-conditioned gymnastics gym.
I also enjoy the smell of skunk out the car window. My grandpa did too.
I also like to know what's going to happen before I read or watch anything with any suspense. I don't enjoy that anxious, what's-going-to-happen feeling, so knowing who's going to die and who isn't helps me enjoy things more.
I like the smell of clean dry dog feet. My 14yo thinks I'm weird.
posted by Well I never at 1:52 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
A bit like Zumbador, I like editing and reformatting documents and sorting out and tidying up tables of data. I am no expert on things like Access or Excel, or even in working with data in any meaningful way, but give me text / a set of figures / info with gaps and inconsistencies to tidy up and I'm one happy bunny.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 2:30 PM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 2:30 PM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
I like the smell of clean dry dog feet. My 14yo thinks I'm weird.
Dogs' 'popcorn feet' are definitely a thing in the comment sections of YouTube dog videos.
posted by jamjam at 2:56 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
Dogs' 'popcorn feet' are definitely a thing in the comment sections of YouTube dog videos.
posted by jamjam at 2:56 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
Yesterday was Moving Day. It was ...fine? Everything arrived intact. Despite a lot of fussing during the car ride (Bento refuses to be contained in a carrier and spent the hour long trip stress-shedding onto my lap) the cats are settling in. This is by far the nicest apartment I’ve ever had AND it came with a brand new fridge and stove, so it all feels like a lovely life upgrade. New job starts tomorrow.
posted by janepanic at 3:07 PM on February 6, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by janepanic at 3:07 PM on February 6, 2022 [17 favorites]
I love mayonnaise. I also love the smell of gasoline.
posted by bookworm4125 at 3:12 PM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by bookworm4125 at 3:12 PM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
Raw onions. My grandafather ate them like apples, but those were some weird old heirloom variety he grew on the farm when he was a kid, so I can't replicate the exact sweet/tart/sour/spicy combo of the ones he'd share with me. But truly it's doesn't matter. I'll eat the saddest bodega-bought white onion sliced with a little salt. Life without raw onions would be a long, joyless slog for me.
posted by minervous at 3:12 PM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by minervous at 3:12 PM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
Many people in my lifetime have told me that peanut butter and banana sandwiches are weird, disgusting and just plain wrong. People are, of course, welcome to their opinions. Even when they are so clearly incorrect. ;p
posted by Mister_Sleight_of_Hand at 3:20 PM on February 6, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by Mister_Sleight_of_Hand at 3:20 PM on February 6, 2022 [10 favorites]
Counting things.
The Australian government is willing to PAY ME to count votes every election, and if it wasn't for the 10 hours of dealing with the general population that you have to go through beforehand, I would totally do just the counting bit for free. Yes, even the NSW Senate tablecloth.
Putting together flatpack furniture. I love the pictures with the big crosses and ticks. Even the ones with bad instructions, I enjoy the extra challenge, and I get to whinge about the terrible instructions and ridiculous design choices in a way that makes be feel delightfully petty and superior.
I also quite like packing, so long as I can stop when I want (AKA, not my move).
posted by kjs4 at 3:39 PM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
The Australian government is willing to PAY ME to count votes every election, and if it wasn't for the 10 hours of dealing with the general population that you have to go through beforehand, I would totally do just the counting bit for free. Yes, even the NSW Senate tablecloth.
Putting together flatpack furniture. I love the pictures with the big crosses and ticks. Even the ones with bad instructions, I enjoy the extra challenge, and I get to whinge about the terrible instructions and ridiculous design choices in a way that makes be feel delightfully petty and superior.
I also quite like packing, so long as I can stop when I want (AKA, not my move).
posted by kjs4 at 3:39 PM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
All those fiddly, boring, monotonous tasks everyone else hates? I love them. Folding and stuffing hundreds of letters? I'll do it! Meticulously checking the data in a boring spreadsheet? Me! Sorting anything of any kind? I'm your girl! Ironing? YES PLEASE!
Also, I love the smell of gasoline and those big black markers in metal tubes but I think that's more common than not.
And summer can fuck right off. I'm a winter girl.
posted by cooker girl at 3:48 PM on February 6, 2022 [9 favorites]
Also, I love the smell of gasoline and those big black markers in metal tubes but I think that's more common than not.
And summer can fuck right off. I'm a winter girl.
posted by cooker girl at 3:48 PM on February 6, 2022 [9 favorites]
I also like washing dishes.
Same! I have a small kitchen and mice in the walls so doing it regularly is just a thing that is necessary but I kind of enjoy doing it well, from being efficient with my movements to stacking the dish drainer just so, to having a place for the pots and pans to dry, on and one, so satisfying when done and then I can clean out the sink! Same, really with a lot of the domestic stuff. I have to go out to do laundry which I do not love but I love getting it all done in a bit less than an hour or two a month. A clean bathroom really makes me cheery.
Jim is up this weekend and we've both been pretty low energy and it's cold out so after we did our walk-for-exercise (which I love and do daily no matter the weather, but when it's snowy it's a little challenging with two people if one of them has proprioception challenges and the other one is clumsy) and settled in and it was too early (for me) to start watching tv, I was like "Hey do you want to help me with something?" to which he cautiously said "Yeeees?" and I asked him to keep me company while I pulled out all the dusty tubs of poorly-labeled things out from under my platform bed, cleaned them all off, checked what was inside them, and relabeled them
Then he went out to pick up some goat tacos from our local taco place (my hated task: going out on short trips in cold weather -- too much work! most trips not necessary! car never warms up!) and I swept a small cat's worth of hair and nur and fuzz out from under there and put everything back along with new containers of trash, thrift store donations, some stuff going home with Jim and a few things going to other places in the house. So gratifying.
And yeah I'm an election official, love working elections, counting votes, sorting paper.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:50 PM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
Same! I have a small kitchen and mice in the walls so doing it regularly is just a thing that is necessary but I kind of enjoy doing it well, from being efficient with my movements to stacking the dish drainer just so, to having a place for the pots and pans to dry, on and one, so satisfying when done and then I can clean out the sink! Same, really with a lot of the domestic stuff. I have to go out to do laundry which I do not love but I love getting it all done in a bit less than an hour or two a month. A clean bathroom really makes me cheery.
Jim is up this weekend and we've both been pretty low energy and it's cold out so after we did our walk-for-exercise (which I love and do daily no matter the weather, but when it's snowy it's a little challenging with two people if one of them has proprioception challenges and the other one is clumsy) and settled in and it was too early (for me) to start watching tv, I was like "Hey do you want to help me with something?" to which he cautiously said "Yeeees?" and I asked him to keep me company while I pulled out all the dusty tubs of poorly-labeled things out from under my platform bed, cleaned them all off, checked what was inside them, and relabeled them
Then he went out to pick up some goat tacos from our local taco place (my hated task: going out on short trips in cold weather -- too much work! most trips not necessary! car never warms up!) and I swept a small cat's worth of hair and nur and fuzz out from under there and put everything back along with new containers of trash, thrift store donations, some stuff going home with Jim and a few things going to other places in the house. So gratifying.
And yeah I'm an election official, love working elections, counting votes, sorting paper.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:50 PM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]
My 14yo has moved on to diving, but after years in gymnastics he still loves the stale-sweat-and-chalk-dust smell of a busy, poorly-ventilated, non-air-conditioned gymnastics gym.
I, too, moved on from gymnastics at about that age. I’m 40 now. That exact smell still has the same effect on me. I don’t imagine it will ever change.
posted by armeowda at 4:01 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
I, too, moved on from gymnastics at about that age. I’m 40 now. That exact smell still has the same effect on me. I don’t imagine it will ever change.
posted by armeowda at 4:01 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love the smell of Magic Markers. And I love grocery shopping.
I also love taking out splinters for other people. I am not any sort of medical professional and have no training but I have a little kit I've assembled, and people in my family call me whenever they need my services. My finest case happened about 10 years ago when I removed a piece of glass from my mother's foot. I definitely strayed into surgical territory and should have been arrested for practicing medicine without a license. But the patient made a full recovery with no complications.
posted by Kangaroo at 4:06 PM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
I also love taking out splinters for other people. I am not any sort of medical professional and have no training but I have a little kit I've assembled, and people in my family call me whenever they need my services. My finest case happened about 10 years ago when I removed a piece of glass from my mother's foot. I definitely strayed into surgical territory and should have been arrested for practicing medicine without a license. But the patient made a full recovery with no complications.
posted by Kangaroo at 4:06 PM on February 6, 2022 [5 favorites]
Marmite on buttered toast, topped with Seville orange marmalade.
posted by pipeski at 4:07 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by pipeski at 4:07 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm an inveterate Dr. Pimple Popper watcher. I WILL NOT BE SHAMED!
My SIL like to send each other clips of the best pops; the rest of our family find us disgusting.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 4:16 PM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
My SIL like to send each other clips of the best pops; the rest of our family find us disgusting.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 4:16 PM on February 6, 2022 [8 favorites]
A slightly scalpy smelling pillow (scent cue that it's MY nest.)
Paying bills via check. Makes me feel virtuous and like I'm Getting Shit Done.
The sweat of women (ideally mid-cycle.) Could be pheromones or just the consequence of attending a hippie college during my formative years. IDK.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 4:48 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Paying bills via check. Makes me feel virtuous and like I'm Getting Shit Done.
The sweat of women (ideally mid-cycle.) Could be pheromones or just the consequence of attending a hippie college during my formative years. IDK.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 4:48 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Two strokes: the smoke is universally acknowledged as disgusting, for the nauseating stink it leaves everywhere around one running, the greasy black-green staining on anything placed near an exhaust, and not least the absolutely terrifying levels of toxic atmospheric pollution (particulates). They're far noisier than four stroke engines, and it's a high-pitched, penetrating noise. People hate leaf blowers, chainsaws, edging tools, and rightly so.
Still: give me that ding-ding-ding and blue smoke, and make me happier still by adding two wheels and some handlebars.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:49 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
Still: give me that ding-ding-ding and blue smoke, and make me happier still by adding two wheels and some handlebars.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:49 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
peanut butter and banana sandwiches
Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are about the only way I'll eat peanut butter. I like peanut butter and bacon sandwiches too, but once I hit my 30s my bacon consumption dropped significantly so they don't happen much anymore.
Now my sister, she likes peanut butter and sweet pickle sandwiches and I. just. don't. get it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:02 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Peanut butter and banana sandwiches are about the only way I'll eat peanut butter. I like peanut butter and bacon sandwiches too, but once I hit my 30s my bacon consumption dropped significantly so they don't happen much anymore.
