Noted author and essayist Christopher Hitchens once said that the four most overrated things in life are champagne, lobsters, anal sex and picnics.First sentence at the link. So much better than anything in the slide show that you've got to click through. I miss Christopher Hitchens. He wasn't overrated.
ADDED: After reading the comments (and writing some), I've gotten to the point where I can give the first 3 of my top 10 most overrated things in the world:
1. Sitting in an audience, listening/watching something on a stage/screen.
2. Working at some fucking job.
3. Bruce Springsteen.
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77 comments:
Maybe so, Mr. Hitchens, individually, but what about all four at once?
Hitchens was a little overrated.
I agreed with everyone on the slideshow, and with Mr. Hitchens as well.
Lobster is over-rated. Fun to eat, not much meat, and really only good with butter or as a lobster roll. Tried Lobster Mac & Cheese and it was nasty.
Remember lobsters are the poop-eaters on the floor of the ocean.
Anal sex is only overrated if it isn't accompanied by double penetration. The second boinker should be occupying the vagina.
Or so I'm told by ladies who should know.
Either I've had much better champagne than Hitchens ever did, or his taste buds were killed off by his chain smoking.
No doubt there are a lot of things in life that are overrated, but it can be a bit silly to give in to cynicism all the time.
I miss Mr. Hitchens too.
Why isn't 0bama on the list? And the intelligence of the people who voted for him?
I miss Hitchens, too. We used to trade emails occasionally. One one occasion when a news story misspelled "sexual mores" as "sexual morays," we ended up quoting verses of The Good Ship Venus to each other.
As for Hitchen's list, overrated doesn't mean "bad".
Lists you have to click through, one at a time, are annoying as hell.
Anal sex is rated precisely as it should be to those of us who understand that that's an exit, not an entrance
Replace cupcakes with the Beatles (yeah, they were and are hideously over-rated), toss in Barry's Awesomeness, Moochelle's fashion sense, and the Hildabeast's inevitability and you might have something.
None of those things is overrated compared to Brecht and Ingmar Bergman.
And most of all, Princeton.
I will not click on a slide show that presents things in more than one webpage (BAD DESIGN!), but I see cupcakes in there, and I have to agree. Cupcakes are way overrated.
That link was definately over rated
Anal sex is rated precisely as it should be to those of us who understand that that's an exit, not an entrance
The vagina is an exit, too.
The back door can swing both ways as well.
Where's Van Gock?
MadisonMan,
For adults yes, over-rated. For children, no. Cupcakes are easier and faster for school functions. No cutting, no paper plates, no forks.
Cupcake Cakes are over-rated. Cupcake mosaics are fine.
The only reason to click on 10 pictures is to get to look at 11 overrated ads.
Cupcakes? Why just last night at dinner (we had spagetti and meatballs) I mentioned how overrated cupcakes were. Right out of the blue. Gimme a break.
I am waaay past my twenties but I agree the "dating" scene sounds wretched. The older boomers were pretty lucky but it couldn't last.
"
The vagina is an exit, too.
The back door can swing both ways as well."
No. The muscles of the vagina work both ways, the colon does not.
Speaking of anal, Kim Kardashian's arse should be up there somewhere.
Palladian, I think he fell to the B-list, along with Heinrich Böll.
There a lets pretend aspect to hedonism that is only undercut by drugs and alcohol.
Hitchens... David Foster Wallace.
This is a bullshit list.
No list of overrated stuff is correct unless Bob Dylan and Woody Allen are not number one and two.
Oh and Bruce Springstein and George Clooney should be in there somewhere too!
The only reason cupcakes are popular is because people have forgotten actual cake, which is moist and tender. Cupcakes have way too much edge... and that fluting doubles the already-too-much edge. But if you never eat real cake, you don't notice. It's like how good crackers are if you never have bread or how good a popsicle is if you never get a nice big dish of ice cream.
But people won't go back to cake, because you can't get a slice of cake and carry it around with you on the street. How would it be presented? It can't be sliced and left out on the shelves like cupcakes. You'd need some saran wrap or something to keep it from getting dried out.
So here, lonely ladies of America, here's your pre-dried-out cake: cupcake.
It sounds like something an old-fashioned guy would call you if he thinks you're pretty, so maybe you're thinking about him as you walk down the street licking icing and choking down dry cake... and tears.
OT: School shooting in Newtown, CT. Check Drudge.
That stuff about the cupcakes is all fine and good, Althouse...
But, what about the anal sex?
Or are law professors all tops?
No. The muscles of the vagina work both ways, the colon does not.
I'll refrain from details but "work" is missing the point.
Althouse, some people happen to like muffin tops.
I know garage does.
