In these days of so much uncivil discourse regarding politics, I do my best to stay away from political talk with family and friends. I certainly do not get involved with the topic in social media.
I will, however, mix it up with folks concerning several other subjects important to me.
One of those is food. It is confusing and troubling to me that I can express a positive opinion about a particular food item or restaurant, only to have others tell me my favorites appall them.
For example, one burger chain I love absolutely polarizes people. I know other people who join me in my adoration of those particular hamburgers, but others – like my kids – make vomiting noises when I mention them.
When I was in the Coast Guard Reserve in the 1980s, I remember me and couple of other local Reservists spending our annual two weeks of active duty with the regular Coasties at the St. Louis base. A group of us got into a particularly nasty argument over pizza chains. It was decades ago, so some of the pizza joints brought up during the verbal battle are long gone, but some remain in business.
The argument essentially boiled down to this. The regular Coasties, all from outside of the region, hated St. Louis-style thin crust pizza with provel cheese, preferring a national chain that’s still around.
Me and the other Reservists considered the national chain pizza the Coasties championed as an edible but bland version of pizza. The regular Coasties said they hated the “cracker” crust of the thin pizza.
We stopped just short of coming to blows since nobody wanted to be reprimanded for a fight over food.
As far as individual food items, I’ve found mushrooms also are quite divisive. While I greatly enjoy mushrooms, I have run into people who despise them. My wife, for one, will buy them for me, but hates to smell them and refuses to touch them.
To me, mushrooms are like candy. I want them in my salads. I relish them stuffed with cheese. They increase my enjoyment of just about any main dish.
People also quarrel about how certain foods should be cooked. What comes to mind is steak, with some folks wanting it well done and others believing they should be bloody. I prefer mine on the well-done side.
Music is another topic that draws out passions. I have written a trivia column for 30 years and occasionally mention my enjoyment of a particular artist or band. When I do this, I realize I will hear from people panning my choices.
One instance was when I mentioning that I’m a fan of Jackson Browne’s songs. After the column came out in the paper, someone contacted me to tell me personally how wrong I was.
Now, I realize I can be mistaken on something, but I object to someone telling me my personal tastes in music are incorrect. My view of Browne’s music differed from the caller’s, but it was not wrong.
Among my likes on Facebook – yes, I realize younger people consider Facebook passe – is a site focused on the band U2. I’m a big fan. You’d think the other people visiting the page enjoy the Irish group, but you’d be surprised by the number of people stating they despise the band. Of course, you never know if they’re just internet trolls saying something negative just to cause trouble.
Another topic near and dear to me is comedy. Therefore, if someone blasts one of the comedians I like, I take it personally.
My favorite stand-up comedian of all time remains Richard Pryor, who I have seen ripped by others because of the language he used. If that bothers you, well, you’re entitled to your opinion. Some of the other stand-ups I particularly include George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield and Bob Newhart, who just died. I also like Dave Chappelle and Dave Attell.
Other comedians make me cringe, and if someone tells me they like them, I’ll give my honest opinion. I won’t, however, go out of my way to seek a comic’s Facebook fan page and pan the comedian.
The final nonpolitical topic I have fought about is sports.
If you think people are ready to fight over political matters, just post something on social media about your sports preferences.
For instance, the debate over who ranks as the greatest football player of all time draws greatly different opinions and nasty insults.
A lot of people call Tom Brady the GOAT (greatest of all time). Others might say Jim Brown, Joe Montana or Lawrence Taylor. Students of the history of the game may say Red Grange or Sammy Baugh.
Personally, I don’t know who was better than Jerry Rice.
While I could make a case for several of these guys, I could not go along with Brady based on the shadows of cheating over his career. Had I said this on a sports radio call-in show, Brady supporters would have been out for my blood.
In the St. Louis region, debates over the finer points of baseball can erupt at any time.
When my friends and I were in our 20s, we attended Cardinal game at Busch Stadium II and got seats in the upper deck. It was always a decent-sized crowd.
Somehow, the issue of how errors are assigned arose. One of my friends took a lenient stance on errors, while I brought up the old coach’s mantra, “If you touch it, you can catch it.”
The debate, which started early in the contest, continued inning after inning. By the time we got to the fifth inning, I’d guess, several women sitting in the row below us had enough and told us they didn’t want to hear any more about errors.
I don’t think we were cursing, but we understood we were irritating fans around us and dropped the argument, at least for the moment. We realized that not everyone cared what we thought about the subject.
To this day, I still believe “If you touch it, you can catch it,” however.