Now my sister, she likes peanut butter and sweet pickle sandwiches and I. just. don't. get it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:02 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
In order of least odious, it seems generally, to greatest.
Grocery Shopping: At smaller ethnic places especially, but even a big Jewel or Dominicks had its own source of comfort after a long weird day or week.
Cleaning windows: Given unlimited Windex and paper towels, I love getting windows degunked and clear. I have a system, you see.
Scraping ice/packed snow off a sidewalk: You have to have the right tool but when you've timed everything just right with sun and temperature, peeling frozen bullshit off the pavement is a little joy. I've occasionally succeeded in Tom Sawyering passersby to do some of it for me.
And for those of you who love the smell of gasoline, may I recommend Fahrenheit cologne... it has a dry down that is very petroleum smelling while still maintaining the pretense of perfume.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 5:15 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Grocery Shopping: At smaller ethnic places especially, but even a big Jewel or Dominicks had its own source of comfort after a long weird day or week.
Cleaning windows: Given unlimited Windex and paper towels, I love getting windows degunked and clear. I have a system, you see.
Scraping ice/packed snow off a sidewalk: You have to have the right tool but when you've timed everything just right with sun and temperature, peeling frozen bullshit off the pavement is a little joy. I've occasionally succeeded in Tom Sawyering passersby to do some of it for me.
And for those of you who love the smell of gasoline, may I recommend Fahrenheit cologne... it has a dry down that is very petroleum smelling while still maintaining the pretense of perfume.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 5:15 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Malt loaf.
So, I looked up what this is, but I'm curious - is it neutral-flavored or sweet? I see it's compared to fruit cake (but I also wonder if that's the dense, American fruit cake or the fluffy, almost like pannatone fruit cake)?
Raw onions. My grandfather ate them like apples, but those were some weird old heirloom variety he grew on the farm when he was a kid
This explains so much! I am an onion fan, including raw (except raw red onion), but I remember my mom literally using the same phrase about my grandmother (that she ate them like apples), and she grew up on a farm in West Virginia!
peanut butter and banana sandwiches
I mean...there's actually no better way to eat bananas. Or peanut butter. Meaning, if there's no chocolate available.
posted by Pax at 5:32 PM on February 6, 2022
So, I looked up what this is, but I'm curious - is it neutral-flavored or sweet? I see it's compared to fruit cake (but I also wonder if that's the dense, American fruit cake or the fluffy, almost like pannatone fruit cake)?
Raw onions. My grandfather ate them like apples, but those were some weird old heirloom variety he grew on the farm when he was a kid
This explains so much! I am an onion fan, including raw (except raw red onion), but I remember my mom literally using the same phrase about my grandmother (that she ate them like apples), and she grew up on a farm in West Virginia!
peanut butter and banana sandwiches
I mean...there's actually no better way to eat bananas. Or peanut butter. Meaning, if there's no chocolate available.
posted by Pax at 5:32 PM on February 6, 2022
Scrapple's pretty good, although I don't eat it often for obvious reasons. I can eat sardines and anchovies straight out of the tin and enjoy them. I used to enjoy the smell of gasoline and the sensation of spinning rapidly when I was a kid, but not so much now. I'm sure I must do something that other people would find more obviously horrifying than these examples, but for some reason I'm struggling to do so.
posted by mollweide at 5:43 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mollweide at 5:43 PM on February 6, 2022 [1 favorite]
The tingly feeling when my foot’s asleep is weirdly pleasant. When I was a kid, I used to leave my legs in a position where my foot would go to sleep, on purpose. I liked to get up and then stomp the tingly foot.
I don’t do that so much these days, but I don’t really mind the feeling.
Canned peas. My dad, especially, used to complain about how awful canned peas were, but when I realized the peas at school lunch were canned and not frozen, I realized my dad was completely wrong.
Hawaiian pizza as mentioned above. The sweetness goes with the meatness so well.
Mayonnaise and Miracle Whip are not so fundamentally different. Back in the ‘90s, we (my family) compared the ingredient labels, and the difference was like, a couple things were in a different order, and Miracle Whip had paprika. I think the formula has changed, like maybe MW uses a different oil now than 30 years ago, but I think that’s it. And yet someone I used to know was like “Miracle Whip is made of chemicals!” which… *sigh*
I also think butter and margarine are pretty much interchangeable, flavorwise, in any way where they’re front and center, like on toast or something. I admit they will behave differently in baking/cooking, but I disbelieve the “margarine is awful” propaganda.
Frozen yogurt is just as good as ice cream. Are they exactly the same? Who cares?
It is completely possible to cook a steak well-done without drying it out, depending to some degree on the cut; I’m pretty sure the shouting I hear about the inherent superiority of rare is just faux-atavistic cult-of-manliness posturing.
I like residual cigarette smoke smell. It reminds me of my grandmother’s house. It’s really nostalgic for me to get a somebody-smokes-on-this-porch smell.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 6:05 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don’t do that so much these days, but I don’t really mind the feeling.
Canned peas. My dad, especially, used to complain about how awful canned peas were, but when I realized the peas at school lunch were canned and not frozen, I realized my dad was completely wrong.
Hawaiian pizza as mentioned above. The sweetness goes with the meatness so well.
Mayonnaise and Miracle Whip are not so fundamentally different. Back in the ‘90s, we (my family) compared the ingredient labels, and the difference was like, a couple things were in a different order, and Miracle Whip had paprika. I think the formula has changed, like maybe MW uses a different oil now than 30 years ago, but I think that’s it. And yet someone I used to know was like “Miracle Whip is made of chemicals!” which… *sigh*
I also think butter and margarine are pretty much interchangeable, flavorwise, in any way where they’re front and center, like on toast or something. I admit they will behave differently in baking/cooking, but I disbelieve the “margarine is awful” propaganda.
Frozen yogurt is just as good as ice cream. Are they exactly the same? Who cares?
It is completely possible to cook a steak well-done without drying it out, depending to some degree on the cut; I’m pretty sure the shouting I hear about the inherent superiority of rare is just faux-atavistic cult-of-manliness posturing.
I like residual cigarette smoke smell. It reminds me of my grandmother’s house. It’s really nostalgic for me to get a somebody-smokes-on-this-porch smell.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 6:05 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
During fall or spring rains you can find me taking delight in unblocking my nearest city sewer drain if it needs it. Rakes, shovels, sometimes my telescopic pruning shear, these are the tools of the trade. Zen gardeners got nothing on me. The day the sewer truck comes to the neighborhood, to play the claw game of the annual cleanout, is basically a holiday at my house. I'm that guy, who goes out to watch, with my "Yeah, you and me pal, amirite?" stance, silently conveying my approval of this critical job, and nodding with appreciation at all the wonderful muck that gets lifted out.
posted by cocoagirl at 6:06 PM on February 6, 2022 [11 favorites]
posted by cocoagirl at 6:06 PM on February 6, 2022 [11 favorites]
I have the opposite of trypophobia, if that has a name. ("Trypophilia" just sounds...off.) Almost all of the "trigger images" I've seen are textures that I'm more drawn to than usual. Typically, the weirder the better. I certainly don't like to see it in a medical context, but no more than I dislike seeing any other medical images requiring a strong stomach.
I also love the smell of cigarettes, though I strongly dislike smoking.
posted by miniraptor at 6:08 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
I also love the smell of cigarettes, though I strongly dislike smoking.
posted by miniraptor at 6:08 PM on February 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
The music of Nickelback. Most of the people I know (either IRL or online) seem to actively despise them. Not me. #noshame
posted by Roger Pittman at 6:15 PM on February 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Roger Pittman at 6:15 PM on February 6, 2022 [7 favorites]
I like Nickelback. Also Coldplay.
Bananas with salt. My husband at least thinks it is super weird, but it's the sweet-salty for me.
I like the smell of auto shops. Tires, I guess? You'd think the money I've spent there would have created an aversion, but no. We have a mechanic shop in the back of my office and I always like going out there when I have a reason to, just for the smell.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:27 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Bananas with salt. My husband at least thinks it is super weird, but it's the sweet-salty for me.
I like the smell of auto shops. Tires, I guess? You'd think the money I've spent there would have created an aversion, but no. We have a mechanic shop in the back of my office and I always like going out there when I have a reason to, just for the smell.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:27 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
Pineapple on pizza.
Well-done steak, but not dry - absolutely it's possible. I actually am not a great fan of steak and rarely eat it, but a juicy steak that my gag reflex can be convinced is well and truly cooked all the way through and has a nice crust is a thing of rare gastronomic delight.
give me that ding-ding-ding and blue smoke, and make me happier still by adding two wheels and some handlebars
Not a fan of the ding-ding style of two-strokes, but a high-revving two-stroke outboard gets my heart racing. I can tell the difference between a 2.0l injected and a 2.5 carby engine (and most other variants) sight unseen within seconds.
posted by dg at 6:32 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
Well-done steak, but not dry - absolutely it's possible. I actually am not a great fan of steak and rarely eat it, but a juicy steak that my gag reflex can be convinced is well and truly cooked all the way through and has a nice crust is a thing of rare gastronomic delight.
give me that ding-ding-ding and blue smoke, and make me happier still by adding two wheels and some handlebars
Not a fan of the ding-ding style of two-strokes, but a high-revving two-stroke outboard gets my heart racing. I can tell the difference between a 2.0l injected and a 2.5 carby engine (and most other variants) sight unseen within seconds.
posted by dg at 6:32 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
I like open-plan offices. Not super-huge, but kind of a "personal desks arranged around a common area" without intervening walls makes me happy. Coffee-shop size, not airplane-hangar size. Individual cubes makes me unhappy and lonely. It's odd, since I'm a huge introvert, bordering on social anxiety, but I like working around people even if I don't constantly talk to them. (Also I need an office with a door available to have private conversations from time to time. But not all the time.)
I like meetings. For one thing, I know how to run things to actually get stuff done that couldn't have been an email, and not waste a lot of time accomplishing nothing. But sometimes, very rarely, I even like someone else's terrible meeting, just detached and "people watching" while everyone wants to poke their own eyes out. Sometimes I'll even throw something out that I know is going to send us back around an unproductive circle for the nth time. I try to keep it to rare occasions, though.
posted by ctmf at 6:34 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
I like meetings. For one thing, I know how to run things to actually get stuff done that couldn't have been an email, and not waste a lot of time accomplishing nothing. But sometimes, very rarely, I even like someone else's terrible meeting, just detached and "people watching" while everyone wants to poke their own eyes out. Sometimes I'll even throw something out that I know is going to send us back around an unproductive circle for the nth time. I try to keep it to rare occasions, though.
posted by ctmf at 6:34 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
The music of Nickelback.
