Complete Randomness

[jotabe]

There are different approximations to reality. I don't think it's terrible that little kids think that chimpanzees are apes, or that spiders are bugs, unless they start to show interest into those animals specifically. Never let them think that dolphins are fish, though. That's just too much. Dolphins are the best example to start with the "things are not what they look like"

In the same fashion, i'm a big defender of letting mid-schoolers think that electrons are very small green, hard balls, or letting highschoolers think that their spin quantum number means that they actually are spinning. I advocate to tell them "but it's not really that way! just keep that in mind." If they have further interest on that, the whole cool truth should be unveiled, but otherwise they don't need to know more.

It's different levels of approximation to reality that work. If you are never going to use quantum mechanics anymore in your life, what's the point of teaching them something that will only make them confused and will not even be able to remember to win at trivial pursuit?

[starlooker]

Truth, jota. You speak it.

[Gravity Defier]

I don't subscribe to the "Reading is (strictly) for education" belief. It can be and it does very good things for people, knowing how, building vocabulary, being able to use that skill to gain new knowledge, etc. but sometimes reading is just for entertainment.

I honestly can't say I freaked out even a little bit about Curious George not being a monkey. Then again, it wasn't until I went to visit Steph and she explained to Tyler that apes don't have tails and monkeys do that I finally understood part of the difference so maybe Curious George would have been a good thing for me if it had been correct.

[starlooker]

Yeah, I didn't really know the difference until I looked it up due to this thread. I really don't think my life was poorer for it, nor do I care that much now. And, should I read Curious George to Atty, I highly doubt I will experience a crisis of conscience over miseducating him, seeing as the books are, after all, about a silly monkey and not A Beginner's Guide to Wildlife Identification.

[LilBee91]

I feel like I knew the monkey/ape distinction pretty early on. Then again, I didn't read much Curious George as a child (tragic, I know), so this isn't very traumatizing to me.

[Petra456]

I've never read any Curious George, and I haven't seen the show either. I know who he is, but that's about it.

[locke]

OOK!

I am very Angry that you are unfamiliar with the finer points of great ape anatomy and if you don't stop saying monkey when you mean Ape, I will rip off your arms in a friendly, but firm, manner.

[steph]

My kids learned the difference from this song:

[jotabe]

lol

[Gravity Defier]

I forgot to cover my pancakes Sunday afternoon when I put them in the fridge and when I went to eat them today, they were crunchy even after a turn or two in the microwave.

Crunchy pancakes just seems wrong.

[starlooker]

New falling asleep method: I imagine an episode of HIMYM where Ted likes a really tall woman and keeps finding excuses to stand on things when he's around her. Fun, light place to put my brain before it.drifts into sleep.

[elfprince13]

I forgot to cover my pancakes Sunday afternoon when I put them in the fridge and when I went to eat them today, they were crunchy even after a turn or two in the microwave.

Crunchy pancakes just seems wrong.

Peanut butter or nutella them. It makes everything better.

[CezeN]

So, it's late at night. Me and some friends are at the McDonalds. We order, and then pull up to the first window.
No one is at the window, so after a little bit, we proceed to the next window.

The girl at the window finishes something, and then says, "You guys were supposed to pay at the first window. What? Yall don't know how to count? Blablabla..."

I'm like, "Wait, hold up?...Did you just really ask if we knew how to count?

"Yeah, we said to pull up to the first window. This isn't the first"

"We did, no one was at the window"

"Oh..." She walks away and does something.

Like, is this real life?

[LilBee91]

Alligators' sex is determined by the temperatures they experience as embryos. How bizarre is that? Also, does that mean global warming could lead to the extinction of alligators?

[Luet]

I think that is true of all reptiles. Breeders incubate eggs at specific temps in order to get males vs. females.

[LilBee91]

That is so cool. I feel like I should have known this earlier in my life, what with being a biology major. But I guess microbiology doesn't help much with reptiles.

[Mich]

I had no idea about that! That is interesting as heck.

[Gravity Defier]

That is seriously cool.

[steph]

Yay! I totally knew that before now! (Then again, I have 3 kids and a zoo membership, so I guess it makes sense that I would have learned it by now.)

[Srobison825]

So, it's late at night. Me and some friends are at the McDonalds. We order, and then pull up to the first window.
No one is at the window, so after a little bit, we proceed to the next window.

The girl at the window finishes something, and then says, "You guys were supposed to pay at the first window. What? Yall don't know how to count? Blablabla..."

I'm like, "Wait, hold up?...Did you just really ask if we knew how to count?

"Yeah, we said to pull up to the first window. This isn't the first"

"We did, no one was at the window"

"Oh..." She walks away and does something.

Like, is this real life?

I love pulling up late at night at McDonald's and they just say "can I help you?" thru the intercom.
Nah bro. It's 1130 at night and I'm at a drive thru. I don't need anything.

[Gravity Defier]

I saw an eagle/falcon/sharp-beaked-bird-of-prey attacking a squirrel in a tree this morning. I wasn't sure which side to cheer on since one doesn't want to die to be food and the other doesn't want to die from lack of food. Can't they all just eat the trees?

