Things you do that other people think are weird

- Cheez-Its only taste good to me if I drink something orange with them.

- I eat pizza and candy bars with a knife and fork.

- I refuse to say bless you after a sneeze (I get stares of death from people I'm around when I don't do it. But I find the practice ridiculous).

- I don't think I've ever began a conversation outside of work situations (like interviews or job-related tasks, obviously) with another person. Other people start the conversation or it never occurs.

- I pretend a cast member of 60 Minutes is interviewing me sometimes while I'm sitting on the toilet. I'm very suave and always have interesting things to say to Scott Pelley and Morley Safer and Ed Bradley (R.I.P.) and Mike Wallace. Sometimes I won a Pulitzer. Sometimes I won the lottery and gave every cent to the local school. Sometimes I'm the President. I mix it up.

Okay, that's REALLY weird.

 

I always thought that was normal. Everyone ELSE is weird.

 

Brian, I do see you started one topic.

How do you account for that?

Or in 60 Minutes style...

Brian, you say you are not the type of person who starts up conversations outside of work. I am curious, have you ever started a thread on a message board? That is like starting a conversation.

Oh, your quirks just overtook HH.

 

OK, I'll bite. Which letters?

 

I didn't do it.

 

That's not weird. It's expedient.

 

I'm the same way. Not because I think they're gross. I just like the way foods taste without the post-cooking enhancements. Particularly meat. I want to taste the meat rather than what some blowhard at A-1 thinks I should taste.

When I'm loading the dishwasher, I put the knives with the blades up because I want the part that will come in contact with my food to be as clean as possible. It's the one thing I do that the rest of my family views as unsafe. I'm thinking food safety. They're thinking cut safety, which I contend can be prevented by watching where you put your hands.

As for the general trend on the thread, very little of this strikes me as weird. The whole fart under the covers thing I guess, but how do people know about that to think it's weird?

 

Maybe it's not weird, but my wife says it is. When it comes to household chores, I either do the entire job or do nothing. No in between.

Laundry, for example. If I have 4 loads to do, I won't do just 1 load. If I don't have time to do all 4 loads, I won't start, but I'll put it off until I have time to get it all done. Same with yard work. I won't mow and not trim, or mow and trim and not do any leaf-raking. I'd rather wait and do everything in a day or two rather than do part of it today and part of it tomorrow.

We have a dishwasher, but I won't put a single dish or piece of silverware in there unless I hand-wash it first. I know it's washing it twice, and our dishwasher does a fine job, but I don't consider it clean unless I wash it by hand first.

 

I've known people to make this argument with regard to lemon or lime in a beer. My father in particular gets upset if I have a Tecate or Sierra Nevade and put lime in it.

The auugment doesn't hold water, though. He puts cream and sugar in his tea. He sometimes puts cream in his coffee.
He puts salt and pepper on a steak or pork chop. He puts butter on corn on the cob.

It's just combining flavors that go well together.

 

I may be the only American who doesn't like ketchup on his fries.

 

I have my own food quirks as well.

If I have soup, I have to have Ritz crackers with it. No other crackers.

And if I have fish, I always have to have mashed potatoes with it. Nothing else.

 

I eat Spaghetti O's for lunch fairly often, and I cannot do so without chips/doritoes to crunch up in them.