I like that one Nickelback song. (There is only one Nickelback song, endlessly recycled. But I do think it's fine, that one song.)
posted by ctmf at 6:41 PM on February 6, 2022
I like that one Nickelback song. (There is only one Nickelback song, endlessly recycled. But I do think it's fine, that one song.)
posted by ctmf at 6:41 PM on February 6, 2022
I hate cigarette smoke, but I like pipe smoke. My father still smoked a pipe for a few years after I was born, so I think this is a weird atavistic thing from very early in my life….
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:43 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:43 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
Pax, malt loaf is sweet, fruity, moist, squinchy and delicious with just butter on it. Soreen is the brand we buy in the shops here.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 6:44 PM on February 6, 2022
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 6:44 PM on February 6, 2022
With multiple mentions of two-stroke engines, I feel I need to share this two stroke Saab prototype featuring two three cylinder engines. Angry chainsaw, popping, snarling.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 7:02 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 7:02 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I can tell I'm hungry in lab when the yeast and their media smell particularly like donuts to me. But to be honest, I like all the yeast smells. Even the funky heavy layers of humid yeasted air in the "warm room" (a walk in incubator set to 30ºC) in my lab in undergrad, where it felt like you were breathing in decades of old experiments that could have fallen behind the shelving. Just thinking about that smell makes my husband kinda queasy still, but I find it homey.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:56 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by deludingmyself at 8:56 PM on February 6, 2022 [2 favorites]
I hate cigarette smoke, but I like pipe smoke
while both are harmful, pipe tobacco is thicker, more aromatic and seeing the pipe smoker is generally a more relaxed situation. Same for me. Oddly, I inherited my grandfathers smoking tin and ashtrays.
but I once asked an expert.
posted by clavdivs at 10:35 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
while both are harmful, pipe tobacco is thicker, more aromatic and seeing the pipe smoker is generally a more relaxed situation. Same for me. Oddly, I inherited my grandfathers smoking tin and ashtrays.
but I once asked an expert.
posted by clavdivs at 10:35 PM on February 6, 2022 [4 favorites]
Pineapple on pizza.
Hear me out, guys: pineapple and jalepeno pizza.
No one will share with me. 😥
I teach music, and I love the sound of beginning orchestra when they're really, really bad and don't know what they're doing. They're excited! They're trying! They're wrong but they're LOUD wrong which is the best kind of wrong to be in orchestra, because with loud wrong I can hear the specific badness and help them; once they know enough to know how terrible they are they'll hide their sound in the group and you have to ferret it out to fix it sometimes. Then we just refine from there until they sound actually good. But a group of, like 50 beginners the day they get their bow for the first time? ❤️ The best.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:17 PM on February 6, 2022 [19 favorites]
Hear me out, guys: pineapple and jalepeno pizza.
No one will share with me. 😥
I teach music, and I love the sound of beginning orchestra when they're really, really bad and don't know what they're doing. They're excited! They're trying! They're wrong but they're LOUD wrong which is the best kind of wrong to be in orchestra, because with loud wrong I can hear the specific badness and help them; once they know enough to know how terrible they are they'll hide their sound in the group and you have to ferret it out to fix it sometimes. Then we just refine from there until they sound actually good. But a group of, like 50 beginners the day they get their bow for the first time? ❤️ The best.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:17 PM on February 6, 2022 [19 favorites]
>Hear me out, guys: pineapple and jalepeno pizza.
Yes! Am I unclean for adding anchovies?
posted by k3ninho at 11:47 PM on February 6, 2022
Yes! Am I unclean for adding anchovies?
posted by k3ninho at 11:47 PM on February 6, 2022
Yes! Am I unclean for adding anchovies?
I’m not sure it would be my thing buuuuut it is hard to argue with the umami of it all! The next time I order a my solitary delight maybe I will do anchovies on the side and add them to a slice or two, for Science.
posted by charmedimsure at 12:18 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’m not sure it would be my thing buuuuut it is hard to argue with the umami of it all! The next time I order a my solitary delight maybe I will do anchovies on the side and add them to a slice or two, for Science.
posted by charmedimsure at 12:18 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Malt loaf.
So, I looked up what this is, but I'm curious - is it neutral-flavored or sweet? I see it's compared to fruit cake (but I also wonder if that's the dense, American fruit cake or the fluffy, almost like pannatone fruit cake)?
It's sweet and extremely SQUIDGY and chewy. Completely different texture from a fruit cake of any kind really, and there's not that much fruit in it, just some raisins here and there. You eat it in thick slices, thickly buttered with cold salted butter. A defining characteristic is having to roust it from where it's got stuck on your back molars after eating. The brand, Soreen, does do other flavours like banana but that seems totally gross to me. The malt is the main flavour, doesn't need gussying up imho.
posted by Balthamos at 2:06 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
So, I looked up what this is, but I'm curious - is it neutral-flavored or sweet? I see it's compared to fruit cake (but I also wonder if that's the dense, American fruit cake or the fluffy, almost like pannatone fruit cake)?
It's sweet and extremely SQUIDGY and chewy. Completely different texture from a fruit cake of any kind really, and there's not that much fruit in it, just some raisins here and there. You eat it in thick slices, thickly buttered with cold salted butter. A defining characteristic is having to roust it from where it's got stuck on your back molars after eating. The brand, Soreen, does do other flavours like banana but that seems totally gross to me. The malt is the main flavour, doesn't need gussying up imho.
posted by Balthamos at 2:06 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
Changing trains. The more circotuos the route and the more changes in half forgotten stations the better
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 4:51 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by thegirlwiththehat at 4:51 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
I eat Vegemite straight from the jar. Every day.
peanut butter and banana sandwiches
Bananas with salt.
Pineapple on pizza.
Yes!
posted by Pouteria at 5:07 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
peanut butter and banana sandwiches
Bananas with salt.
Pineapple on pizza.
Yes!
posted by Pouteria at 5:07 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
I actually enjoyed being homeless.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:31 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by zengargoyle at 5:31 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
I am unfazed by blood, after decades of impossible-seeming menstruation and some blood donations, the latter of which I will return to when blessed menopause arrives and I will not gamble so much with my hemoglobin. Do not show me the vomit, though, ack.
posted by wellred at 6:08 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by wellred at 6:08 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
Some of these for me fall into a category more broadly defined by "not currently in vogue" or "people are weirded out by this maybe because of sexism."
I have an abiding soft spot for historical romance novels. I had a doll collection as a child via my grandmother. I love/loved them and I still have a few of them around the office . I like the feeling of wearing tights. I love the feeling of wearing crinolines. It's been a hard few years for a maximalist who doesn't really love mid-century (except when it's Waters-esque kitsch) and hates the color gray. I wear shoes in my house. I almost certainly wear too much perfume for your taste. As noted in the other thread, I do, in fact, love mayonnaise (Duke's) as a condiment (and my homemade aioli is pretty great, if I do say so myself). I like the feeling of my foot sinking into the mud (within reason), the darker and richer the mud the better. There's a particular flavor of fishy/boaty/salty smell that others find disgusting that I sort of love, because it reminds me almost exclusively of summer and places I like to visit. I think bats are adorable and spiders are gorgeous. Marmite makes many things better. I write in the margins. I read in the bathtub. I use way too many table lamps ( I am absolutely repulsed by the feeling of overhead lights andI have taken the bulbs out of most of the ones in the house, just in case someone tries to turn them on).
posted by thivaia at 6:49 AM on February 7, 2022 [11 favorites]
I have an abiding soft spot for historical romance novels. I had a doll collection as a child via my grandmother. I love/loved them and I still have a few of them around the office . I like the feeling of wearing tights. I love the feeling of wearing crinolines. It's been a hard few years for a maximalist who doesn't really love mid-century (except when it's Waters-esque kitsch) and hates the color gray. I wear shoes in my house. I almost certainly wear too much perfume for your taste. As noted in the other thread, I do, in fact, love mayonnaise (Duke's) as a condiment (and my homemade aioli is pretty great, if I do say so myself). I like the feeling of my foot sinking into the mud (within reason), the darker and richer the mud the better. There's a particular flavor of fishy/boaty/salty smell that others find disgusting that I sort of love, because it reminds me almost exclusively of summer and places I like to visit. I think bats are adorable and spiders are gorgeous. Marmite makes many things better. I write in the margins. I read in the bathtub. I use way too many table lamps ( I am absolutely repulsed by the feeling of overhead lights andI have taken the bulbs out of most of the ones in the house, just in case someone tries to turn them on).
posted by thivaia at 6:49 AM on February 7, 2022 [11 favorites]
And yes, ANCHOVIES. They are also delicious on many things, including straight out of the can ( I like the ones that are wrapped around capers).
posted by thivaia at 6:53 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by thivaia at 6:53 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Thought of another one. Airports (in the Before Times—have no plans to fly in the near future).
I LOVE waiting in airports for flights. I love getting there early, getting all the business done, and then just sitting there with a book and watching all the people. Are they going away or going home? Why are they traveling? How do they feel about this trip? I am always writing a story in my head, and an airport provides so much material!
posted by bookmammal at 7:09 AM on February 7, 2022 [11 favorites]
I LOVE waiting in airports for flights. I love getting there early, getting all the business done, and then just sitting there with a book and watching all the people. Are they going away or going home? Why are they traveling? How do they feel about this trip? I am always writing a story in my head, and an airport provides so much material!
posted by bookmammal at 7:09 AM on February 7, 2022 [11 favorites]
clavdivs, I share your love of necco wafers!
I love fake pancake syrup, the kind that's just corn syrup and chemicals, the cheaper the better, and I will reach past the lovely expensive authentic maple syrup to get to it every time.
I love the yappy little Yorkie next door particularly because of her yapping, mostly because my house doesn't have a doorbell and her barking lets me know when a delivery truck parks out front, but I find her barking strangely comforting. I love all the neighborhood sounds: lawnmowers, construction, occasional cars, the footfalls of joggers.
I love mayonnaise. Any burger or deli sandwich made without it is unendingly sad and unsatisfying.
