Warding off stasis

[aadler]

Every now and then, just for the hell of it, I try something new, something that hasn’t been part of my normal routine. Usually, but not always, that’s foodstuffs. As an example, the first time I discovered yogurt, I felt something new had been added to my life … but it didn’t stay, I’m okay with yogurt but I don’t actually like it. On the other hand, when I essayed the same experiment with smoked oysters, that lasted long enough that my kids still remember it as an occasional ‘special’ treat. (It had to remain occasional because their mother was so revolted by them, she couldn’t even come into a room where a tin of our ‘treat’ had been opened.)

That’s sort of the point. Even if it winds up not agreeing with me, a chance to break new ground offers the possibility of expanding my parameters. That’s why I took a shot at podfic some years back, as part of one of the Fandom Snowflake Challenges … and, again, found it wasn’t for me, I get impatient trying to listen to fic when reading is so much faster.

Just the last couple of months or so, however, I’ve managed to get in three new ones.

The first was Vegemite. I’d heard about it, even mentioned it in a story (“Best Foot Forward”), and finally I was interested enough to try it, even though I had to order it via a 3rd-party vendor listed through Amazon. Results so far have been mixed. I like the flavor, I like the richness. Unfortunately, I appear to be one of those people who can’t get past the bitterness. I looked up recipes, I checked the ‘right’ ways to eat Vegemite, and that bitter aftertaste is always there for me. (Shame. The rest of it really intrigues me. I might find a way to keep trying till I get used to it, but I’m through half a jar and it still keeps being bitter.)

The second was Everclear. That was an impulse: I spotted it on the shelf at a stop-and-go in North Dakota when Susan and I were on a recent trip, and I’d seen mention of it (usually in parodies or mordant humor) and decided to find out what it was like …

Oh. My. God.

I’d heard about it, but hadn’t read up on it. I didn’t know it’s listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the strongest alcohol in the world. (It’s chemically impossible for an ethanol to have more than 191 proof; Everclear is 190.) I didn’t know it was nearly two and a half times times as strong as the vodka that is my standard staple, or four and a half times as strong as the coconut rum that is my favorite. I didn’t know it can get you drunk faster than your body can detect the buzz, or that it’s nearly impossible to drink it straight because it’s absorbed into the mucous membranes of your mouth and throat almost faster than you can finish swallowing it. I didn’t know it tasted so fricken awful.

So now I’m mixing it half-and-half with something that has some taste, then mixing that with diet cola (yes, I’m a heathen, and happy with it). If I ever buy Everclear again, it will be purely for the purpose of making other drinks stronger, because that’s all it’s really good for.

The third was “Gone with the Wind”. Saw the movie decades ago, never even thought to read the book (though in the rest of my life I do a lot more reading than viewing). Last week, though, I saw an article by someone describing her love-hate relationship with the book — with the upshot being that, however her opinion might change, she kept going back to it — and now I’ve checked it out of the library to see how I feel about it personally.

(This kind of thing doesn’t always work out. I read “Lord of the Rings” the first time in high school, and was enthralled. Read it again years later, rediscovered the remembered wonder. Took it with me to keep me occupied during my deployment to Afghanistan … and I was bored by it. What changed in the meantime? I couldn’t even hazard a guess.)

There’s always something. These are the somethings I’ve most recently addressed.

Comments

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Everyclear! I'll bet that cleaned out your sinuses.

[aadler]

Along with the nasal hairs.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

I doubt I would have been able to down more than a mouthful of straight Everclear. In my region what it was most commonly used for was spiking watermelons.

You have relieved me from trying Vegemite. I really don't like bitter things.

It will be interesting to see what you think of Gone With The Wind. I've read it several times and, as it typical, it's much better than the film. But, in many ways it's a woman's book, emphasizing the romantic aspects, especially Scarlett's ridiculous infatuation with Ashley. On the other hand, it's also about taking what you have and making the most of it and holding a family together in adversity. And, of course, there's the very problematic aspect of race.

[aadler]

Don’t be too quick to write off Vegemite. I read an article some time back about how some people love the taste that cilantro imparts to a dish, while others insist that it just tastes like soap. It turns out that each type of person is right … depending on whether or not they have a particular genetic twist that affects their taste receptors. I’m one of the lucky ones for whom cilantro is a heavenly addition; it’s entirely possible that other people — even most other people — simply aren’t as sensitive to the bitter aspect of Vegemite that I haven’t been able to escape to date.

My motto: if it’s new — and not objectionably immoral, ridiculously expensive, prohibitively dangerous, or just too much work — it’s worth giving a try.

As far as “Gone With the Wind”, I’m loving it so far. There are so many insights, so many previously unknown depths to characters we thought were familiar from the movie, but of course the movie was never going to be able to capture 1,000 pages of dense prose. (These days, a three-season miniseries might manage to pull it off, but even then there are some things that just don’t work away from the printed page … in the same way a page can never communicate the subtleties of a particular glance, delivered at a particular moment, from a particular angle, at a particular time.) I’ve only just started in on Scarlett’s unexpected new status as war widow and surprised mother, with no idea how much will come out that the movie simply never had the space to show. And the language is so rich … every ten pages or so, I’ll put the book down, go to the next room where Susan is watching TV, and talk with her about some fresh thought that’s been excited by this ‘novel’ narrative.

(Susan said she read it when she was twelve. She said her mother loved the movie, but probably had never read the book or she’d never have permitted it for her pre-teen daughter. Susan said she remembered getting to certain passages and going, “Oh. Oh. Well, now.”)

People who get tired of life, just haven’t looked far enough.