I was watching "All My Children" (taped on my old VCR, as hard as our family has tried to drag us into the 21st century by giving us a Tivo for Christmas, we still need something to use in the basement, perhaps another Tivo is in the stars for us?) as usual this morning while doing my thrice-weekly workout and a couple of the characters were discussing spaghetti puttanesca. While spaghetti puttanesca is in itself delicious and worthy of its own discussion, it was amusing in this instance because (if you don't already know) spaghetti puttanesca translates roughly into streetwalker's spaghetti (supposedly named such because its strong flavors where favored by the streetwalker's "clients") and the soap character (Erica Kane) who loves it is your typical soap opera female villain who many could refer to as a whore. Intentional choice by TPTB (TPTB = The Powers That Be, a soap forum acronym for the soap writers)? And if so, how many viewers got the inside joke?
That got me thinking of how many people only know a certain side of me. For example... there is the foodie side that knows trivia about pasta sauces and the soap-watching side who has watched Susan Lucci play Erica Kane for over 20 years. But there is also the gardener, the sci-fi geek, the crazy rock scrambler, the ballroom dancer, the Cubs fan, the birdwatcher and so on and so on. I have a few close friends who might know most of my different facets, but other than my husband, RWT, I don't think there is anyone who knows it all. (And please, I certainly don't think I am unique in this. Everyone has parts to their personalities, loves, passions, obsessions that most people never see.)
But what about when those facets are juxtaposed? Personally (hmm, I guess that everything I write here is from the personal viewpoint kind of goes without saying...), I think it is totally cool when it happens. Initially, it can be a bit disorienting, but after the initial surprise fades it always amazes me that someone else has the same odd-ball tastes that I do! Another example -- there was an episode of Futurama (oh, how I miss that show!) where they combined Iron Chef with Star Trek. Brilliant! Genius! But really, how many people in the world like Japanese TV, food stuff and sci-fi? Well, at least two... me and Matt Groening (the originator of Futurama). But is that it? Or are there lots of us? Does a predilection for one thing somehow predispose me for one for something else?
On the dance forum I read (www.dance-forums.com), many people who are into ballroom dance have also been into showing horses. So why is that? Many of the founders of eGullet (a large foodie forum) are into sci-fi. Hmmm. Maybe there is a correlation. There's a lady on my favorite foodie forum (www.donrockwell.com) who is also into baseball and gardening (and I think she is an Episcopalian too). So maybe I am not so odd in my tastes after all? And maybe that is why I find it so cool when these things happen -- while I enjoying thinking of myself as unique, it is also comforting that I am not totally alone.
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MKT, you need some major reassurance. A lot of us are almost schizophrenic when it comes to the variety or range of tastes. For example, my tour guide instructor recently had me play the 'valley girl' bad tourist part for practice. Was she kidding? She knew me only from my interview, where I played my proper socially correct side, and she assumed that I was a former sorority sister. She had no idea about my tomgirl side. Oh well, just goes to show that one shouldn't make snap judgments, or maybe the moral is that appearances can be deceiving. Then again, where did I hear or read or see recently about some guy's research on snap opinions being the most accurate?
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