JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING:
Recently, when talking about TV and streaming shows we were watching, several
Reds and readers mentioned A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. Now, I was in a bit of a
drought. Except for the Korean crime drama BEYOND EVIL, I wasn’t feeling it for
a lot of shows. I would turn something on and then wind up spending half my
time looking at my phone instead.
But I decided to give ADOW a try. Another try, I should say. I’d watched the first two episodes quite some time ago, and my takeaway at the time was 1) Wow, that supposedly accomplished professor and scholar has no self-preservation skills whatsoever and 2) errors. I can’t remember what errors I noticed, because on the second go-round, I absolutely fell in love. I’ve been streaming three episodes a night since then.
Which got me thinking about the phenomenon of “the second time around.”
Why did I loathe mushrooms as a child, only to find them
delicious when I had them in Italy in my twenties? Why did I wrinkle my nose at
olives right up through my forties, and now toss them into everything?
Sometimes, only appreciating something at the second (or third, or fourth) try makes sense. I read THE SCARLET LETTER when I was around thirteen, and no surprise, I got nothing out of it. I re-read it, on a flight of all places, in my early thirties and found it to be a stunning work. I needed to grow and learn before I could understand what Hawthorne was doing.
But what about sleeveless shirts? I avoided them up to my
fifties, because I didn't want anyone to see the wobbly bits on my arms. Now
those shirts make up 90% of my summer wardrobe. And let me assure you, my arms
haven't gotten LESS wobbly. Was it the temperature fluctuations of menopause?
Is my give-a-damn busted? It's a mystery.
How about you, Reds? Any flavors, fandoms - heck, relationships - that you only appreciated the second time around?
HALLIE EPHRON: Well, my big one: I broke up with my sweet to-be husband before I succumbed to his blandishments. He turned out to be an acquired taste, and thank goodness was extremely persistent. Lucky me because it’s horrifying who I could have ended up with.
LUCY BURDETTE: Hallie, my story is similar to yours. When my sweet hub John called to ask me out on a date, I turned him down but suggested we play friendly doubles tennis instead. After about six months of that, I realized that I’d made an error in judgment: he was a keeper, cute, funny, and smart. This time, I did the asking out!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, my
Jonathan story is the exact opposite, but that’s another blog. Second time
around, food edition: Scrambled eggs, tuna salad. As I kid I couldn't even
think about those things. Now I adore them. Why? What happened?
TV edition: The Wire. We started The Wire, right when it
came on. I thought–huh? I don’t even understand it. A few months later,
I thought–maybe I’m watching it wrong. We tried it again and it’s the best
thing I’ve EVER seen. Why? Well, I can tell you I realized that I was put
off by the slang–I didn't understand it. But then I realized the writing was SO
excellent that it would explain the very words that were not in my vocabulary
in the very next sentence..so when I stopped worrying about it, I adored it.
JENN
McKINLAY: It took me five tries before I could get into reading the first
Harry Potter book. 5!!! I don’t know why I couldn’t get past the first few
chapters - they weren’t bad - it was me. I was the problem.
I, too, did not love olives until my forties and now I love them on most everything. I also love spicy food, which I never liked before moving to AZ and then it took me years to acquire a taste for it. As for shows, the only one that comes to mind that took me a while is The Family Guy. Didn’t get it the first time I watched it but it grew on me and I think it’s hilarious.
Off topic, Hub and I just started watching HACKS on Max - it is FANTASTIC!!! I love that Jean Smart is crushing it in her seventies, but also the juxtaposition of a Boomer and a Gen Z makes for some pretty funny dialogue.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Julia, you are seriously tempting me to watch ADOW again. But even as much as Rick loves Teresa Palmer (a lot!) I'm not sure I could talk him into Round Two…
Love the second-chance hubbies theme here! You can count us in on that. Rick and I dated on and off for about six years, then in one of the "off" periods, I met my first husband. (Rick was the one who introduced us!) Off I went to Scotland, marriage and child following. Fast forward fourteen years, divorced, Rick called to wish me "happy birthday." And that was, yikes, thirty years ago! But there are things I wish the picky eater hubby would give another chance, like mushrooms, olives, chickpeas, tofu, etc., etc., etc.!
JULIA: How about you, dear readers? What food/book/husband did you learn to appreciate the second time around?
Hmmm . . . my second time around food would have to be burritos . . . .
ReplyDeleteHow did that take two tries, Joan?!?
