Friday, August 12, 2005

Impressive/obscure things

I find that blogging can often be reduced to sharing impressive/obscure trivia/experiences. I started my blog with a list of chocolate bars, expressly saying that I'm not looking for impressive/obscure ones, or that sharing such is evidence you're a nerd; then what do I do? I give an example—Milka—to demonstrate that I am familiar with some impressive/obscure chocolate bars. In an effort to skip past the silly, childish games we play to get to the crux of what blogging is all about—sharing my impressive/obscure trivia/experiences—here is a list of my impressive/obscure trivia/things/experiences. Tell me you're impressed, comisserate, and/or impress me with yours!

1. Kant, Nietsche, MacIntyre, Arendt, Sartre: guys, these guys are really influencial philosophers, and I've read some of their stuff.
2. New York City (aka NYC), like for example 5th avenue, oh, and a little street I like to call BROADWAY, 56th street (I know LOTS of streets and avenues; hint: they roughly corollate to our numbering), Rizzoli, The Village, Strand, Labarynth, Bergdorf (the store, not my son), West side, Upper West side, Financial district, Midtown, Upper East side, Morningside Heights, Midtown, Chelsea, TriBeCa, etc. etc. etc.
3. creme broulle
4. The Silent Way language teaching technique
5. Goblin Valley
6. Peter Luger
7. Did I mention I hiked the Sawtooths, and Gospel Hump?
8. Latin
9. Freshly squeezed orange juice is the best drink on the planet.
10. Mother Hips, Jayhawks, the Strokes, Gillian Welch, Richard Julian
11. Gadamer, or how I often use in sentences: Gadamerian hermeneutics
12. Latin
13. The Denver Broncos drafted Clay Brown, the receiver of Jim McMahon's Hail Mary in the 1981 Miracle Bowl
14. Buffalo wings at the Trolley
15. I made eye-contact with Emmanuel Lewis when he was the guest celebrity at the Stadium of Fire
16. Diglot weaves--would you like me to tell you un cuento?
17. Constructivism: guys, seriously, it's rad.
18. Witahemaway, and Aluat Sukhema
19. Munschworks
20. Cinema Paradiso--or any foreign film, really--Toto le hero, Jean de Flourette, Ran, Das Boot, etc.
21. Quark Xpress, Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash--what's that? MS Office? Nice.
22. A scout is hungry!
23. Michel de Montaigne
24. I was hit on the head by a foul ball hit by Cory Snyder while he played for BYU. He signed it: "Sorry, should have been a home run. --Cory Snyder" I lost it playing in the back yard the next week.
25. When you first enter the MTC, dude, lose the dork dot.
26. Milka, Dolfin (au lait & noir), Chocolat Bonnat, Milka with yogurt
27. I am the reigning singles and doubles ping-pong champion at Wasatch Elementary school.
28. I saw Julia Stiles exit the Journalism building on Columbia campus.
29. Erin Robison won the Wasatch Elementary school spelling bee by correctly spelling 'arctic'
30. "How about a nice game of chess?" "No. I want Global, thermal, nuclear war."
31. I got out on the word 'jeep' in a spelling bee.
32. Cheese tortellini vinaigrette
33. Rootbeer New York Seltzers
34. My kingdom for a good shake source in Westchester, something like Stans in Provo.
35. Gabby cried at the Haagan Dazs commercials
36. I backpacked 11 miles tough terrain less than 24 hours of having 4 wisdom teeth pulled
37. Paul Hewson, and Dave Evans.

18 comments:

  1. The village? I AM impressed. Mine: Buffalo wings in Buffalo; and my favorite brush with fame: remember Lara Jill Miller, aka, Samantha from "Gimme A Break!"? Well, I had dinner with her mom.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11:54 AM

    TriBeCa? Do you mean the Triangle Below Canal street?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous12:03 PM

    creme broulle? Do you mean Crème Broulée?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous12:05 PM

    Gadamerian hermeneutics? Do you mean Gadamerian hermeneutics from a continental perspective?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dood, saying you know what a Milka candy bar is, is like saying you know about Toblerone. Or like saying you eat at Hardees. Sure, perhaps some have not tried it, but most everyone knows what you are talking about.

    I also would like to point out that I spell dood really weird.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Salem:
    Point taken. Though I might add that I was familiar with Milkas like 12 years ago. I tried them in Europe--they are still much better in Europe.

    I think I prefer your spelling, too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jenny: Dinner with a celeb. parent? Wow. Did you talk about 'Gimme A Break!'?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gabby: Yes, that's right, near South of Houston Street--I call that area SoHo BTW.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I like to think we talked about how to salvage Nell Carter's career, and how weird it is that Joey Lawrence's characters are ALWAYS named Joey...but in reality, I don't remember. I was twelve.

    ReplyDelete
  10. My brush with fame came in NYC too. My husband and I were at the play Miss Siagon and guess who was sitting in front of us? LONG DUCK DONG!!! Sure he has a real name and now has a role on ER, but he will always be Long Duck Dong to me.

    Also, Alec Baldwin tried to cut in line ahead of me at the SF airport (I was actually on my way to see the Clarks in England). He is about two feet tall and threw an enormous tempertantrum when no one would let him.......

    ReplyDelete
  11. On a Thursday afternoon last year, Donald Trump told me in person that Omarosa would be fired on that night's episode.

    Take that, Milka boy!

    And did you know that Broadway is one of the longest streets in the world—150 miles—starting from Bowling Green and ending in Albany. It's official name is Highway 9.

    Good post, and I'll try to be more interesting and obscure...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Kitchkinet? Nutiket? Meteo? (Oh, crap. Am I out of the club now?)

    Famous people I have MET. Not seen, MET:

    Steve Martin
    Jamie Lee Curtis
    Gary Sinise
    Linda Ronstadt
    Brad Pitt (just kidding! Only in my DREAMS!)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous11:59 AM

    Guys, come on. It's creme brulee. I would have thought you'd mention your knowledge of cheese. You seriously know a lot about cheese.

    ReplyDelete
  14. oooooooo. Chris, you probably have only like a 1 or 2 degree separation from Kevin Bacon! Impressive.

    Hey, that makes me only 2 or 3 degrees!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Jeff: Milka boy? Did you just call me Milka boy?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Bek: That confirms that Alec Baldwin is a jerk. Hey, Alec? Yeah. You. Are you reading this? Cram it!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Chris: Impressive. Most impressive. Man, I was banging my head to come up with the two I named and you just rattled of the remaining three like nothing. And the celeb connection? Uncanny.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous11:11 AM

    I know I'm kind of late getting to this, but I just HAVE to comment on a couple of things.

    Ben says, "I made eye-contact with Emmanuel Lewis when he was the guest celebrity at the Stadium of Fire." WOW! I thought they only had evil people as guest celebrities at the Stadium of Fire. Of course, I know you're kidding, but I always love having someone drop the name of Levinas. (By the way, he died in 1995--was really nice and cute, too--I could show you a picture--for an old Lithuanian/French guy).

    Milkas: Everybody has heard of them? For my part, only because I read this blog. I guess I'm deprived or out of touch. I'll check the BYU Bookstore and see if they have them there.

    And someone mentioned long streets. My understanding is that "State Street" (which corresponds in part to 3rd South and 5th West in Provo) runs, or at least used to run, through the entire state of Utah. That's several hundred miles.

    ReplyDelete