I love airplane bathrooms. They're squalid and the whole flush mechanism experience is absolutely terrifying, but there's a moment riiiiight after you go in and lock the door and you realize you're completely alone in a tiny compartment 35,000 feet in the air. You still feel the hum of the airplane and the bump of the turbulence, outside the door there are the muffled coughs and shuffles of hundreds of passengers in tightly packed seats, but for that moment it's just you in there with your arm width of space all by yourself. I once flew in a plane with a window in the lavatory and it was so utterly peaceful.
posted by mochapickle at 7:24 AM on February 7, 2022 [9 favorites]
I love fake pancake syrup, the kind that's just corn syrup and chemicals, the cheaper the better, and I will reach past the lovely expensive authentic maple syrup to get to it every time.
I love the yappy little Yorkie next door particularly because of her yapping, mostly because my house doesn't have a doorbell and her barking lets me know when a delivery truck parks out front, but I find her barking strangely comforting. I love all the neighborhood sounds: lawnmowers, construction, occasional cars, the footfalls of joggers.
I love mayonnaise. Any burger or deli sandwich made without it is unendingly sad and unsatisfying.
I love airplane bathrooms. They're squalid and the whole flush mechanism experience is absolutely terrifying, but there's a moment riiiiight after you go in and lock the door and you realize you're completely alone in a tiny compartment 35,000 feet in the air. You still feel the hum of the airplane and the bump of the turbulence, outside the door there are the muffled coughs and shuffles of hundreds of passengers in tightly packed seats, but for that moment it's just you in there with your arm width of space all by yourself. I once flew in a plane with a window in the lavatory and it was so utterly peaceful.
posted by mochapickle at 7:24 AM on February 7, 2022 [9 favorites]
I love fake pancake syrup, the kind that's just corn syrup and chemicals, the cheaper the better, and I will reach past the lovely expensive authentic maple syrup to get to it every time.
This. It tastes like childhood.
posted by thivaia at 7:32 AM on February 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
This. It tastes like childhood.
posted by thivaia at 7:32 AM on February 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
Also - I don’t smoke but every romantic partner I’ve had started out as a smoker and then eventually quit. So I sometimes find cigarette smoke on a person kind of attractive. ( Not ashtray level smell, but the faint smell of cigarettes ). But I also don’t actually want a partner that smokes.
posted by gt2 at 8:09 AM on February 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by gt2 at 8:09 AM on February 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
Many cultures, particularly Eastern European ones, have a bitter/hard-to-take digestive/aperitif/liqueur that they love to foist upon unsuspecting visitors and then cackle like mad while they recoil in disgust. Doesn't work with me. I like Unicum. I like Malort. Cynar? Sure. Amari? You bet. Whatever your gross local version of plum brandy is? Pour me one, I'm in. I don't even drink liquor otherwise, generally speaking. Only the weird stuff.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:00 AM on February 7, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:00 AM on February 7, 2022 [7 favorites]
"Unripe" bananas. No blemishes, maybe even a little green.
posted by emelenjr at 9:17 AM on February 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by emelenjr at 9:17 AM on February 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
Necco wafers and other chalky, waxy, or otherwise strangely textured candy. Right now I have several boxes of the sweetheart candies that come around during valentine's, they are a delight on the tongue. Lemonheads even though they rip the roof of my mouth straight off.
Pipe smoke but also just the rich, rich smell of tobacco, although I have never smoked. Kissing a smoker.
Picking is definitely the grossest thing I love. Foot skin! Zits on other people! We don't have to talk about it.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:21 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
Pipe smoke but also just the rich, rich smell of tobacco, although I have never smoked. Kissing a smoker.
Picking is definitely the grossest thing I love. Foot skin! Zits on other people! We don't have to talk about it.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:21 AM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
Moving house!
I grew up in a missionary family, so moving is kind of in my blood. I have moved houses and apartments A LOT, even as an adult, I’d move every two years if I could.
I love perusing Zillow, but I also love frantically searching with a time crunch. I love the logistics of dropping checks, getting keys, final walk-throughs, etc.
I love the sorting and tossing of stuff I haven’t used in a year. I love building boxes and wrapping breakables. I love knowing how to pack a box so that it’s not too heavy.
I love the day-of excitement that THE TRUCK IS HERE. I like seeing all of my stuff neatly stacked.
I love the echo-ey sound of empty places, and how bit they look without stuff in them. I ADORE the first week in a new place, of figuring out what goes where most logically and tidily. And eating pizza or Thai on a bare floor on the first night.
Why, yes, I did just move again! And god damn it, my Zillow finger is already itching.
posted by functionequalsform at 9:29 AM on February 7, 2022 [9 favorites]
I grew up in a missionary family, so moving is kind of in my blood. I have moved houses and apartments A LOT, even as an adult, I’d move every two years if I could.
I love perusing Zillow, but I also love frantically searching with a time crunch. I love the logistics of dropping checks, getting keys, final walk-throughs, etc.
I love the sorting and tossing of stuff I haven’t used in a year. I love building boxes and wrapping breakables. I love knowing how to pack a box so that it’s not too heavy.
I love the day-of excitement that THE TRUCK IS HERE. I like seeing all of my stuff neatly stacked.
I love the echo-ey sound of empty places, and how bit they look without stuff in them. I ADORE the first week in a new place, of figuring out what goes where most logically and tidily. And eating pizza or Thai on a bare floor on the first night.
Why, yes, I did just move again! And god damn it, my Zillow finger is already itching.
posted by functionequalsform at 9:29 AM on February 7, 2022 [9 favorites]
Easy Listening / Elevator Music / Muzak, if produced earlier than about 1979. I like many genres of music but this is apparently beyond the pale (although it did have a brief moment in the 1990s, when some appeared under the Lounge umbrella).
Am I unclean for adding anchovies?
Not at all. Especially, to pineapple pizza. In fact, I've named the anchovy/pineapple combo Pizza Rash. Enjoy!
posted by Rash at 9:35 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Am I unclean for adding anchovies?
Not at all. Especially, to pineapple pizza. In fact, I've named the anchovy/pineapple combo Pizza Rash. Enjoy!
posted by Rash at 9:35 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
I also like washing dishes. Having lived generally in crumbling old apartments, I find that dish-washing is often the only chore that reliably produces the desired result of a thing that looks and feels cleaner after cleaning. Folding laundry is enjoyable regardless but the rotten ancient machines in my building turn out a really poor product and are a slog to access.
Cleaning the bathroom doesn't bother me but the end result is never satisfying, because there's just no way 1000 layers of shitty paint and a scratched-to-hell tub ever look any different following a good scrub. I dream that one day I will have a bathroom new or well-maintained enough to ever look clean.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:46 AM on February 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
Cleaning the bathroom doesn't bother me but the end result is never satisfying, because there's just no way 1000 layers of shitty paint and a scratched-to-hell tub ever look any different following a good scrub. I dream that one day I will have a bathroom new or well-maintained enough to ever look clean.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:46 AM on February 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
I love grooming my dogs (dog singular atm). People are always like wow it must take a lot of work to keep their coats so nice and I’m like “define work.” I love all of it—brushing their teeth (every night!), trimming the hair on their feet, dremeling their nails, picking their eye boogers—but especially brushing them when they’re blowing coat. Pickers, you haven’t lived until you’ve pulled loose undercoat out of a double-coated dog.
posted by HotToddy at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by HotToddy at 10:38 AM on February 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
Well-done hamburgers. Similarly, chicken that’s been slightly over cooked, to the point where it’s a bit dry.
Black licorice, including salty black licorice. It's delicious and I will die on this hill.
Flying. I’m still astonished by the miracle of flight, and the longer the trip, the better.
posted by holborne at 10:48 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Black licorice, including salty black licorice. It's delicious and I will die on this hill.
Flying. I’m still astonished by the miracle of flight, and the longer the trip, the better.
posted by holborne at 10:48 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
my partner who loves the smell of cow manure spread on the fields (smells like home?!)
This!!! I miss it so much. I breathe deeply when Park Police horses are around.
The downstate flatlanders who are moving into my yankee hamlet of a hometown and building McManions in pastureland meant that the town had to pass a "Right to Farm" ordinance. The bucolic community is *there* providing atmosphere for them *because* of its farming heritage, however diminished it now is.
One couple circulated a petition to gain support for their complaint about manure smells -- ! What did they think they were getting into when they chose a place where cows exist??!!!
In past years, a brief whiff of diesel would take me back to my 1974 or 75 bus trip to D.C. from the sticks with my Gram and our elderly friends. That's diminished.
posted by jgirl at 10:57 AM on February 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
This!!! I miss it so much. I breathe deeply when Park Police horses are around.
The downstate flatlanders who are moving into my yankee hamlet of a hometown and building McManions in pastureland meant that the town had to pass a "Right to Farm" ordinance. The bucolic community is *there* providing atmosphere for them *because* of its farming heritage, however diminished it now is.
One couple circulated a petition to gain support for their complaint about manure smells -- ! What did they think they were getting into when they chose a place where cows exist??!!!
In past years, a brief whiff of diesel would take me back to my 1974 or 75 bus trip to D.C. from the sticks with my Gram and our elderly friends. That's diminished.
posted by jgirl at 10:57 AM on February 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
I’ve been out of academia for ages but when I was still in the trenches (undergrad, grad and postdoc), I liked grading.Wow. Sciencegeek is an academic unicorn. Cool! (There are things I like that nobody else does - wirebonding, for example - but that's an entirely new one.) I once checked into a flight with two colleagues on the way back from the conference, and when asked what seat he preferred, the first guy immediately said, "middle." Sadly, it was a translation problem and he didn't actually mean it. He meant middle-of-the-plane. But, he was willing to live with the consequences with a smile.
Seconding pu-ehr, malort, and licorice. But, they sell them, so we can't be alone in liking them. I've never really gone for Necco wafers, though I'll eat them if they're offered. But C. Howard's Violet Mints are something I can't walk past without buying.
posted by eotvos at 11:03 AM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
I have a weird fondness for the smell of CAB tool handles (older Xcelite, PB Swiss, etc) when they start to degrade, releasing butyric acid compounds that are otherwise reminiscent of vomit and bad dairy products.
posted by zamboni at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by zamboni at 11:52 AM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Who doesn't like salmon skin? Salmon skin is divine. I also like to fry chicken skin like it's bacon. If you boil chicken for soup, when you process the chicken, peel off the skin and lay it flat in a nonstick pan and heat it up gradually, periodically turning it and smooshing it with a spatula until it's all crisped and brown. Drain on a paper towel, salt, eat. There is never enough of this. To hell with breeding programs that produce chickens with more white meat; what this world needs is more chicken skin.
posted by Don Pepino at 2:28 PM on February 7, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Don Pepino at 2:28 PM on February 7, 2022 [6 favorites]
I kinda really like picking at my skin - especially peeling tiny strips of dry skin off my heels in the winter. Also cleaning out my ears after a shower... hnngghhh so good.
posted by MiraK at 2:37 PM on February 7, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by MiraK at 2:37 PM on February 7, 2022 [6 favorites]
Also, I like musk flavored confectionery, which disgusts most Americans ("ew, perfume!"), and root beer/wintergreen, which disgusts mosts Australians ("yuck, Deep Heat!").
posted by zamboni at 2:45 PM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by zamboni at 2:45 PM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
Necco wafers and other chalky, waxy, or otherwise strangely textured candy. Right now I have several boxes of the sweetheart candies that come around during valentine's, they are a delight on the tongue.
