List 39: Blatant use of the ‘F’ word (Not *that* ‘F’ word)

I don’t often use the “f” word. No, not that “f” word. The expletive “f” word I use more than I should (including for every item in this list). The “f” word I don’t use often is “favorite.” I don’t often declare favorite things. Sure, I’ll list a lot of things I like such as canceled TV shows or smart people or guilty pleasure movies, but I rarely choose one favorite. There are too many wonderful things in this world to choose favorites. My favorite things tend to change with mood and circumstance, but I will admit there are few things in this world that stand out. I can call these some of my favorite things (at least for today and sometimes with significant caveats).

Below is a potpourri of 40 of my favorite things in categories ranging from books to restaurants to software to theatre. Perhaps some of these favorite things can become yours.

1. Favorite pinner of bizarre things on Pinterest: Lisa Wood. Sadly I did not discover her until after I did my list of unique Pinterest boards. Had I known I would certainly have included her.
2. Favorite book about writing: On Writing by Stephen King
3. Favorite cookbook (savory): Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless
4. Favorite cookbook (sweet): How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson
5. Favorite cookbook (vintage): Better Home and Gardens Guide to Entertaining (1969) from my grandmother’s cookbook collection 
6. Favorite item from a sample to do list in my favorite vintage cookbook: “Press hostess pants.”
   
7. Favorite song to run to: “It’s a Fact” by Matt & Kim.
8. Favorite (and least favorite due to excessive creepiness) episode of The X-Files: Home
9. Favorite movie: All That Jazz (Although not my favorite part of the movie I always remember reading that the opening scene is the entire story of A Chorus Line compressed to 5 minutes.)
10. Favorite movie when I want to sound like more of a bad ass: Fight Club (The Ikea sequence is particularly brilliant.)
11. Favorite classic cocktail (whiskey): Old fashioned
12. Favorite classic cocktail (vodka): Moscow mule
13. Favorite pinball machine: Addams Family

    

14. Favorite dance step to do down the aisles of Target: pas de bourree
15. Favorite F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: “Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice and I’ll tell you a story.”
16. Favorite Ray Bradbury short story: The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair
17. Favorite book from which I learned that the Right Whale has a 10 foot prehensile penis: Fluke, or I know why the winged whale sings by Christopher Moore
18. Favorite current TV show (although it’s between seasons right now): The Hour on BBC America
19. Favorite place to eat in Edgewater that didn’t exist when I made my list of favorite places to eat in Edgewater: Dak Korean Chicken Wings
20. Favorite place to eat in Edgewater that didn’t exist when I made my list of favorite places to eat in Edgewater that also sells my favorite hot sauce: Sauce & Bread Kitchen
21. Favorite place to eat that is just a little too far south to have make the Edgewater list: Pecking Order
22. Favorite food that I rarely get to eat because my husband doesn’t like it: Thai
23. Favorite shoes I own:

    

24. Favorite social network: Twitter
25. Favorite Google+ feature: Communities
26. Favorite program in the Microsoft Office Suite: Tie between Excel and Visio (My least favorite part of the Microsoft Office suite is easily PowerPoint)
27. Favorite thing that makes my back feel better: Bikram Yoga
28. Favorite episode of The Simpsons: Homer Badman 
29. Favorite tourist attraction: Winchester Mystery House (Autoplay warning)
30. Favorite sculptor: Auguste Rodin
31. Favorite example of knowing something only because of musical theatre: Getting the date of the start of the Hungarian Revolution correct solely because of the opening of this song from the musical Chess
32. Favorite thing to think about when I think about John Malkovich: This scene from Being John Malkovich
33. Favorite show I’ve directed: Vaclav Havel’s Temptation at Duquesne University in 2000. (It also yielded my favorite review.)
34. Favorite playwright/political leader: Vaclav Havel
35. Favorite monologue from David Mamet’s All Men Are Whores: An Inquiry, which totally doesn’t count because it’s everyone’s favorite monologue from All Men Are Whores: Six 
36. Favorite place to get a grilled cheese sandwich (with a side of fries and cheap beer): Dee’s Cafe in Pittsburgh, although that web site seems much hipper than the place I remember so I’m worried that they may not even serve grilled cheese any more or worse that they’ve cleaned the grill.
37. Favorite restaurant when I was a kid: El Mansour in San Francisco (I haven’t been there for years.)
38. Favorite girl child: my daughter
39. Favorite boy child: my son (having one of each makes the whole favoritism thing a lot less awkward)
40. Favorite husband: mine (Good job on getting your swimmers to make 38 and 39 happen, sweetie! No, I still don’t know what I want for my birthday.)

What are your favorite things?

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