Monday Questionnaire
1. Name something in the supermarket that you purposely buy too much of, for fear of running out.
2. Name a cliche that you wish people would stop spouting.
3. What is your favorite cracker? Your favorite cookie?
posted by Eric @ 11:00 AM
12 Comments:
1. Cereal, juice, and toilet paper. But not for use at the same time.
2. "Wow, small world, isn't it?" and variations thereon. Like, if my cousin happens to be at a wedding and meets your brother's co-worker, that does not make it a small world. It's a coincidence.
3. Cracker: I'd have to say the unfortunately named Cheese Nips. For the cookie: a Double-Chocolate Milano will do nicely. Or a fresh chocolate chip cookie from the farmer's market down the road here.
1. toilet paper and maxi pads.
2. Alll the Corporate cliches, especially "I was putting out fires all day..." and "Coming down the pipe". (Actually, maybe one of you could clarify my special Massachusetts hearing problem: is it "coming down the pipe" or "coming down the Pike"?)
3. Stoned Wheat Thins. Chocolate Chip Cookies.
1. butter. pasta and parmesan cheese, used to be, but now mostly butter.
2. As w/ karen, any of the corporate cliches, especially the ones that are supposed to be motivational. motivate THIS. (let me think about this some more and come back later with the specific phrases.)
3. these little gluten-free crackers made of pecans, I think; surprisingly good, given the nastiness of most gluten-free products. ginger snaps. specifically, the ones made by the shasha baking company that i can get at whole foods. i'm addicted. but almost any cookie will do, unless it's got mint in it.
carla
Are you gluten-intolerant, Carla?
We also buy tons of olive oil. Giant tins of it.
It's "coming down the pike." As in, "coming down the road."
I too detest corporate cliches. Once, during a presentation, I said in parody, "Let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes," but no one knew I was kidding. I also once said, "It's all about the bottom line," but that time they laughed.
So, things are coming down the PIKE, but we have to make sure the PIPEline is full?
I'm not gluten-intolerant--indeedy, I LOVE gluten-based foods, like pasta and cake and cookies and bread--but my significant other's sister has a gluten-free store (in Milwaukee, but they do a huge mail-order business, in case you need such things) and she and her husband are also celiacs, so I'm pretty well-versed in the whole thing. The sister is only gluten-intolerant, so she's pretty easy to deal with (she's particularly fond of the gingered sugared pecans I make for her in big batches), but her husband is (or claims to be) intolerant of, in addition to gluten, soy, corn, cinnamon, all dairy, and, um, sage? something like that. (As the SO says, the only thing worse than a hypochondriac is a hypocondriac who actually has a health issue.) Cooking for him is much more of an adventure.
I've been thinking about the cliches, and I think what it comes down to is the habit of businesses to turn nouns into verbs (or adjectives/adverbs)--so you end up with godawful locutions like "impactful." Makes me want to poke someone with a very sharp stick.
carla
Hmmm . . . that was snarkier than, strictly speaking, i really intended, especially for someone who can eat gluten, and dairy, and everything else practically (except cucmbers and bell peppers and cantaloupe) to her heart's content and her waistline's distress.
c
Regarding the pike and the pipe, George Carlin had a bit wherein he wondered about "the meanest guy who ever came down the pike." "What about the guy who came UP the pike?" He asked, "Or the meanest guy to ever arrive on Amtrak? How come no one talks about him? Maybe that's why he's so mean."
1. Dish soap. I run out of everything and have to make extra trips, except for dish soap.
2. There was a period about 12 to 14 years ago where all of a sudden everyone around kept saying "this is true." As in - Person A: "We got too much dish soap again." Person B: "This is true."
3. I do like those stoned wheat thins. Cookies I go for molasses cookies, although a good peanut butter cookie is up there, too.
Related to question 2 and discussion of business phrases, not quite two years ago I was permanently scarred when two different people in a meeting I was in used the term "paradigm shift" and they both not only said it with a straight face but were, in fact, totally serious.
- Ben
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Molasses cookies: a good point. Now you're thinking outside the box!
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