I love Necco wafers and conversation hearts! I adored candy cigarettes, back in the day. One of my favorite things to find in my Halloween bag as a kid.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 3:01 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
I love Necco wafers and conversation hearts! I adored candy cigarettes, back in the day. One of my favorite things to find in my Halloween bag as a kid.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 3:01 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
I like cheap terrible liquid cheese product macaroni and cheese so much better than homemade. Which is a little unfortunate because my husband has a fantastic prized homemade recipe of which he is rightly proud, but sometimes you just want yellow goo.
I prefer canned green beans to fresh. Not even close.
I legitimately enjoy fruitcake. Not even the nice kind. The mystery brick that tastes of cheap rum flavor.
And I am also a member of Team Pineapple on Pizza!
posted by bowtiesarecool at 3:02 PM on February 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
I prefer canned green beans to fresh. Not even close.
I legitimately enjoy fruitcake. Not even the nice kind. The mystery brick that tastes of cheap rum flavor.
And I am also a member of Team Pineapple on Pizza!
posted by bowtiesarecool at 3:02 PM on February 7, 2022 [4 favorites]
I love the smell of bleach in a public restroom or locker room because 1) it makes me believe it was just cleaned before my entry, and 2) it brings back nostalgic childhood memories of walking into a huge indoor public pool for swimming lessons.
Is this just me? It happens somewhat regularly because I work in a hospital.
posted by sweetpotato at 3:22 PM on February 7, 2022 [6 favorites]
Is this just me? It happens somewhat regularly because I work in a hospital.
posted by sweetpotato at 3:22 PM on February 7, 2022 [6 favorites]
I loved fruitcake! I’d cut it in slices at least an inch thick, broil it on both sides until the surfaces were crunchy, which also meant they were dead black and did occasionally catch fire, and then let them cool enough so the buttering wouldn’t melt right off. I ate entire fruitcakes in one sitting that way.
At least my parents were able to tell our friends and relatives how much 'we' enjoyed their fruitcakes with a straight face.
posted by jamjam at 3:54 PM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
At least my parents were able to tell our friends and relatives how much 'we' enjoyed their fruitcakes with a straight face.
posted by jamjam at 3:54 PM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'm so used to people sneering at my Lipton instant iced tea that I have to sneak-make it whenever someone's around my house. Which is why I was utterly shocked when one of the few friends I've been able to have over during These Unprecedented Times actually said "No, I love instant iced tea, especially with Tang. No one lets me have it at home." And I was like, wait, they still make Tang? There is no place that I've seen that carries it anywhere I've been in ages. So she ordered a jar to keep in my cupboard for her visits. It's great--I don't have to hide the closest thing I have to a dependency, and she gets to drink something her husband and teenager mock her for in peace and quiet.
I do not enjoy dark chocolate. It tastes bitter and unpleasant. I'm a milk chocolate girl all the way, and the chocolate snobs can go eff themselves. I wish people would stop giving me dark chocolate, but I fear it'll never stop, no matter how many times I tell people that for me, milk chocolate is superior.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 4:13 PM on February 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
I do not enjoy dark chocolate. It tastes bitter and unpleasant. I'm a milk chocolate girl all the way, and the chocolate snobs can go eff themselves. I wish people would stop giving me dark chocolate, but I fear it'll never stop, no matter how many times I tell people that for me, milk chocolate is superior.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 4:13 PM on February 7, 2022 [10 favorites]
Aw, Lipton powdered iced tea = my grandmother.
They're wrong but they're LOUD wrong which is the best kind of wrong to be in orchestra, because with loud wrong I can hear the specific badness and help them;
My beloved band director always said, "if you're going to make a mistake, make it a big one!"
100% fake maple syrup.
I don't mind sandy feet, legs, belongings, etc., even inside the house/hotel at the beach. I don't mind lingering sand once I've showered or whatever.
posted by Pax at 4:34 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
They're wrong but they're LOUD wrong which is the best kind of wrong to be in orchestra, because with loud wrong I can hear the specific badness and help them;
My beloved band director always said, "if you're going to make a mistake, make it a big one!"
100% fake maple syrup.
I don't mind sandy feet, legs, belongings, etc., even inside the house/hotel at the beach. I don't mind lingering sand once I've showered or whatever.
posted by Pax at 4:34 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Oh, fruit cake! Yes, I'm on that team for sure. Sliced think and eaten fast, sliced thick and eaten on top of ice cream, fried and eaten with custard. Yes, I love me some fruit cake. Doesn't even need to be fancy, just the cheap supermarket home brand is fine by me.
posted by dg at 4:41 PM on February 7, 2022
posted by dg at 4:41 PM on February 7, 2022
While I hope to never deal with an infestation again in my life, I really enjoyed the comb-and-destroy lice eradication sessions back when my kid was so afflicted. I considered advertising my services, but didn't want to risk ever bringing any more home.
Pineapple on pizza, yes please. Cilantro, yes please. Black licorice, I like a little too much.
posted by pernoctalian at 5:24 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Pineapple on pizza, yes please. Cilantro, yes please. Black licorice, I like a little too much.
posted by pernoctalian at 5:24 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Strolling through cemeteries, the older the better. I'm in love with the history, the artistry, the poetry of old epitaphs.
Finding dead things when I'm out and about in nature. On a recent seaside vacation, my friends and I came across a dead dolphin ... so glad my friends are as weird as I am! It's a great day when I find a skull I can bring home.
I love frozen meatballs, even though I get "looked down on" for admitting that I use them.
I have no problems using Porta-Pottys.
Can't stand cilantro, but I love pineapple on pizza!
Upon some reviews from upthread: I love the smell of pipe tobacco, and even some cigars. I have no problems helping other people get bandaged up from injuries. I still love fresh, clean notebooks and smooth writing pens. The smell of manure brings back happy memories of my aunt's farm.
posted by annieb at 5:44 PM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
Finding dead things when I'm out and about in nature. On a recent seaside vacation, my friends and I came across a dead dolphin ... so glad my friends are as weird as I am! It's a great day when I find a skull I can bring home.
I love frozen meatballs, even though I get "looked down on" for admitting that I use them.
I have no problems using Porta-Pottys.
Can't stand cilantro, but I love pineapple on pizza!
Upon some reviews from upthread: I love the smell of pipe tobacco, and even some cigars. I have no problems helping other people get bandaged up from injuries. I still love fresh, clean notebooks and smooth writing pens. The smell of manure brings back happy memories of my aunt's farm.
posted by annieb at 5:44 PM on February 7, 2022 [3 favorites]
Hawaiian pizza -- yes.
Cilantro -- yes.
PB & Banana -- hell yes!
My dad did the PB & pickle thing. I can take it or leave it.
Bananas with Kraft singles. I should try it with PB on a sandwich.
The Linux command line. I hate package managers because I never seem to be able to find what I want/need.
I will watch as I get my blood drawn. The way it swooshes up into the tube is awesome.
posted by kathrynm at 5:49 PM on February 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
Cilantro -- yes.
PB & Banana -- hell yes!
My dad did the PB & pickle thing. I can take it or leave it.
Bananas with Kraft singles. I should try it with PB on a sandwich.
The Linux command line. I hate package managers because I never seem to be able to find what I want/need.
I will watch as I get my blood drawn. The way it swooshes up into the tube is awesome.
posted by kathrynm at 5:49 PM on February 7, 2022 [5 favorites]
Oh, yeah, I love watching my blood fill the tube during a draw. It should be on the inside, but now it's on the outside! As a proper New Jerseyan, I've always thought pineapple on pizza was an abomination. Pineapple and jalapeno, though, now that sounds intriguing.
posted by mollweide at 5:57 PM on February 7, 2022
posted by mollweide at 5:57 PM on February 7, 2022
I am also on the fruitcake train, and I love eggnog!
posted by jgirl at 7:20 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by jgirl at 7:20 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
I LOVE ironing and folding clothes. I find it very soothing. I even like folding fitted sheets. I think it's a small way of creating order out of chaos that feels within my control.
I also love the smell of gasoline, even though it will make me sick if I smell it long enough.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:24 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
I also love the smell of gasoline, even though it will make me sick if I smell it long enough.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:24 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Also fruitcake yes and dark chocolate no.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:25 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:25 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
The Linux command line
vi. In any other text editor, I miss the ability to shift a letter's case with the tilde.
posted by Rash at 9:49 PM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
vi. In any other text editor, I miss the ability to shift a letter's case with the tilde.
posted by Rash at 9:49 PM on February 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
holborne: Black licorice, including salty black licorice. It's delicious and I will die on this hill.
It's not much of a taboo if there are whole countries where liking this thing is the norm, not the exception. But yes, salty black licorice is delicious. You just live in a country where a lot of people don't realise that.
Much like I do with regards to Pu-Erh tea, of course. It's a highly prized tea. Just not here.
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:20 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
It's not much of a taboo if there are whole countries where liking this thing is the norm, not the exception. But yes, salty black licorice is delicious. You just live in a country where a lot of people don't realise that.
Much like I do with regards to Pu-Erh tea, of course. It's a highly prized tea. Just not here.
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:20 PM on February 7, 2022 [2 favorites]
Seconding pu-ehr, malort, and licorice. But, they sell them, so we can't be alone in liking them.
I'm feeling weirdly comforted by that thought even though these specific things are not for me.
Thank you :)
posted by M. at 2:09 AM on February 8, 2022
I'm feeling weirdly comforted by that thought even though these specific things are not for me.