DeleteThe first thing that comes to my mind is MIDDLEMARCH. I had to read it for a college class, so I forced myself through it and hated it. At 19, I was so revolted by the idea of Dorothea Brooke marrying Casaubon that I could only see her as more or less deserving of her misery because of her idiotic decision. I had a little more sympathy for Tertius Lydgate not being able to see through social-climbing, money-grubbing Rosamond Vincy, but only a little. At that age, I couldn't summon any compassion for these two likable people stuck in terrible marriages. Then I listened to an excellent audiobook of "Middlemarch" in my late fifties (a long listen!), and I got completely caught up in the story. At that age, I could understand how Dorothea and Tertius got caught in their tragedies, and I could see why "Middlemarch" was considered a great book--although I'm not convinced it's THE Great English Novel. As Julia said about A SCARLET LETTER, there are books that most people need life experience to appreciate.
ReplyDeleteA TALE OF TWO CITIES for me. I tried it in 7th grade, then 8th and couldn’t get past a few chapters. We read it for English my senior year and I LOVED it.
DeleteYep. It's a shame schools thrust classics on teen you don't have the experience to be able to appreciate them. Better to give them contemporary fiction and encourage the timeless novels later.
DeleteI used to hate sour cream. Now I love it
ReplyDeleteThat's a real life upgrade, Gillian.
DeleteIndeed it is!
DeleteThe first Cadfael book by Ellis Peters. Meh, not so great. Then the second book came out. Loved it! Reread the first book years later--it was me, not the book. Same with Louise Penny--first book left me undecided as to whether I'd bother with the next one. It's definitely me sometimes, whether a book, a show, a food (Flora)
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the Cadfael books - it was the 2nd one that made the Ind Mystery Booksellers Top 100 Mysteries of the 20th Century. So you might have been on to something.
DeleteBooks, more than anything, seem to be a "what is my mood" issue, Flora. There have been so many that I put down, only to devour at a later date.
DeleteFun topic! I've almost never met a food I didn't like, so that's out. (I hope, as happened with Grace, my allergy of the last four years will go away and I can again enjoy raw peaches, pears, apples, apricots, plums, and cherries.) And no rebound husbands.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first watched SNL, I thought it was rude to make fun of accents ("We are the Czech brothers..."). Now I love it but have to watch bits the next day. And this is a niche, but when I first read Zippy the Pinhead I couldn't understand it. Now I realize it's funny and brilliant, but my local paper has squeezed it into a slot that makes the print too tiny. Must find my magnifying glass!
EDITH: I hope your raw tree fruit allergy goes away. My nightshade veggie allergy (raw and cooked tomatoes, sweet & chili peppers and eggplants) lasted for 3 years. And now I can eat them again, except for chili peppers.
DeleteThanks. I hope so, too. I seem to have mostly gotten over the extreme skin sensitivities I developed about the same time, so maybe this pesky thing will vanish, as well.
DeleteI'll add my wishes for an allergy recovery, Edith. Life without cherries and plums!
DeleteGrowing up in a Japanese household, green tea was often on the menu. I hated it as a kid, thinking it tasted like grass. When I went on a work trip to China in 2006, I drank green tea for a week and loved it. The quality and type of tea was different from what I drank in Toronto. Now I buy high-quality loose leaf dragonwell tea from specialty tea shops & drink it at home.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip about dragonwell loose leaf. I've been drinking ceremonial matcha instead of coffee in the morning. I like the taste--even when I don't turn it into a latte--plus it's not as acid as coffee. Nor does it leave coffee breath. And it's a green veg right off the top at the beginning of the day. Win-win.
DeleteGrace, this reminds me of when Victoria decided to start drinking coffee (she was working and needed caffeine.) She went straight to the high-quality, small batch stuff. She says you don't need to add anything if the coffee is good enough.
DeleteThis may be my favorite topic of the month. I'll be back.
ReplyDeleteTo give it a second try, Judy? :-)
DeleteAgreed Judy! This is really fun to read and now I’ll have to think about my second chances today! I will try ADOW. I’m not usually into the supernatural stuff but I did love Practical Magic when it came out years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt just hit me at the right time, somehow, Stacia. I'm not usually into magic stuff either.
DeleteFood – poutine. I know how unCanadian of me. I like good greasy need to be served in a paper bag French fries, I like French fries and gravy – learned about that in university. I learned to love cheese snots (curds) fresh and squeaky after I moved to Quebec, so why not all together? It was a case, I think, of having it made the right way – once I had that, there was no turning back. However, I don’t want it with everything under the sun in it – that is not poutine, it is hash. I will be serving it in a few weeks for Canadian Thanksgiving to go with the deep-fried turkey – yes I like that too!
