50 things

I like this new blog meme from Gideon Strauss: list 50 things you love. For my list, I've deliberately excluded matters of the altar and the hearth (as I do, or at least strive to, love them with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind). I've also tried to name specific things rather than specific genres of things, but have left out a bunch of things for which I display my affection all too regularly on this blog. Finally, this should really be called "50 things I love today", as I'm sure the list would be different tomorrow. The list, then—off the top of my head, and in no particular order:
· Darkest, barely sweetened chocolate
· Pink, double, fragrant peonies
· Houses of Parliament: Monet as Turner
· Mikey and Nicky: Elaine May as Cassavetes
· Dave Lambert’s scatting on “Walkin’” at Newport ‘63
· Hank Jones and everything about him
· Chuck Jones’ “To Beep or Not to Beep”
· Chicken with string beans and black bean sauce at Hunan (I left my tastebuds in San Francisco)
· Sea bass dim sum at Yank Sing (ditto)
· The vanity plate on a VW beetle (same color as mine—blue) that I’ve seen twice in the last week: “BUGURU”
· The color blue, and the colors that sing when paired with it: orange and magenta
· Hearing Steely Dan’s “Lunch with Gina” in the grocery store
· Spiders
· Elephants
· Bratwurst
· Five-year-olds singing “Simple Gifts”
· A perfectly whacked long drive
· Raptors
· The final scene of “Baby Boom”
· Beethoven’s piano sonata no. 28
· Parliament’s “Flashlight”
· Endlessly refilled restaurant brewed unsweetened iced tea
· Plainsong
· Cello and acoustic bass
· Cooking Thanksgiving dinner
· The scene where Julia leaves Charles in Brideshead Revisited
· Holiday weekends’ Twilight Zone marathons
· Shaping kneaded bread dough after its first rise
· Floating face up in the pool while staring at blue skies with clouds
· Reading while eating/eating while reading
· Space shuttle on Tetris
· Spring fever
· Big brimmed garden hats
· Pulling the whole taproot
· The first sign of successful germination
· The first cup of coffee, when brewed by someone else
· Newly cut hair
· Used book and record shopping
· The first hour after childbirth
· Barehanded gardening
· The eagle pose asana
· Crunchy foods
· Rare-to-raw fish and beef
· The underdog
· A good stogie (don’t get excited…it’s been almost a decade)
· Bourbon (ditto)
· A clean house (when courtesy of someone else)
· My late father’s handwriting
· Playing the drum in your own school band…just kidding…Old falling down farmhouses
· The “click” of “Save this post”

Comments

[Alicia]

I love your list! I've been working on '100 things about me' but this may usurp it, or at least its place in line.