Thank you :)
posted by M. at 2:09 AM on February 8, 2022
I'm away for a few days next week in Derbyshire. I posted an Ask about it and got good suggestions. If any MeFites would like a postcard (international is fine), let me know your details by MeMail - I forgot to sign up for the postal exchange this month and as far as I remember from the remote days of actually having holidays, sending postcards is essential to the experience. I will also send postcards to Mefite cats (though my own cat is staying at home, which is a worry to me, although she will be having visits from feeders and waterers).
posted by paduasoy at 4:10 AM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by paduasoy at 4:10 AM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
You're supposed to like your coffee roasted light and your chocolate dark; I'm the opposite. I love a milk chocolate and a dark roast on coffee of the type that people turn their noses up at because they say it's burnt. Okay, but this chocolate you're trying to hand me is so black and crumblybrittle it's basically a slab of unprocessed nibs.
Also, I think very skinny-line pens are preferred but I really like ball point, just the regular linewidth from the free pens you get at the bank. My credit union has perfect, perfect pens.
posted by Don Pepino at 5:22 AM on February 8, 2022 [6 favorites]
Also, I think very skinny-line pens are preferred but I really like ball point, just the regular linewidth from the free pens you get at the bank. My credit union has perfect, perfect pens.
posted by Don Pepino at 5:22 AM on February 8, 2022 [6 favorites]
Smells: lingering diesel exhaust, tobacco shops, industrial soap (artificial orange smell...)
Pineapple on pizza is Pretty Good, Actually.
If I'm out in public and a song being played has a good beat I'm nodding my head if not outright bopping to it. I am That Guy in line and it's fine.
For a while I thought the correct answer was "Emacs in evil-mode" but now I'm re-teaching myself the old Emacs keystrokes, remapped Caps as Ctrl, etc. Also a huge CLI fan.
posted by pianoblack at 7:37 AM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Pineapple on pizza is Pretty Good, Actually.
If I'm out in public and a song being played has a good beat I'm nodding my head if not outright bopping to it. I am That Guy in line and it's fine.
For a while I thought the correct answer was "Emacs in evil-mode" but now I'm re-teaching myself the old Emacs keystrokes, remapped Caps as Ctrl, etc. Also a huge CLI fan.
posted by pianoblack at 7:37 AM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
I used to lick my finger and stick it in the box of baking soda. Used to love the taste of baking soda. I haven't had it in a while, and I won't, because I don't want to be the adult who's addicted to baking soda.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:38 AM on February 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:38 AM on February 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
I have lots of unpopular food delights. I'm fine with instant mashed potatoes, esp. on shepherd's/ cottage pie. Jarred gravy is usually crap, but the instant mashed potatoes with gravy at KFC are divine. Canned corned beef hash, fried till very crispy. Canned chili on spaghetti. I have been mocked for this, but Fritos and bean dip. Cheap fruitcake with butter. Cool whip, and it's sibling, the fluffy, fake frosting on grocery store cupcakes. Fancier jello, like using plain gelatin and OJ, is great, but Jello is tasty, sweet, and you can pack in some canned fruit or sliced bananas and reduce the guilt. I grew up with ketchup on scrambled eggs, really tasty, have progressed to salsa. I generally prefer cooked vegetables to not be crunchy or al dente.
posted by theora55 at 7:48 AM on February 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 7:48 AM on February 8, 2022 [7 favorites]
theora55–I am right with you in the front row for Fritos and bean dip, ketchup on scrambled eggs, fried corned beef hash, and the KFC mashed potatoes with gravy.
posted by bookmammal at 8:04 AM on February 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by bookmammal at 8:04 AM on February 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
I love straightening out poorly maintained databases. One of my biggest thrills at work at the food co-op was creating a whole new membership database pre-2k since the old software company declined to stay in business and fix their non 2k compliant mess. I took thousands of poorly maintained records and organized and corrected the shit outta them. Now in my retirement I'm fixing my own sloppy database of audiobooks. I finished all the record keeping and now I'm combining multifile books into single files.
I also like some bands that are always reviled. And the most shocking thing, I like using iTunes.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 8:11 AM on February 8, 2022 [8 favorites]
I also like some bands that are always reviled. And the most shocking thing, I like using iTunes.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 8:11 AM on February 8, 2022 [8 favorites]
vi. In any other text editor, I miss the ability to shift a letter's case with the tilde.I used to have a chart on my wall with the title, "vi command cheat sheet" and a single entry in the middle of a blank page that was ":q!" with a box around it. Which was both really obnoxious and also genuinely useful when I accidentally didn't set $EDITOR on a new system. As a more mature person, I realize the tens of hours I've spent learning emacs-lisp to do really basic things are either equivalent to or far sillier than the weird stuff vi users have to put up with. Cheers for diverse text editors of all kinds. Except the fucking annoying browser-based notebook ones. Kids these days!
posted by eotvos at 11:12 AM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
I prefer my grilled cheese sandwiches with processed slices rather than fancy cheese (although I love fancy cheese).
posted by rpfields at 12:04 PM on February 8, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by rpfields at 12:04 PM on February 8, 2022 [6 favorites]
Puns and elves. I wish I had a use for a sockpuppet account because I just realised that username "Dark Elvis" paired with a profile picture of Drizzt Do'Urden would make for a perfect start to a user page. So that idea is free to anyone who wants it but you've got to use the pun and the elf picture: no mixey-matchey.
posted by howfar at 1:58 PM on February 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by howfar at 1:58 PM on February 8, 2022 [4 favorites]
I prefer my grilled cheese sandwiches with processed slices rather than fancy cheese (although I love fancy cheese).
The grilled government cheese sandwiches they used to serve every Friday in the school cafeteria were sublime. On Monday you could get two reheated leftover sandwiches for the price of one, and they were a delight all their own dunked in tomato soup.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:04 PM on February 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
The grilled government cheese sandwiches they used to serve every Friday in the school cafeteria were sublime. On Monday you could get two reheated leftover sandwiches for the price of one, and they were a delight all their own dunked in tomato soup.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:04 PM on February 8, 2022 [5 favorites]
Also, The Last Jedi was the best of the Star Wars sequels.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:06 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:06 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
LaTeX. Raisins (not in dessertish baked goods, which I mostly don't like, just by themselves). Lateral flow tests (I quit smoking more than 10 years ago and LFTs - - which I'm meant to do twice a week -- turn out to be the replacement for the meditative and fastidious ritual of turning shitty rolling tobacco into life-punctuation I didn't know I was missing).
posted by busted_crayons at 4:50 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by busted_crayons at 4:50 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
I love instant iced tea, especially with Tang.
Yes! Then heated and served hot. Best cold medicine. Or even just cold weather medicine.
posted by ctmf at 10:26 PM on February 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
Yes! Then heated and served hot. Best cold medicine. Or even just cold weather medicine.
posted by ctmf at 10:26 PM on February 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
At home I mix soda and tap water in a 2/1 or 1/1 ratio. I did this for years, both to cut calories and to increase water intake. Water is better with a bit of lemon-lime soda or vanilla cream soda on top.
Then I switched to diet drinks, which are barely palatable. And then I opened an expired two-liter plastic bottle... it was vile.
So I am back to mixing my carbonated beverages.
I don't drink coffee, unless it's some mocha-java mix I've thrown together. Hot chocolate is a liquid treat I indulge in during the winter. I'm Southern, so I'm all about cold sweet tea, sweet enough to stand a spoon in. I don't drink alcohol.
So it's bland soda for me, or bottled water on walks.
posted by TrishaU at 3:05 AM on February 9, 2022
Then I switched to diet drinks, which are barely palatable. And then I opened an expired two-liter plastic bottle... it was vile.
So I am back to mixing my carbonated beverages.
I don't drink coffee, unless it's some mocha-java mix I've thrown together. Hot chocolate is a liquid treat I indulge in during the winter. I'm Southern, so I'm all about cold sweet tea, sweet enough to stand a spoon in. I don't drink alcohol.
So it's bland soda for me, or bottled water on walks.
posted by TrishaU at 3:05 AM on February 9, 2022
I have found my friends in theora55 and bookmammal :D
I'm a big fan of Spam, and pineapple on pizza. I also have a childhood snack that I haven't heard anyone else ever mention: american cheese and banana. Like I would unwrap the square of cheese and wrap it around the banana to eat together. Also American cheese and marmalade though as an adult I realize it's not too far from cheese and fruit plates.
posted by brilliantine at 5:45 AM on February 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
I'm a big fan of Spam, and pineapple on pizza. I also have a childhood snack that I haven't heard anyone else ever mention: american cheese and banana. Like I would unwrap the square of cheese and wrap it around the banana to eat together. Also American cheese and marmalade though as an adult I realize it's not too far from cheese and fruit plates.
posted by brilliantine at 5:45 AM on February 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
I see a lot of responses orbiting around this, but the actual combination of pizza toppings you want is pineapple + jalapenos + cured meat. Whichever cured meat they have on hand is fine... my preference is prosciutto, but bacon also works great, and I bet Spam or ham would do it too. (Anchovies are also intriguing, because the umami is off the charts). It doesn't work with pickled jalapenos--they have to be fresh.
Salt bomb + capsaicin + sweet = the platonic ideal of delicious. There's a place near me that has this as one of their specials, and they crisp up the bacon perfectly and slice the jalapenos really thin and pile them on, and it's aaaaaalmost enough to get me back there after ten years of boycotting them for their horrible labor practices.
posted by Mayor West at 7:04 AM on February 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
Salt bomb + capsaicin + sweet = the platonic ideal of delicious. There's a place near me that has this as one of their specials, and they crisp up the bacon perfectly and slice the jalapenos really thin and pile them on, and it's aaaaaalmost enough to get me back there after ten years of boycotting them for their horrible labor practices.
posted by Mayor West at 7:04 AM on February 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
I like pith. You know when you peel an orange and then you're supposed to peel off the thin white styrofoam layer before it ruins your recipe or your whole-orange eating experience because supposedly it's unimaginably bitter? I'll just haul off and eat that stuff. I think it started because I read somewhere that grapefruit pith was... something. Protective against heart attack or stroke? Somehow weight-loss inducing? No idea; it was ages back. But because of that I started eating grapefruit pith and then I realized that pith in general is actually palatable and now I eat all the citrus pith when I'm peeling an orange to share with a normal, pith-averse person or making some citrusy recipe.
posted by Don Pepino at 7:06 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Don Pepino at 7:06 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Also bleach is the best smell. To my brain, it either means I'm at a heated indoor pool in the winter, or that the kitchen/bathroom has been sterilized so thoroughly that I don't have to worry about it for a while.
posted by Mayor West at 7:07 AM on February 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Mayor West at 7:07 AM on February 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
Mayor West, salty + sweet + hot is so good. Korean barbecue, for instance. If I could eat cheese, ham, pineapple * jalapeno pizza sounds great.
posted by theora55 at 7:41 AM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by theora55 at 7:41 AM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am the only person I know who likes peanut butter kisses at Halloween.
posted by doift at 8:49 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by doift at 8:49 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Chopping vegetables/meal-preparation = relaxing
(But not the actual cooking, when I have to try and time multiple dishes to be ready at the same time... so stressful, even with timers... I prefer to make "1-2 dish" meals whenever possible)
Washing dishes = relaxing
Sweeping, vacuuming, mopping = relaxing
Skunk smell = Fine, no big deal
Gasoline, auto-shops, degreaser, engine oil and industrial hand-cleaner (that pink stuff) = Nice smells, takes me back to childhood
Sweat smell = No big deal - if it is my partner, then definately enjoyable
Dog feet does smell like popcorn to me, when they are relaxed an sleeping
Bleach and generally any cleaning fluid = good smell (with the exception of amonia - which is horrible)
Hawaiian Pizza = Yummy
Hawaiian Pizza + Hot pickled Banana Peppers = "Chef's Kiss" perfection! (I refer to it as "Hot Hawaiian")
Smoked oyster / tuna straight from the can with a fork
Liverwurst on open-faced toast with a drizzle of mustard = Yummy
Banana + Peanut butter sandwich = Yummy
Banana + Peanut butter + drizzle of honey sandwich = "Chef's Kiss" perfection!