ReplyDeleteNow for not 2nd time lucky, but enough is enough – Star Wars. Loved the first one, married the Harrumper in a gown (?) designed from the dress Leia wore in the last scenes (had to go back and watch the movie twice to imagine the pattern – no VCR’s back then. Dress cost $7, not including the movie cost. Walked down the aisle to the theme song and just to let you know that we were not complete heathens, we walked out married to Mendelson. Any Star Wars after the first – just too much. As for the husband bit – met him on Saturday, knew we would marry on Wednesday, and 21 days of seeing him later we did. Blind date – very blind. 47 years later…
There is lots of food, that I learned to like, probably fish being one of them. I liked fish, but only certain kinds. Now I seem to enjoy all fish – but once again, as for so many things, I would always like to try it made correctly by someone else. Eel – would never think of it, but it is quite delicious.
As for olives – bring them on!
Margo, I wish I had thought to do your wedding style! I was such a fan of the original movie I saw it seven times the summer it came out. I deeply enjoyed the other two in that trilogy, but I agree the quality of the stories have fallen a lot since then. Although I do like Reylo, to reference yesterday's blog!
DeleteWhen I was a kid I hated cheese. When I rediscovered it as an adult, (in my thirties)I was surprised to find like it, and I've liked it ever since.
ReplyDeleteGrace, that's amazing that you had An allergy for three years and then it went away, except for one item. Have you figured out why you developed it and why it went away?
No idea how these allergy started & ended. One day, I could eat them just fine, the next time I had a severe allergic reaction (body rash, eyes swelling shut) that lasted for days or weeks. Same thing happened in my early 30s. It lasted one year but the reaction was less severe.
DeleteGrace, did you gradually reintroduce those foods or recover with the help of an allergist?
DeleteI tried reintroducing the nightshades every few months on my own. A slice of raw tomato or sweet pepper or a few bites of cooked combo of veggies. When it was bad, I had an allergic reaction 15-30 minutes after eating them.
DeleteThat is so weird, Grace. My youngest had the same thing happen, except for a reaction to what could only have been red meat. It sent her to the ER with severe anaphylactic shock, and then it took her over a year to get over it. She tested negative for the allergic reaction from a tick bite, so she never did figure out why.
DeleteWell, I was also dealing with 2 bouts of long COVID from 2020-21 and 2022 so my immune system was out of whack during that time.
DeleteI have heard developing allergies can come with menopause and then go away afterwards. Yay, menopause! (picture me rolling my eyes.)
DeleteEdith and Grace I hope you have seen an allergy specialist. Allergies do not go away, you might develop a sensitivity for a while that may abate but not a true allergy.
DeleteOften a autoimmune disease will first present as an allergy,
I have tried five or six times to read J. Sheridan Le Fanu's 1864 classic mystery novel UNCLE SILAS over the past twenty years and have always been stymied by outside events, making me wonder if the universe was against me. I have read all of Le Fanu's shorter fiction, including the novelette on which he based UNCLE SILAS, and enjoyed them greatly but UNCLE SILAS keeps avoiding me. Some day...
ReplyDeleteTime to order a copy and clear your calendar, Jerry!
Delete"Second chance romance" is a popular romance trope. :) As for foods, even though I grew up in rural Kentucky, I didn't like grits then. Ugh. #Gruel But with lots of butter and cheese, it's a different story. It's like that gif of Sean Bean's character talking about how one doesn't walk into Mordor: "Grits are not meant to be health food."
ReplyDeleteRhonda, as a half-Alabamian, I can confidently say NO southern food is meant to be healthy.
DeleteI seem to be the opposite of everyone here in most respects. If I don't like something, I almost never revisit something. Food especially...I'm morally opposed to vegetables of any kind really.
ReplyDeleteI'm happily single and don't pursue romantic attachments of any kind anymore so I have no relationship second chance stories to share.
Even with TV, I don't give many TV shows a second chance if I hated them the first time around. The closest I come is with the TV series version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I saw the originally really bad film of the same title. So, when I heard about the TV show I guessed it would be the same kind of garbage and I ignored it.