[elfprince13]

I saw an eagle/falcon/sharp-beaked-bird-of-prey attacking a squirrel in a tree this morning. I wasn't sure which side to cheer on since one doesn't want to die to be food and the other doesn't want to die from lack of food. Can't they all just eat the trees?

Meat is murder. Tasty tasty murder.

[Gravity Defier]

Genuine question here: what is it about gourmet/specialty food and wines that's supposed to be so desirable and make you, I don't know, a better/more dignified person for liking/preferring them to regular poor people food? Because maybe I'm weird but the taste is either only ever okay (if not downright terrible) or good but not great enough to make me want more of it regularly and I feel like enjoying these things are things people aspire to do. I don't get it.

[elfprince13]

Genuine question here: what is it about gourmet/specialty food and wines that's supposed to be so desirable and make you, I don't know, a better/more dignified person for liking/preferring them to regular poor people food? Because maybe I'm weird but the taste is either only ever okay (if not downright terrible) or good but not great enough to make me want more of it regularly and I feel like enjoying these things are things people aspire to do. I don't get it.

I think there are two basic groups of gourmet foods (with some overlap). Those that are expensive because they use ingredients that are too rare/expensive for us mortals to afford (and in my experience these are usually pretty disgusting), and those that are expensive because they were prepared by a masterful chef who knows that he can get away with charging rates that us mortals can't afford because his food is really really good.

[jotabe]

Genuine question here: what is it about gourmet/specialty food and wines that's supposed to be so desirable and make you, I don't know, a better/more dignified person for liking/preferring them to regular poor people food? Because maybe I'm weird but the taste is either only ever okay (if not downright terrible) or good but not great enough to make me want more of it regularly and I feel like enjoying these things are things people aspire to do. I don't get it.

I think it's simply a status matter. I eat more expensive stuff because i'm richer therefore i'm better.

The matter about tastes is different. From my experience, except for a few basic flavors, most of the complex flavors and their combinations with food texture are acquired tastes. A person who has never eaten shellfish will dislike shellfish in general in the first tries, and downright abhor oysters. For example.

I am very new to coffee drinking, and for me coffee has only 2 flavours: sweet milk coffee and puke-inducing.

On the other hand, i've had a variety of potatoes in my life. A very big variety (comes with being a country side person). I can tell you which part of Galicia a potato comes from, i can tell you wether it's young or old. I can give you many ways they can be prepared for deliciousness, depending on their origin/age. And the good stuff is expensive. Not "you need to be rich"-expensive, but enough as not to be a daily thing.

Bottom line is, as you train your brain to a particular taste, it will specialize into it, and will be able to tell very subtle differences, and will find a great variation between them. And you will find a sweet points between the different characteristics that make up the "good flavor". For a newcomer, that flavor can be so new or strange that could initially become repulsive.

[Luet]

On the other hand, i've had a variety of potatoes in my life. A very big variety (comes with being a country side person). I can tell you which part of Galicia a potato comes from, i can tell you wether it's young or old. I can give you many ways they can be prepared for deliciousness, depending on their origin/age.

This is awesome, Jota! I wish I knew that much about any type of food.

[jotabe]

haha tahanks
Potatoes are almost a religion in Galicia XD Maybe it's the same in other places where potato is an important food source, but if i'm not wrong, potatoes don't travel around much.

And you know you know a lot about birds! whenever i see birds i always end up wondering "and what is that one?" :

[locke]

Genuine question here: what is it about gourmet/specialty food and wines that's supposed to be so desirable and make you, I don't know, a better/more dignified person for liking/preferring them to regular poor people food? Because maybe I'm weird but the taste is either only ever okay (if not downright terrible) or good but not great enough to make me want more of it regularly and I feel like enjoying these things are things people aspire to do. I don't get it.

Mostly it is status. Mostly it is psychological. Labeling something organic makes a person think it tastes better sort of thing. And a huge chunk of gourmet stuff is crap and meant to exploit the pocketbooks of the wealthy by praying on the faults of the human brain.

That said, there is gourmet stuff that is just unbelievably good, sometimes it is even cheap.

and everything jota said about adapting to new experiences as well as familiarity with old ones. I bet a lot of people can tell the difference with Kraft made with whole milk, 2% or 1%, I can definitely tell the difference when Kraft was made with margarine rather than butter, for example. Being able to distinguish those subtle differences is about familiarity with something and you're probably not going to be able to tell the difference between Parmesan, and Parmesan Reggiano right away until you're familiar with eating it.

***

For some reason this reminds me of how I taught myself to eat sushi (and now I love it) despite nearly vomiting the first time I tried to eat a roll with seaweed on the outside. I basically just would think to myself, 'ohh sushi sounds really good' every once in a while and soon enough the fake craving became a real craving and I would up really enjoying it the next time, and I gradually expanded from rolls to nigiri to sashimi. It's surprising what one can persuade one's brain to do. :-p

[Rei]

I think there is a lot to be said for acquired tastes. There are a number of things that, when I first tried them, I wasn't keen on, but after trying it again and again have become among my favourite foods and drinks. Mostly drinks.