When out walking, I will pick any kind of coniferous needles/foilage and chew them to a pulp before spitting them out.
Citrus peels & pith = A little bit is Yummy!
Cheeze Whiz on toast or celery = instant return to childhood delight!
Miracle Whip over Mayo when making sandwiches = I will fight you to the death on that one. But - potato salad or anything else in a recipe? That has to be real mayo.
"The sound of dogs barking" - doesn't bother me that much
Picking of nose = essential, when done privately.
Hair... all the women in my life seem to have a phobia about their hair once it leaves their head... They gag when seeing it in the shower, my stepdaughter would rather throw out a hairbrush than remove the hair... Me = I don't mind it at all, and cleaning a hairbrush is oddly satisfying - a drain? Even more so...
Uh... so, seeing as no one else has mentioned this one - but - I don't mind the smell of my own farts at all... ...but, I may be a bit "nose-blind".
posted by rozcakj at 9:09 AM on February 9, 2022
(But not the actual cooking, when I have to try and time multiple dishes to be ready at the same time... so stressful, even with timers... I prefer to make "1-2 dish" meals whenever possible)
Washing dishes = relaxing
Sweeping, vacuuming, mopping = relaxing
Skunk smell = Fine, no big deal
Gasoline, auto-shops, degreaser, engine oil and industrial hand-cleaner (that pink stuff) = Nice smells, takes me back to childhood
Sweat smell = No big deal - if it is my partner, then definately enjoyable
Dog feet does smell like popcorn to me, when they are relaxed an sleeping
Bleach and generally any cleaning fluid = good smell (with the exception of amonia - which is horrible)
Hawaiian Pizza = Yummy
Hawaiian Pizza + Hot pickled Banana Peppers = "Chef's Kiss" perfection! (I refer to it as "Hot Hawaiian")
Smoked oyster / tuna straight from the can with a fork
Liverwurst on open-faced toast with a drizzle of mustard = Yummy
Banana + Peanut butter sandwich = Yummy
Banana + Peanut butter + drizzle of honey sandwich = "Chef's Kiss" perfection!
When out walking, I will pick any kind of coniferous needles/foilage and chew them to a pulp before spitting them out.
Citrus peels & pith = A little bit is Yummy!
Cheeze Whiz on toast or celery = instant return to childhood delight!
Miracle Whip over Mayo when making sandwiches = I will fight you to the death on that one. But - potato salad or anything else in a recipe? That has to be real mayo.
"The sound of dogs barking" - doesn't bother me that much
Picking of nose = essential, when done privately.
Hair... all the women in my life seem to have a phobia about their hair once it leaves their head... They gag when seeing it in the shower, my stepdaughter would rather throw out a hairbrush than remove the hair... Me = I don't mind it at all, and cleaning a hairbrush is oddly satisfying - a drain? Even more so...
Uh... so, seeing as no one else has mentioned this one - but - I don't mind the smell of my own farts at all... ...but, I may be a bit "nose-blind".
posted by rozcakj at 9:09 AM on February 9, 2022
Oh - and bitter dark chocolate is the best. Milk chocolate tastes like sour/spoiled milk to me. Don't even get me started on the abomination that is "white chocolate".
posted by rozcakj at 9:51 AM on February 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by rozcakj at 9:51 AM on February 9, 2022 [3 favorites]
The Underpants Monster....
Keb Mo; singing about Government Cheese
posted by mightshould at 11:33 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Keb Mo; singing about Government Cheese
posted by mightshould at 11:33 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
I also like to fry chicken skin like it's bacon. If you boil chicken for soup, when you process the chicken, peel off the skin and lay it flat in a nonstick pan and heat it up gradually, periodically turning it and smooshing it with a spatula until it's all crisped and brown. Drain on a paper towel, salt, eat. There is never enough of this. To hell with breeding programs that produce chickens with more white meat; what this world needs is more chicken skin.
Don Pepino, you just invented gribenes.
posted by Mchelly at 11:53 AM on February 9, 2022 [6 favorites]
Don Pepino, you just invented gribenes.
posted by Mchelly at 11:53 AM on February 9, 2022 [6 favorites]
The childhood memory of my dad's pipe tobacco is still very clear in my mind, and a very comforting smell.
Now that I am an adult I know the self-destruction it portends, and that makes the memory bittersweet....but still not entirely bad.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:55 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Now that I am an adult I know the self-destruction it portends, and that makes the memory bittersweet....but still not entirely bad.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:55 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
I also like to fry chicken skin like it's bacon.
One of the benefits I've found to roasting a whole chicken is that if I start it out upside down (i.e. spine up), then flip it over about halfway through, I get an entire chicken's worth of crunchy brown skin to nibble on! If I'm cooking dinner for multiple people I'll share if required...but only grudgingly.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:02 PM on February 9, 2022
One of the benefits I've found to roasting a whole chicken is that if I start it out upside down (i.e. spine up), then flip it over about halfway through, I get an entire chicken's worth of crunchy brown skin to nibble on! If I'm cooking dinner for multiple people I'll share if required...but only grudgingly.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:02 PM on February 9, 2022
@doift -- I LOVE those Mary Janes at Halloween! The peanut butter is dried out and they're sticky yet stale-tasting like they're left over from the 1970s. So good. Where do you even buy them anymore, though? Dollar Tree type places?
posted by jabes at 1:33 PM on February 9, 2022
posted by jabes at 1:33 PM on February 9, 2022
brilliantine,
I used to do that as well. I might have to get some bananas at the store this week and see if it lives up to what I remember.
I'm one of those people who will eat bananas long after they look like they can be eaten. The browner, the better.
posted by kathrynm at 4:12 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
I used to do that as well. I might have to get some bananas at the store this week and see if it lives up to what I remember.
I'm one of those people who will eat bananas long after they look like they can be eaten. The browner, the better.
posted by kathrynm at 4:12 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Weird food. Many times people have tried to prank me with weird food that I ended up liking. It is not some macho thing, I like the strange aromas, textures, tastes.
Brain, lip, palate, tripe and horn tacos are my favorites. I really like “nana” tortas, which is pig uterus, and udders and testicles in beef stew. I go out of my way to get guacamole with freshly roasted grasshoppers, and eat chicatanas (alates of ants of the Atta genus) when I can get them. I’ve tried all kinds of weird fruits and liked them, including durian and the local equivalen chaca. Stinky tofu and natto I’ve tried and liked, as well as all kinds of fermented fruits and vegetables.
I also enjoy some smells that may be described as fecal or rotting. I like the smell of manure on a field, the foliar fertilizer I use with fish, bone and blood meal. Skunks. The sulfurous smell of anaerobic fermentation when cleaning aquarium substrate, some farts.
But weirdly I am disgusted by things most people don’t mind. There are some candy flavorings that make me want to throw up. The sound of my dog licking his paws makes me nauseous.
posted by Dr. Curare at 4:33 PM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Brain, lip, palate, tripe and horn tacos are my favorites. I really like “nana” tortas, which is pig uterus, and udders and testicles in beef stew. I go out of my way to get guacamole with freshly roasted grasshoppers, and eat chicatanas (alates of ants of the Atta genus) when I can get them. I’ve tried all kinds of weird fruits and liked them, including durian and the local equivalen chaca. Stinky tofu and natto I’ve tried and liked, as well as all kinds of fermented fruits and vegetables.
I also enjoy some smells that may be described as fecal or rotting. I like the smell of manure on a field, the foliar fertilizer I use with fish, bone and blood meal. Skunks. The sulfurous smell of anaerobic fermentation when cleaning aquarium substrate, some farts.
But weirdly I am disgusted by things most people don’t mind. There are some candy flavorings that make me want to throw up. The sound of my dog licking his paws makes me nauseous.
posted by Dr. Curare at 4:33 PM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Halloween peanut buttter kisses are AWESOME.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:38 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:38 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Chicken or turkey skin can be microwaved to get really crunchy and it's so good. Like bacon, it loses a lot of the fat.
posted by theora55 at 7:04 PM on February 9, 2022
posted by theora55 at 7:04 PM on February 9, 2022
Our traditional Easter hams, which I would never make these days from suspicion they may have been used to smoke out insincere conversos, came with the skin on.
We peeled it off and discarded it, but one year, it looked pretty good to me for all the fattiness, toughness, and blackness, so I went back into the kitchen and ate it after dinner. It was delicious, but so chewy, messy, and loud on the brittle parts that I could not have if anyone else had been around. I learned to put it fat side up and broil it in later years.
And now it’s getting its revenge as Southern Recipe pork rinds commercials are about to drive me crazy!
posted by jamjam at 9:07 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
We peeled it off and discarded it, but one year, it looked pretty good to me for all the fattiness, toughness, and blackness, so I went back into the kitchen and ate it after dinner. It was delicious, but so chewy, messy, and loud on the brittle parts that I could not have if anyone else had been around. I learned to put it fat side up and broil it in later years.