Then when it was repeat season (remember when they used to have the summer of repeats?), there was nothing on one night and they were airing the Season 5 finale of Buffy. I had nothing better to do so I decided to watch it. And I was hooked. It was AWESOME! Luckily, the FX network was airing Buffy at the time from the beginning so I started watching the series before the 6th season premiered. And I started the Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine, got the DVDs, bought fiction novels (including one that was set one second after the series finale. And I went to conventions that had Buffy people appearing. I got to meet the actresses who played Faith, Glory, Kennedy and Jenny Calendar. Even briefly passed by James Marsters in the hallway at a convention he was at. Attended his panel but didn't get to officially meet him. And when the series ended and they continued the story as comic book "seasons", I bought all of those, including a future set Slayer story called Fray. How big a fan did I become? Well, just yesterday Tubi started running the whole series and I found out last night and immediately started a rewatch!
Regarding Hank's story about The Wire, I loved the show from the start. Even though, I thought there was way too much profanity in the first episode. And that's coming from someone who is an avowed aficionado of profanity in all forms! I knew I was going to be a big fan of the show when they built an entire scene with only various forms of the "F" word comprising the dialogue and it was BRILLIANT!
that should be I started READING the Buffy magazine.
DeleteAnd I also got to meet the actress who played Harmony on the show too.
DeleteOh I remember that scene. Brilliant!
DeleteOoohh! Thanks for the Tubi tip!
DeleteI love Tubi!
DeleteUnfortunately, I didn't have the best of luck with either my first or second husband. But I can talk about how I only used to like milk chocolate and didn't want anything to do with dark chocolate. How my tastes have changed! I like to think that I have evolved and now I know what is truly good!
ReplyDeleteThere must be something about bitter/umami/unsweet tastes that only develop when we're older, Judi. I liked my cocktails fruity until a few years ago, when I started drinking bourbon on the rocks.
DeleteOoh, I'll sip bourbon on the rocks with you at the next opportunity, Julia!
DeleteHouse cleaning. Child of the 50's with a working mom, Saturdays were spent cleaning. I hid in my closet and read Mad Magazine. I hated housework for 6 decades. Even had a t-shirt in the '70's that said "I hate housework". As of today I still dislike housework (why it is called a chore) BUT do wash the dishes and vacuum. Turns out both tasks are soothing. And today is Saturday and I will be doing housework; even boomers eventually grow up.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are okay, Coralee!
DeleteThis is going to be a long comment!
ReplyDeleteLove the stories about giving the guy another chance.
It took me many tries before I got into the Harry Potter novels. My nine year old relative raved about the HP novels so I decided to give it another chance for the umpteenth time and I fell in love with the books. There were several novels that I could not get into the first time then got into the books when I tried again.
When I was a young adult, my Mom encouraged me to buy this knitted dress and I did not really like it but still got it because I needed a dress. Then I fell in love with the dress and wore it often. My Mom and grandmother have this fashion sense that it took me years to develop.
When I was a child, I did not like tomatoes nor did I like bell peppers. When I was living in England, the vegetables were wonderful. I tried a stuffed pepper in the dining hall at Oxford when I realized that I looked the bell pepper! I ate the whole thing. I came home still liking the bell peppers and still love them. Now I love cherry tomatoes. And dry farmed tomatoes (google it). I did not like spicy food. Now I like some spicy food.
Believe it or not, I did not like MIDSOMER MURDERS the first time I watched it on TV. I cannot recall the first time I saw it - maybe in 2006? By 2014, I was watching MM and it is now one of my favorites!
Regarding your stories about olives, I have an interesting story. At a time when I did not really like vegetables, I LOVED olives, especially putting my fingers inside the olives before eating them. I was about four years old.
When my sister and I were kids I remember putting ripe olives in all of our fingertips and wiggling our fingers around.
DeleteI remember doing that with olives from my mom's cocktail-party crudite platter!
DeleteThe first food that comes to mind is homemade beef stew. When I was growing up it was a weekly meal during the fall and winter ; I really disliked it and grumbled each time my Mom made it.( My Mom was an amazing cook). When I was in my mid twenties I was served this meal at a friend’s house and loved it. It then became and still is one of favourite meals, especially in the cooler weather.
ReplyDeleteThe book: Exodus by Leon Uris ……..I bought this book sometime in my mid twenties and made several attempts each year to read it ; I was never able to get past the second chapter! Fast forward to mid/ late 40’s I was determined to read this story and I did!
No second chance romance story for me. I met and married my husband less than a year after we met and we were happy together until his death a week after our 43rd wedding anniversary.
