Five for Friday: Guilty Pleasures

Lately it seems like I have too many things to say and too little time to say them, or since I can't blog as soon as I think of it, the thoughts evaporate before I get to a keyboard. It also seems like many of the things I want to write about, unto themselves, aren't really "worthy" of a whole entry. I decided a while back to only post once a day because...well, because I often write too much! Things kept getting pushed down the page too quickly. So generally I think about things throughout the day and post at night (after The Daily Show, of course) about whatever resonated the most. So I think once in a while I need to kind of gather the random stuff that doesn't make the "solo post" grade. Guess I need to start writing them down. Hey, maybe I need a digital pen like I saw for the first time at the Sharks playoff game the other day -- they won, in case you hadn't heard -- when they had one up for grabs in an intermission game.

Anyway, today is going to be one of those days and the theme is the abovementioned Guilty Pleasures. Those little things that I should probably be too embarrassed to admit that I like, but I'm gonna anyway.

1. Pimp My Ride - Okay, even I can't believe that I like this show, but if I see that it's on, I'm there. I have no idea who Xzibit is and I feel quite sure that his music and I will never have so much as a passing acquaintance, but I get the biggest kick out of watching what they do to these cars and watching the reactions of the kids who hand over a POS and get back a piece of automotive art. The people who do the actual work on the cars, as a whole, look like a group of guys that you wouldn't EVER want to mess with in a dark alley...or anywhere else. But they're a bunch of big pussycats at heart who I think enjoy coming up with the most outrageous customizations they can in order to flip out the owners. The fact that, so far as I've seen, the kids they've hooked up are pretty deserving of having something nice happen to them is just the frosting on the cake.

2. Wienerschnitzel - Not the most popular fast food place around, and if you live east of the Mississippi you've probably never heard of it, but it has a very long and interesting history with my family (a story for another time, perhaps) that goes way back into childhood, when it was still known as Der Wienerschnitzel. This was, apparently, not grammatically correct in German and sometime between when I left California in 1976 and returned in 1993 the name changed, much to my puzzlement for a while. My particular guilty pleasures of eating there are the completely unhealthy and completely delicious Corn Dog and Chili Cheese Fries. They're not something I indulge in all that often, for obvious reasons, but there are times when I absolutely crave them and I slip off to my favorite location (and no, I'm not saying which one because I don't want you all horning in on my fries) for a fix.

3. Classic Password - The former Game Show Network, now GSN, shows the old, black and white episodes with Allen Ludden as host nightly at far too late an hour for regular watching. But if I'm up when it comes on, I'm probably there for the whole half hour, unless Buddy Hackett is one of the guest celebrities (like tonight) because I can't stand him. There's something just strangely compelling about it. Even if I don't know the celebrities, it's just fascinating to listen to the way they talk and to watch the way they conduct themselves, especially the women. They were always dressed to the nines and being there was a real opportunity to promote their current project, so they took it fairly seriously. And it's a glimpse at a time in our country that is long gone from television and will not be seen again any time soon. I also love watching Match Game, since I loved it as a kid and I still find it highly entertaining, but it's never on when I'm home!

4. Lipstick, Lip Balm and Lip Gloss - I'll keep this one short because the guys are already rolling their eyes. All I'll say is that some women have their shoes, some have their designer clothes, some have their purses and some have all of the above, and for them there's no such things as "too many" -- I have my lip products that I'm willing to shell out the bucks for and they're a hell of a lot less expensive, take up less room and give me that same little boost and satisfaction. So pass me my purse so I can wet my whistle and let's move on.

5. Contests, Sweepstakes, Samples, Free Stuff and Other Offers- This is no surprise to those who know me well, but I think that even they don't know how eagerly (and frequently) I go after these. I like to call it a hobby, but I don't really think it qualifies. If I can sign up for something and it won't cost me anything, I probably will! Let me share the latest example. I went to the Blogger home page earlier today to post something on Hope Springs A Leak and spotted a box that asked me if I'd like to try out Google's Gmail, their somewhat controversial new e-mail service. (FYI - Google owns Blogger.) I hadn't given it a lot of thought when I read about it and the hubbub over whether it was a good thing or not when they announced it. But their little come-on was like catnip to me so I signed up out of curiosity, even though I don't particularly have any need of another e-mail account and have no idea what I plan to do with it. Eventually, when I'd gone all through the registration procedure and tooled around to check things out, I got around to making my post.

What guilty pleasure are you willing to share?