And now it’s getting its revenge as Southern Recipe pork rinds commercials are about to drive me crazy!
posted by jamjam at 9:07 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Reese's: give me the bigger stuff like the Christmas trees or pumpkins- the mini cups have too much chocolate to peanut butter ratio.
posted by freethefeet at 12:09 AM on February 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by freethefeet at 12:09 AM on February 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Weird food. Many times people have tried to prank me with weird food that I ended up liking. It is not some macho thing, I like the strange aromas, textures, tastes.
Being from Chicago of course everyone tries to ruin your night with a shot of Malört, which I don't hate at all, so joke's on them, free shot.
Most of my friends are pretty adventurous eaters, at least in theory (I have a couple of friends who will try everything but in the end they usually won't like it). But I'm the only one who can eat balut. And I mean...would I seek it out? No, of course not. But it tastes FINE.
the crunch is unsettling.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:07 AM on February 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Being from Chicago of course everyone tries to ruin your night with a shot of Malört, which I don't hate at all, so joke's on them, free shot.
Most of my friends are pretty adventurous eaters, at least in theory (I have a couple of friends who will try everything but in the end they usually won't like it). But I'm the only one who can eat balut. And I mean...would I seek it out? No, of course not. But it tastes FINE.
the crunch is unsettling.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:07 AM on February 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Sugar cookies with BBQ sauce on the side for dipping.
the smell of Jeyes Fluid or Carbolic soap
Fresh road tar is the smell of my childhood: Glasgow changed from town gas to natural gas the summer before I started school, so every street got ripped up and there was lots of new tar around.
posted by scruss at 9:08 AM on February 10, 2022
the smell of Jeyes Fluid or Carbolic soap
Fresh road tar is the smell of my childhood: Glasgow changed from town gas to natural gas the summer before I started school, so every street got ripped up and there was lots of new tar around.
posted by scruss at 9:08 AM on February 10, 2022
My guess was that "The Sweetest Taboo" would almost certainly bring a persimmon lover or two in out of the cold, but no!
So I’m forced to fill the (admittedly nonexistent) void with a charming video I saw recently about the pleasures (and perils!) of persimmons.
The comments are actually pretty interesting, including a mention that in Japan a paper waterproofing lacquer is made from the toxic principles of the fruit.
posted by jamjam at 1:47 PM on February 10, 2022
So I’m forced to fill the (admittedly nonexistent) void with a charming video I saw recently about the pleasures (and perils!) of persimmons.
The comments are actually pretty interesting, including a mention that in Japan a paper waterproofing lacquer is made from the toxic principles of the fruit.
posted by jamjam at 1:47 PM on February 10, 2022
On the other hand, whenever I see this post's title I get a Sade song stuck in my head.
and now everybody else will too :)
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:52 PM on February 10, 2022
and now everybody else will too :)
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:52 PM on February 10, 2022
I discovered persimmons when I lived in Korea. I like them quite a bit.
posted by kathrynm at 4:56 PM on February 10, 2022
posted by kathrynm at 4:56 PM on February 10, 2022
I love bletted wild American persimmons, now that you mention it.
posted by mollweide at 6:30 PM on February 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mollweide at 6:30 PM on February 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Thank you very much for that link, mollweide!
It links in turn to a DH Lawrence poem: Medlars and Sorb-Apples.
Lawrence’s reputation — shriveled down by now to wrinkled and unappetizing scraps for sufficient reason — rests on the novels exclusively, but really the hierarchy should run: letters> poetry> criticism> fiction. And that’s a particularly good poem, that we might see as a meditation on what’s good about about what’s left of Lawrence himself — those of us who share such an eccentric taste.
posted by jamjam at 8:38 PM on February 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
It links in turn to a DH Lawrence poem: Medlars and Sorb-Apples.
Lawrence’s reputation — shriveled down by now to wrinkled and unappetizing scraps for sufficient reason — rests on the novels exclusively, but really the hierarchy should run: letters> poetry> criticism> fiction. And that’s a particularly good poem, that we might see as a meditation on what’s good about about what’s left of Lawrence himself — those of us who share such an eccentric taste.
posted by jamjam at 8:38 PM on February 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I much prefer this kind of easter egg to chocolate ones.
Horse manure is the one type of poo I enjoy the smell of.
posted by h00py at 3:59 AM on February 11, 2022
Horse manure is the one type of poo I enjoy the smell of.
posted by h00py at 3:59 AM on February 11, 2022
jamjam, when you mentioned a charming video about the perils of persimmons I immediately assumed it would be this one. (NSFW, language)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:31 AM on February 11, 2022
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:31 AM on February 11, 2022
Wait, whaaat?? People hate persimmons? I have a tree (Fuyu type) and I get neighbors and friends coming by for them all the time and some years, if the fucking squirrels and raccoons don’t beat me to them, I can give them to the food bank. They love getting fresh fruit that time of year. I had no idea there’s an anti-persimmon brigade.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 4:51 AM on February 12, 2022
posted by kitten kaboodle at 4:51 AM on February 12, 2022
There's several kinds of persimmons, including the Fuyu (which I see in California markets, and is eaten while still crunchy) and the astringent American (Diospyros virginiana) persimmon, which I know from trees back east, and you better not try eating those until they're squishy.
posted by Rash at 8:55 AM on February 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Rash at 8:55 AM on February 12, 2022 [3 favorites]
my family's pizza is ham, pineapple and green olives! Delish.
I think the thing I eat that gets the most "gross" reactions from people is opening a can of smoked oysters in oil and eating the whole thing. I just like them! what are they for, other than just eating with a toothpick?
I like when you're walking outside and the person in front of you is smoking - a cigarette, a cigarillo, a vape, cannabis. You get whiffs of it, but diluted with distance and with outside smell, and I always like it.
posted by euphoria066 at 6:51 PM on February 13, 2022
I think the thing I eat that gets the most "gross" reactions from people is opening a can of smoked oysters in oil and eating the whole thing. I just like them! what are they for, other than just eating with a toothpick?
I like when you're walking outside and the person in front of you is smoking - a cigarette, a cigarillo, a vape, cannabis. You get whiffs of it, but diluted with distance and with outside smell, and I always like it.
posted by euphoria066 at 6:51 PM on February 13, 2022
I’m the same with wood smoke. With my asthma, allergies, and migraines I probably couldn’t live in a woodstove-heated house like I did as a child, but when I’m outdoors on a cold day and can smell somebody else’s wood fire from a few houses away, it makes me miss my Grandma in the most sehnsucht way.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:34 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:34 PM on February 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Wait, whaaat?? People hate persimmons? I have a tree (Fuyu type) and I get neighbors and friendsI'm guessing it's the other kind? I love fuyus and buy them all season. While I don't hate the other ones, I also don't really understand why anybody would ever bother eating them. They're just. . . boring and very slightly unpleasant; like butternut squash, tripe, pickles, sea-cucumbers, pork rinds, potato chips. (I'd include eggplant, but I have a very slight allergy that makes my whole mouth tingle when I eat it, which is a lot more interesting than the flavor and worth seeking out.) I'll happily eat them all to be even slightly polite or if it's the only option, but I genuinely don't understand why anybody would choose to prepare them. To me, they're neither good nor bad enough to be interesting. Just dull. But, cheers to everyone who loves them!
posted by eotvos at 8:21 AM on February 14, 2022
I used to eat the oysters out of a tin in grad school. I haven't since then. Maybe it's time to revisit that idea. Thanks!
posted by kathrynm at 10:02 AM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by kathrynm at 10:02 AM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Canned, smoked oysters and saltines was my "staying until 2am in the lab" cheep food choice. I hope I didn't make anybody else too unhappy.
posted by eotvos at 11:51 AM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by eotvos at 11:51 AM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
To me, they're neither good nor bad enough to be interesting. Just dull. But, cheers to everyone who loves them!
My mother loved those kind, which she'd pick from the tree around the corner of from our house in Maryland. And that was the only kind I knew, for the longest time, until I was served something in Japan the waitress said was kaki, and I don't know now if my mom ever tasted the Fuyu kind.
posted by Rash at 1:17 PM on February 14, 2022
My mother loved those kind, which she'd pick from the tree around the corner of from our house in Maryland. And that was the only kind I knew, for the longest time, until I was served something in Japan the waitress said was kaki, and I don't know now if my mom ever tasted the Fuyu kind.
posted by Rash at 1:17 PM on February 14, 2022
I think the thing I eat that gets the most "gross" reactions from people is opening a can of smoked oysters in oil and eating the whole thing. I just like them! what are they for, other than just eating with a toothpick?
We put them in our stuffing at Thanksgiving.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 1:49 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
We put them in our stuffing at Thanksgiving.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 1:49 PM on February 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Bento refuses to be contained in a carrier
So.... no Bento Box?
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 1:50 PM on February 14, 2022
So.... no Bento Box?
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 1:50 PM on February 14, 2022
The story goes that even sailing on luxury cruise ships and staying in fancy European hotels, Walt Disney always carried canned chili and saltines in his luggage.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:19 PM on February 14, 2022
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:19 PM on February 14, 2022
I just noticed that, way up above, I admitted that I liked "seeping and mopping." I wish to issue a correction; what I enjoy is sweeping and mopping. While I have occasionally indulged in seeping, usually after a surgery, it has never been to a degree that required mopping. I deeply regret the mistake.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:32 PM on February 15, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:32 PM on February 15, 2022 [9 favorites]
I suspected that! And was hoping it wasn’t spell correct from 'seeping and moping' when you meant to write 'weeping and moping'.
Not that we all wouldn’t like to be able get a little enjoyment rebate from that in these times.
posted by jamjam at 7:36 PM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
Not that we all wouldn’t like to be able get a little enjoyment rebate from that in these times.
posted by jamjam at 7:36 PM on February 15, 2022 [3 favorites]
I had a roommate years ago who, when I was down, would say “you could clean the bathroom.” I’d say “that won’t make me feel better.” She’d reply “It won’t make you feel worse, and we’ll have a clean bathroom.”
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:09 AM on February 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:09 AM on February 16, 2022 [5 favorites]
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I unreservedly love running. Most people that I have met that run talk about "hating" it, it being unpleasant, even while doing it regularly (and way more than me). But I love everything about it, even when it's hard, painful, etc. I know there are other people that feel the same way, I just haven't met any of them.
In other news, this week my doctor started me on 5-HTP, and it appears to be helping stabilize my mood, which I am grateful for. I don't think it works for everyone, but my impression is that it's more gentle than some other substances used for depression (certainly than the antidepressants I took when I was younger).
posted by Gorgik at 3:07 AM on February 6, 2022 [6 favorites]