Dianne Mahoney
Sounds like a good, long marriage Dianne - but we always wish it could have been longer, don't we.
DeleteGlad to know I'm not the only one who pivoted 180 degrees on onions, mushrooms, dark chocolate, and green peppers. I still don't care for green peppers on pizza, but in almost every other way, bring 'em on.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of any books or movies I changed my mind about, but I did do a major turnabout with my husband. We broke up and didn't see each other for a couple months, and then he finally--after 3 years of dating, and after I'd decided to find someone new--proposed. Geez, Louise.
That's a whole thing in my family, Karen. My father proposed to my mom after she told him her plans to join the Teach Alaska program. My husband popped the question after I was accepted to UCLA Law. Some men need a push to put a ring on it.
DeleteWhen I was little, growing up in Houston, I didn't care for Tex Mex food. When there was just me and big brother, my parents occasionally dined at Felix's Mexican Restaurant, an institution in "old" Houston. I would have a platter of chili con queso. It was just an appetizer but looked like a platter to a little kid. Mild melted cheese on top of tortilla chips. I snarfed it down. Years later TexMex was one of my favorite kinds of foods to eat. I had to start slow.
ReplyDeleteWe had family outings and birthday dinners at the Old El Fenix at Northwest Highway in Dallas, Pat. Fond memories.
DeleteWhen I was a few years old, I came down with a stomach bug a few hours after eating lentil soup. I never liked lentil soup and always blamed the soup for my upset stomach!! I didn’t eat lentil soup again until I was an adult. And loved it! I now have a simple but tasty recipe for it which I should pull out so I can make it this fall.
ReplyDeleteBrussels sprouts: I loved them as a young child, started hating them when I was around ten or eleven, and started loving them again in high school. They’re now one of my favorite vegetables.
I can’t get into Harry Potter. I forced myself to read the first book, but could not start the second one. It took me two tries to read Louse Penny’s first Gamache novel, and ever since then I’ve been impatiently waiting for the next in the series. My sister listens to the audio books and says that she likes the books even more on audio. When she’s done , she donates them to her library.
DebRo
I have never been able to get into Harry Potter either. My sister has read them all, has a wand and everything. Not me. As for Gamache, I feel like I live in Three Pines. That series has always welcomed me with open arms. I finally got my sister to read one and now she's hooked. Maybe it is just a timing thing. The mind wants what the mind wants. -- Victoria
DeleteI have read most of the Louise Penny’s books. The first book in the series is very different from subsequent books. I now find that I enjoy the main story but the subplots feel like repeats of those in previous books. I only read the new books that seem to me to be unique or the location is very different. I have read two of the last five books.
DeleteI can understand that. I used to read all the Patterson books until he started farming them out. They just got stale for me. Patricia Cornwell's books also reached the point where I couldn't stomach the main character's lack of growth so I quit them. Used to read Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley's books until she killed off one of my favorite characters. Isn't it curious what our minds decide just doesn't work for us any longer? -- Victoria
DeleteI too quit Patricia Cornwell's books -- all the characters were just miserable and angry all the time. Enough was enough!
DeleteYes, I quit the Patricia Corneell books too. It seemed the books were gruesome and grisly, with not much of a plot.
DeleteGrowing up I always heard that your tastebuds changed every 7 years and I swear, that is how it worked with me for a long time. The exception is cilantro. That tastes like soap to me and I saw on a TED Talk once that it is hardcoded into my DNA so that isn't going to change. Fun fact: Folks like me who have that DNA makeup are very close to original homo sapiens. Those folks who can enjoy the wonders of cilantro are a mutation of the original DNA sequence. The things you learn from TED Talks...
ReplyDeleteAs for finding a change in my reaction to a book, TV series, movie that has almost always come down to a change in me. Either I've gained a new perspective, broadened my horizons or my mind finds other things more or less stimulating that it did years earlier. The mind and the DNA structure are fascinating things. -- Victoria
That's so interesting, Victoria! I'm going to track down that TED talk and give it a listen.
DeleteI didn't like cream cheese as a kid. Fast forward to my late teens, while helping to assemble finger sandwiches for a anniversary's reception I discovered I liked cream cheese period I had to stop reading Pride and Prejudice because I was too distracted by other things happening In my life. The second time round I really enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete(This is a test because I tried commenting through my Google on my kindle and it wouldn't publishso now I'm on my phone let's see what happens shall we?)
It worked!
DeleteSafari and Blogger are incompatible!
DeleteSorry, Deana!