[Gravity Defier]

Unrelated to the above conversation:

My bologna has a first name...

I like bologna. Quite a bit. But I haven't had it regularly in years. Tangentially related, whenever I think of eating bologna, I think of the ham that came with cheese in it and I remember how I thought it looked tasty every time I saw it despite not liking the way it tasted every time I tried it.

[jotabe]

+1 for Alea for not calling it baloney

[Syphon the Sun]

My bologna has a first name...

It's Syphogna.

[elfprince13]

My bologna has a first name...

It's Syphogna.

oh. huh. I always thought it was O Ess Cee A Ar.

[Jayelle]

Genuine question here: what is it about gourmet/specialty food and wines that's supposed to be so desirable and make you, I don't know, a better/more dignified person for liking/preferring them to regular poor people food? Because maybe I'm weird but the taste is either only ever okay (if not downright terrible) or good but not great enough to make me want more of it regularly and I feel like enjoying these things are things people aspire to do. I don't get it.

I've been trying to formulate an answer to this ever since you posed it, but I'm not sure it will be satisfying. I don't think "I'm a better person" because I enjoy certain food, like eating fancy food as a treat or cooking with it for fun. I grew up with food being a treat.
Part of the reason is being used to it. My parents would buy oysters or expensive cheese on special occasions, so I like them. I'm used to them. I associate those flavours with something special.
The other reason is that gourmet food is an art, part of learning to eat them is respecting the time and effort it took to make them. Part of appreciating what you see at a fancy restaurant is that a chef has spent their time and effort inventing a dish and making it look beautiful.
And thirdly, it can be fun to discover new things. Food is fun to me. It is so very much more then nutrition. It is that too, but when I think of making a new recipe, trying a country's food and discovering new tastes, I get excited. In the exact same way that it's fun to read a new book, watch a new movie, discover a new TV show, it is fun to try new foods.

I'd be curious to think what exactly you think "regular poor people" food is -because one person's regular food is another person's gourmet food. I bet I'd pay out the nose if I wanted to eat some of the things other people eat on a regular basis.

Funny case in point (involving the above mentioned bologna): About 20 years ago (and earlier) in Newfoundland, the rich kids were the ones that brought bologna. Poor kids were teased for bringing a lobster sandwich. Why? Because lobster was cheap. It came right out of the ocean where most of their dads fished everyday, it was a throw away food. Bologna, on the other hand, was imported. How the times have changed.


ETA: Oh, and the major thing I wanted to say is: It's okay for food to be fun for me and it's okay for food to be just a source of nutrition for other people. I will never experience music the way my husband does, and I'm okay with that. It is perfectly fine not to be a foodie, just like it's perfectly fine for me not to be a music-lover.

[Gravity Defier]

This came up (again) for me because I went to dinner with coworkers and everyone but me and the person who abstains for religious reasons got wine. I did not because, besides the really cheap $5-7 a bottle stuff that I do like, I have found wine to be such a chore to drink. As in, it took me four hours once to finish half a serving and I chased down every drink with a bite of dinner for as long as I could milk that. After dinner and dessert were done, I took sips still but had to work myself up to taking the sip and then swallowing it. I've had this same problem at wine-tastings, where they couldn't bring the buckets by fast enough.

I've also had smoked cheese (and other types of fancy cheese) that, were I a little less socially aware, I would have spit back out the moment it touched my tongue. The idea of throwing down $5 for a piece of cheese the size of a quarter that tastes like garbage to me in order to build an appreciation for it is just absurd. I know I can get a block of whatever it is I do like for less than that and be happy about what I'm eating.

I would okay with letting people enjoy theirs and me enjoying mine but I get so much crap for this from otherwise really kind, great people, usually when I don't order much because they suggested a restaurant where I find more food than not to be of a type I won't eat. Questions about whether or not I'm on a diet or whatnot and it's a little...weird, I guess, for me to say "I'm not interested in that."

I have no problems with exploring foods; depending on who's telling me I should try something, I more often than not try everything that is put before me. I even like some of it but when I don't, I would appreciate my disliking of it being respected and not treated as a failure on my part. "But...did you try it like this?" or "Oh, it was just how it was prepared at that one place, try it here..." Look, no. I just don't like that. For example, I had stuff at a Greek restaurant that I would consider, not gourmet but of a fancier variety of food (they set this cheese on fire before they served it, for instance); I was hesitant to try it but ended up loving it.

And regular food...I've had so many pastas, for instance, that were prepared in ways I could never do it, ingredient-wise, and they tasted okay but I would pick mac'n-cheese or spaghetti any day of the week over these things. It's not just familiarity but the fact that simple/cheap is sometimes the tastier option. I don't know; it's a bit of a sore point with me if I go to a Mexican restaurant and don't even recognize what I'm being served anymore because it's been so Anglicized to be fancier, it's no longer what they're calling it (I had this happen in Chicago; I had a much tastier, much less expensive, more authentic experience later). Things don't have to be fancy/expensive/slaved over to be worthwhile.