Dear God. That is one stupid Top 10 list. Zooey Daschenel? On the same list as Apple products?
Most people do not make their cakes from scratch, we make them from a box. We're accustomed to that dry texture, even in a cake form. I guess if I tried to make one from scratch, there would be a clear difference.
And yet muffins are good. Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins aren't dessicated horrors like a chocolate cupcake is. And they have actual flavor.
Why is it that muffins >>> cupcakes?
I cant check the list where I am for some reason...
But I remember feeling underwhelmed after the first concert I ever went to back in 87... and I loved Madonna.. still do.
But I pretended to enjoy myself like the thousands of people at the stadium.
Cupcakes are so annoying to eat. For some reason you eat them with your hands, which is messy and cumbersome, and there is no way to take a bite that mixes equal amounts of frosting and cake. There's also no way to take a bit that does not make anyone over the age of about ten look like a disgusting pig. When I am forced [FORCED! AT GUNPOINT!] to eat a cupcake, I will take the top off, turn it upside down, and have sort of a cupcake sandwich. It's slightly less completely unwieldy, but still a pain in the neck.
Miss Hitchens?
Never heard of her.
I only like chocolate muffins, which are actually cupcake impersonators.
I don't understand why people make cakes from boxes, not scratch. It's probably 5 more minutes of work to make a good cake from scratch than to make a meh cake from a box.
Brownies from a box are even worse. Dear Lord in Heaven, that fake chocolate taste. I don't even try a brownie at a pot luck any more because I've been bitterly, bitterly disappointed so many times.
Is that all there is? Peggy Lee said its all overrated.
Fellowship with other minds is what rates at the top...like Hitchens, La Althouse, and that Andre guy who has dinner.
My wife made a chocolate cake last week - secret ingredient? Oatmeal Stout. Excellent, excellent cake.
Also overrated... particularly by feminists... working at some fucking job!
I've never had a job that really got me off the way feminist women seem to get off over a job.
I only worked for the money.
"The only reason cupcakes are popular is because people have forgotten actual cake, which is moist and tender."
Maybe so, but pie is so much more interesting and tastier than cake.
As for anal sex, I'm thinking that depends experience, taste and perception.
Like the difference between single-malt Scotches and Gin.
Most American-style cake is terrible, slabs of insipid cellulose sponge slathered with dyed, whipped, sugared vegetable shortening.
I don't usually crave sweets, but if I do, I like thin, moist French-style cakes; génoise, with plenty of rum or kirsch.
Biting into a dry useless cupcake is why I have trust issues.
Tradguy.
Dominican ‘style’ cake is the best btw...
I'm not alone on that one... and its not just because I was born there... handles or not Dominican cake is delish.
"Anal sex is only overrated if it isn't accompanied by double penetration. The second boinker should be occupying the vagina.
Or so I'm told by ladies who should know."
Ladies?
A lot of women are dieting and food tastes a whole lot better when you're hungry.
A proper cake or cupcake requires the right balance of fat and water. A cake or cupcake that dries out too fast has too much water and not enough fat (oil/shortening). The fat has as much to do with making a cake 'moist' as the water does. The same is true for meat.
To demonstrate this simply, take a warm, cooked chicken breast that is too dry. Then drizzle a tablespoon of melted butter over the meat. Instantly moist.
leslyn, it was all the rage here in Boston a few years ago. Lobster Mac & Cheese.
Zooey Deschanel? Is there is some cloyingly popular TV show that's slipped past me?
I just remember her as the sorta charming space-cadet groupie in "Almost Famous" whose career went nowhere.
"But I pretended to enjoy myself like the thousands of people at the stadium."
That reminds me. Something I'd put on my own 10 overrated things list:
Sitting in an audience listening/watching anything
I.Q., the Dalai Lama, Social Media, and Classical Music are over-rated.
"Fellowship with other minds is what rates at the top...like Hitchens, La Althouse, and that Andre guy who has dinner."
I totally agree with this. The best thing in the world is good conversation.
Here's the song that comes to mind immediately for me.
Sorry the sound quality is bad on that.
Here it is by Joe Cocker.
"Also overrated... particularly by feminists... working at some fucking job!"
Absolutely correct!
One of the most astounding distortions of all time.
It was good to overcome the inequalities, and some jobs are satisfying and some people need to work, but the false hopes and the corresponding sacrifices were a mind-boggling tragedy.
"Dominican ‘style’ cake is the best btw..."
Recipe or it didn't happen.
"leslyn, it was all the rage here in Boston a few years ago. Lobster Mac & Cheese."
It's like something on the web that you just have to click on. Put that on a menu and people will order it. I'm sure the restauranteurs laughed about it a lot.