Deletenot a problem, just one of those weird things
DeleteI didn’t like cream cheese as a young child, but when I was a senior in high school I was on a week long school trip to Yosemite, it was served there and I liked it. I have also heard the every seven years your taste buds change. Not sure if that’s factual, but I think as we mature, we are exposed to different styles of cooking. Might be part of it.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if I have any books that I have not gotten into but tried later and liked. The one movie that both my husband and I did not like or get was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He even bought us tickets to Spamalot (the musical version of the movie) when it came to town and we sat in a theater filled with people who knew - and said aloud - every word. Still didn’t get the attraction. Fast forward to our son choosing the movie for Family Movie Night and ta da, it was funny! (We saw a local theater company’s version of Spamalot years later and loved it!) — Pat S
Your sense of humor just had to soften up, Pat - like cream cheese.
DeleteAs the Frank Sinatra song lyrics go ~ "Love is lovelier the second time around" and that holds true for me. I didn't get it right the first time. I was a foolish immature girl who at her wedding reception knew right then and there I had made a serious mistake. Thankfully, the individual whom I should have married drifted back into my life quite by chance six years later when he unexpectedly dropped into the structural engineering firm where we both had met years earlier and I was still working there. The stars were definitely aligned and fate was in my favor as I knew he had relocated to Oklahoma to pursue his architectural degree and I figured he had met someone there and was happily involved out west. Lucky for me his curiosity took over and he made his way back to Massachusetts and to me. Forty-five years later I'm happy to say that neither one of us let an error in judgment stop us from being together again. "If at first you don't succeed try, try again." :)
ReplyDeleteEvelyn, your story needs to be either a book or a movie!
DeleteJulia ~ Why not both? :);) On a serious note, I know there must be other couples with better stories but for me I bless the day Rudi took that exit off Rt.128 because he sensed something was wrong and could not shake that feeling six years later. Great intuition on his part and a sensitive, caring soul to go with it. My life turned around for the better the moment he walked through that door...the second time around.
DeleteI am sorry to say I never developed a sophisticated taste for food; I'm still a "meat and potatoes" person and not very adventurous when it comes to stepping out of the circle of ordinary cuisine. I wish I loved fish as I know it is very nutritious but the closest I come to that food category is my love for the ocean's "bottom dwellers" ~ scallops and (fried) clams.
ReplyDeleteOne day my father-in-law had an attack of stomach pains so severe he almost drove himself to the hospital. Turns out he had several donuts )probably more than several) and a large piece of cake for lunch, and his late evening meal the night before consisted of 83% grease. Yet he blamed the attack on the bowl of Rice Krispies he had for breakfast. We could never convince him he was wrong and he refused to have Rice Krispies again for the remainder of his life.
ReplyDeleteOh, good Lord, Jerry. Sounds like you must have LOADS of F-I-L stories...
DeleteMy biggest “second chance” is, after spending time with my parents at their Florida “snowbird rental” in late 1980s and vowing “I’d NEVER live there” … moved here permanently in 2020, after snow birding for 5 years. So very glad that life changes around us and in us. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteI get it, Elisabeth. It's amazing what things that seemed unthinkable when our parents were doing it magically become appealing when we're the same age they were.
DeleteJulia, you now have me thinking that I need to return to ADOW. I watched the first season, but I just never got back to it. Maybe it's time for another go. I gave The Good Place a second chance and was so glad I did. My husband really liked it, so I thought I'd watch it with him, and we both loved it. When I was growing up, you couldn't get me near asparagus, and now it's a favorite vegetable. I don't remember eating mushrooms as a kid either, but I love them now. Olives and peas and sauerkraut have remained on the no-fly list. I blame my father for the olives, green, because after he finished the jar of olives, he would turn it upside down and drink the juice. I think I seemed to be in the kitchen every time he did that. Who does that sort of thing in front of a kid? Really. Julia, I agree with you about The Scarlett Letter, too. I read it when I was too young to appreciate it, and having read it several times in later years, I love it as one of my favorite books. I wonder if I'd feel any different about The Catcher in the Rye if I read it now. Nah.
ReplyDeleteFood: avocado. As a child, it was weird slippery stuff that my parents liked in salads. Then I went off to college and met Mexican food and guacamole!
ReplyDeleteBook: The Shipping News.
It took me several tries to get into The Big Bang Theory. But once I did (season 4), I've been a faithful fan, watching through the end of the series and any time I caught a rerun.
ReplyDelete