these are a few of my favorite things

Here's a questions almost everybody has been asked at one time or another....

"What's your favorite _______ ?" 

"Color" is usually the word that fills in the blank most often, followed by "food," then "band" then any number of specific categories.

When I was younger, I always had an answer to any "what's your favorite" inquiry that was posed. My favorite color was orange. We had plastic tumblers at my house and I always selected the orange one from which to drink. Eventually, that orange tumbler was placed at my usual seating position at the dinner table without a special request.

My favorite food changed as I grew up, but I always had a specific favorite. As a kid, my favorite food was Frosty-O's cereal with Dudley Do-Right on the front of the box... not the one with Chumley, Tennessee Tuxedo's dimwitted sidekick. There was something cheerful and compelling about the cartoon Mountie's smiling visage on a bright green background that made me want to consume bowl after bowl of those little sugar bullets. And I could happily — and effortlessly — eat bowl after bowl of Frosty-O's and never get sick of it... until, I course, I got sick of it. As a teenager, my favorite food was pizza. My father was convinced that I could eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner... and, quite possibly, he was right.

When I was in high school, everyone knew I was the guy who loved Queen. My bedroom was plastered with giant posters of the British band, as was the inside of my locker. I bought their albums as soon as they were released and I would sleep out for tickets when a concert tour was announced. I knew every lyric to every one of their songs. I studied every Queen-related article in every publication, absorbing a plethora of trivial tidbits like a sponge. Actually, my obsession had its rewards. In the summer of '82, there was a street vendor on Philadelphia's famed South Street who sold the original Chipwich, an innovative frozen novelty comprised of a slab of vanilla ice cream between to chocolate chip cookies with the exposed edge of ice cream covered in more chocolate chips. He had a sign hanging from the giant branded umbrella that shaded his branded cart which read "Rock and Roll Trivia." When questioned, he explained that if a customer could answer three questions about any rock band, he would award them with a free Chipwich. I was game because who couldn't use a free ice cream sandwich?!? Of course, I chose to answer three questions about Queen. The Chipwich guy eyed me up and down as he prepared to deliver the first of three guaranteed stumpers.

"What is Brian May's guitar made from?," he asked, a smirk spreading across his face. He folded his arms across his chest and waited for me to throw my hands in the air in surrender.

I looked him right in the eye and answered in my best smug voice, "A chair and some wood from his fireplace." The Chipwich guy was dumbfounded. His eyes widened and his jaw literally dropped open. He reached into the freezer compartment and extracted a cellophane-wrapped treat. "I'm not even going to ask you the other two questions.," he said, shaking his head in disbelief, "No one knows that! You get the Chipwich!"

My favorite movie was The Wizard of Oz until I saw James Cagney push around the Dead End Kids in Angels with Dirty Faces. Then, when I was thirteen, my more sophisticated tastes were piqued by Phantom of the Paradise. That became my favorite movie. It remained my unwavering favorite for five full months when Tommy took its place at the top of my list. Then, my mother introduced me to Singin' in the Rain and that became my new favorite. I experienced a similar streak with television shows. First, I was enamored with Milton the Monster, then Underdog. Then, I moved on to The Brady Bunch, then The Partridge Family. Of course, I graduated to more meaningful, well written, programs like Hill Street Blues and ER as I got older. After the cancellation of those two shows, my interest in currently produced television shows dwindled. I found myself not wanting to follow an ongoing story line and not wishing to keep track of a specific cast of characters. Instead, I watched reruns of old shows, readily available on a number of cable networks.

But now.... now, I really don't have any favorite anything.

Sure, there are foods that I like and bands that I like and movies that I like, but I wouldn't designate any of them as "my favorite." If I was asked, "What food could you eat for the rest of your life?," I'd say Mexican food.... or Chinese food.... or my old stand-by — pizza. But I don't think any of those would qualify as "my favorite." With very few exceptions*, I will eat nearly anything that is put in front of me, because I know it will not be my last meal.... until it is. But, I don't have a favorite food.

I go to a lot of concerts and I listen to a lot of music. While I still have a soft spot for Queen from a purely nostalgic standpoint, there is no band I would say is currently "my favorite." Yes, I like a lot of bands, but I really don't have a "favorite."

The same goes for television and movies. I like some movies. I don't like some movies. I watch a lot of reruns of television shows that were popular when I was a kid and I watch very few of the current crop of new programming. Yes, I do have an affinity for the old Andy Griffith Show and the new Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — but "favorite?" Nahhhhh.... not really.

And I no longer require the plastic orange tumbler be placed at my table setting.

Note: A discussion, prompted by the idea of this blog entry, produced this list of Mrs. Pincus's favorites: 
Movie: Gone with the Wind
Band: Grateful Dead 
Color: Pink (Although I could've sworn it was "purple." The record has since been set straight.)
Food: Hamburger
Dessert: Hesh's Bakery Birthday Cake (Sadly, this is no longer available, as Hesh's closed its doors in 2014 after 54 years in business. Duplicating that cake and its legendary icing has proven difficult by other Philadelphia bakeries — despite their claims.)

www.joshpincusiscrying.com

*Some of those exceptions are meat, tomatoes and coconut.