I'm guessing that putting lobster in mac&cheese is a good way to disguise the fact that it's left-overs.
Overrated:
10) Facebook & Twitter
9) Reality TV (just about all tv)
8) Justin Bieber/Katy Perry/Gangnam style, et al.
7) 3D movies
6) New Media as a news source
5) Smart phones
4) Voting for presidential candidate
3) Identity politics
2) Automobiles as status symbols
1) Complaining about taxes
I go out twice a year for dinner, so I want to order something I wouldn't make at home. 25 dollars later... I couldn't finish it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b83CEg6845A
I agree wholeheartedly with sitting in an audience. I would add stage shows relative to recordings (whether in a theater or in the comfort of home). I hear people say that live stage plays are better than movies, but I've never understood why -- is it just because the view is worse?
10. Any movie Orson Welles ever made.
9. Reggae.
8. Reality TV shows. (jinx)
7. A liberal arts education.
6. Peace in the Middle East.
5. CGI.
4. Smart Phones. (jinx again)
3. Turkey. (the food)
2. Blog comments.
1. Blogs.
Lebron James, China,the Ivy League, and the Military Academies are over-rated.
If you think smart phones are overrated, try traveling abroad these days without one. Directions, maps, places to see, hours of operation, menus, news, reading the Althouse blog -- and of course taking photos when the DSLR was too much bother -- I'd have been miserable in England without my smart phone.
As for anyone saying Zooey Deschanel is overrated -- Geez, if you want overrated look at Sarah Jessica Parker. No, really, you have to look at her; that's your punishment for saying Zooey Deschanel is overrated.
Dominican ‘style’ cake is the best btw...
I'm not alone on that one... and its not just because I was born there... handles or not Dominican cake is delish.
Mmm hmm. Love Dominican cakes...
Come to think of it, cake itself is overrated. I'd take a slice of pumpkin or apple pie over a slice of cake any day.
Working at some fucking job.
Not if you haven't had one in a while.
6. Peace in the Middle East.
How would you know? There hasn't been any in generations, at least.
Not if you haven't had one in a while.
It's not the job that you miss.
It's the income.
It's not the job that you miss.
It's the income.
I confess I miss the income itself the most. But that's hardly the only thing.
The least overrated thing in the world is putting on those thick absorbent white socks after you've taken a shower at night and then getting into bed with a book. That can't be overrated.
I'd say the list linked works for me. They are mostly reasonable, but far from inclusive, and highly local/personal.
So...Meh.
The Cup Cake debate: cupcakes are just that! CUPcakes. They are not CAKES. Comparable to taking rubber, steel and gasoline and making a Ferrari or a VW Bug. Both the same ingredients. Cupcakes are easier to distribute and there s NO CLEAN UP after consumption. Cake is harder to distribute equally, and nothing more forlorn than 1/4 of a vanilla and strawberry icing cake sitting uneaten on the desert table after the company Holiday Lunch.
Lobster I could eat every day - and steamed blue crabs. But then again how could anyone divorce Sandra Bullock?
I love my job - I really do. I get to fool around on computers all day and show off how smart I am. Like here!
But I do hate crowds. I do love seeing great musicians play live, but often the freaks, creeps and weirdos in the audience make it extremely uncomfortable. They see me and probably think the same thing. So everyone fears/hates each other, "but the show was great..." And those musicians mentioned. I vote with my feet - never seen them and would never care to.
Instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLU08nOtUkc
Isn't this biased toward personality types that rank things? To me, all things are either overrated or underrated--except the pop-top on cans of soup, which are valued and appreciated in perfect proportion to their utility and grace--but I don't think I could rate them.
But let's cast caution to the wind and attempt a list! Woo, this is exciting! Oh my gosh, where to start? Okay. Here goes.
10. Gertrude Stein
9. Switzerland
8. Ghost peppers
7.
6. Whether or not Pluto is a planet
5. Vermiculite
4. Wes Anderson movies
3. Maintaining diacritics on foreign words
2. Your vagina, exclusively
1. Why number 7 is missing
Bob Dylan is way more overrated than Bruce Springsteen, but yeah.
With Hitchens in mind I would add:
Going on a spa makeover courtesy of Vanity Fair in lieu of a full medical checkup.
"I will not click on a slide show that presents things in more than one webpage (BAD DESIGN!)...."
It's annoying design, but not BAD design, as it's intended to get you to click through to several pages, so the site that features such articles can show their website "ratings" are high, and thus charge higher prices for ad placements.
Think of a television station making it a practice to insert a photo of beautiful nude women very briefly at every commercial break in order to keep viewers tuned it...it would be a tactic by which the station could influence their Nielson ratings.
It's all about the ad revenue.
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