Sweat the small stuff

[Ghoulish Delight]

I just feel like bitching about the little things. Things that you know don't matter, you know you should just ignore because who the hell cares, but bug you anyway. Or, as my dad likes to call it, "Yuppie Angst".

For example. Bagels. As most of you know, I'm fond of the bagels that my company generously provides for us each Friday. It's more than any company really has to do, and it's one of many things that makes working here great. There's one guy who, every week, picks up the bagels, pays for them, and gets reimbursed. Again, more than he's required to do, and very generous of him to take that time and effort.

But every once in a while, either he's sick or on vacation, and we have a backup bagel guy (I don't even know who it is). This guy goes to a different bagle shop...and I really don't like the bagels there. They're "fancier" than the ones the regular guy gets, with more exotic flavors and ones with cheese melted on the top, etc. First off, they are over flavored with artificial flavor. That's a trend in food I've noticed in general. Restaurants, especially chain restaurants, forgo subtletly and complexity of flavor in favor of pumping their food full of the artificial flavor of the month. Bleh, give me something that's lightly flavored with real ingredients over something that's screaming with fake flavor. Secondly, the backup bagels are 90% air. There's no substance to them. Thirdly, either the shop doesn't have or the backup guy doesn't get garlic bagles, which have become my staple. The regular bagel shop has the BEST garlic bagle, literally crusted with real bits of roasted garlic. Mmmm. I feel very deprived when I don't get it.

I dislike them so much in comparison to the regular ones that just the thought of having them instead irritates me. Like today, the bagels were late. And usually that means the regular guy is out. So I had gone and resigned myself to eating inferior bagels. Luckily, the regular guy was just a little late, so I got my delicious garlic bagel (and I had some brie left over from a lunch this week, so it was extra yummy). But even that slight possibility of having the other bagels has left me pondering how crappy they are.

Truly Yuppie Angst.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Not about bagels (nothing quite beats freshly baked NYC bagels anyway), but about Delis....

Growing up in the Valley, did you guys ever eat at Brents? That deli beats any deli I ate in while living in NYC. I've never been to a better deli. I love the atmosphere there. And the waitress have known my brother and I since we were babes. I haven't been in a while. If you gusy like it, or have never been, maybe we could go sometime. They're bagels are small but good.

[BarTopDancer]

I hear ya about the bagles. We have the same problem here. One person will bring in the best bagles ever from a bagel place while the other just gets them from a grocery store.

EZ,

That deli sounds amazing! Do they have pickles and pickled tomatos?

[scaeagles]

I once read of a study where a psychology student, doing some sort of required experiment for his masters picked a suburban neighborhood of around 100 homes.

Everyday, for 30 days, this student went to each door and gave the inhabitants $5.

After that 30 day period, the game plan changed. For the next 30 days, one third got $5 still, another third got $3, and the final third got $1. Many of the people were upset that their money was cut back. After a couple of days, when it became known throughout the entire neighborhood that some were getting more than others, the student was verbally assaulted on several occassions by those receiving less.

The next 30 days, another change. The third that was getting the $5 still got it, and everyone else got none.

The student was physically assaulted once when he passed a door. He witnessed neighbor turning against neighbor in arguments when he would leave a house delivering the money and bypassing a the house of someone else standing in their yard. It apparently caused great angst throughout the community, much more than the student had ever thought it would. So much so they called a community meeting and explained the experiment to try to calm the anger between those that continued to get the $5 and those who were reduced and cut off.

I suppose my point is that GD may be happier if the bagels were never given as a gift. You don't miss what you've never been given. When what you are given is less than what you are used to, it becomes irritating. This is not to be critical of GD in the least, just to point out that this is a common psychological issue with the human condition.

[€uroMeinke]

Croissants - to keep with the baked goods theme.

Once upon a time these delightful treat were crispy, flakey, and reasonably sized. Somehow these things have been Americanized or cross-bred with a hamburger bun. In the zeal to increase theri size and make them a bun replacement for breakfest sandwiches they have become doughy bakery behemoths, lacking the flavor and texture that once made them delightful.

Feh

[Tref]

It's more than any company really has to do ...

Talk about low expectations ...

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Croissants - to keep with the baked goods theme.

Once upon a time these delightful treat were crispy, flakey, and reasonably sized. Somehow these things have been Americanized or cross-bred with a hamburger bun. In the zeal to increase theri size and make them a bun replacement for breakfest sandwiches they have become doughy bakery behemoths, lacking the flavor and texture that once made them delightful.

Feh

Having never been to France, I cannot compare. I did have a delicious croissant recently at a French bakery but can't for the life of me remember where that bakery is or what it's called. FIE!

[Morrigoon]

Euro: I agree about the croissants.

For me it's the over-doing and ruination of great things in the name of "safety" (eg: saving stupid people and their children from their own stupidity and/or negligence. For example, D-phile lives in this apartment community where the center area is all streams and ducks. But it's ruined because apparently some parents can't watch their children (and these streams really are NOT that deep, less than 2'), so instead of really pretty streams with no fence, or even really pretty streams with a low fence (like, say, 3'? Just high enough to be to tall for toddlers?) the entire stream area, and therefore, all the walkways to apartments, are surrounded by a 5 or 6 foot tall vertical bar fence. TOTALLY ruins the effect. And I hate that. I understand the need for fencing and all, but why must it be taller than the children? Oh yeah, because SOME parents won't watch their children, so heaven help us the kids might get out of the apartment AND climb a fence for the sole purpose of drowning themselves in 18" of water.

And the thing that bugs me most is my fear that they'll do it to the streams around MY place, which would RUIN it completely for me.

[mousepod]

I bought a bag of "Snak Club" pistachios this morning. The back of the package reads:

INGREDIENTS: PISTACHIOS, SALT
CAUTION: CONTAINS PISTACHIO SHELLS

C'mon people!

[Not Afraid]

Ummmmm, bread.