Why I eat sushi

So, there it was, New Year's Eve, 1999. This was a big deal (in case you don't remember). For me, in addition to being the end/start of a millenium, I was also going out to dinner with my four relatively new bosses. We were going to a really nice restaurant and I was desperate not to embarrass myself.

I was also feeling adventurous. So, when I looked at the menu, I saw something I didn't recognize, a type of fish. It was served on a portabello mushroom bed and I love portabello mushrooms so I thought I'd try it.

Now, you have to understand. Growing up, my father would eat tuna fish straight out of the can. The smell was repulsive. I would have to leave the room whenever he popped one open. To this date, I have never eaten canned tuna fish.

So, once the server walked away after taking all of our orders, I turned to the boss sitting next to me and proudly said, "I ordered the Ahi. I've never had Ahi before. I hope it's good." To my shock and dismay, she responded, "Well, have you ever had tuna before?"

TUNA?!?!? I hate tuna! Ohmigod, what have I done?

Panicked and clearly not thinking quickly, I stammered, "Uh, I don't know . . ."

"You don't know???"

So, now I'm thinking, what do I do? Do I call the waiter back and change my order? No, no, I'm not going to embarrass myself. I'm going to eat whatever it is that they put in front of me.

So I did. And it was awesome. I loved it. Ahi tuna is now one of my favorite things to order out. And, since I liked it seared rare so much, I tried tuna sushi. Yum! Since I liked tuna sushi so much, I went to sushi restaurants and tried other sushis. Yum! I've eaten sushi in Japan which would have been entirely out of the question previously. My favorite restaurant in Aspen is now Takah Sushi. It's my special Valentine's Day meal every year and, even when my husband suggests a change, nope, it's got to be Takah.

And all of this because Cache Cache didn't put the word "tuna" on its menu.

Hmmm. What else am I missing out on??

Gender???

Your Brain is 60% Female, 40% Male

Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female You are both sensitive and savvy Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve

What Gender Is Your Brain?

Movies made to be studied?

Are there movies whose sole purpose, sole reason to exist, is to be taken up by students pursuing degrees in film?

I watched Broken Flowers not too long ago. What little I had heard about it left me not expecting too much. On one level, the movie met my expectations as it was slow moving and strange. But it also left me feeling like it had been made solely to provide fodder for film classes. I finished watching it thinking that it was artificially enigmatic, that it was purposefully dense so as to make it ideal for analysis. It seemed ripe with images not quite accidental. Was there some underlying symbolism to the guy hanging out of the car at the end of the movie?

Was my reaction dissatisfaction with the refusal of the movie to wrap things up in a nice little package? I want to think not. I don't mind movies that leave things up to the viewer's interpretation, leaves questions unanswered. But this movie seemed too self-conscious, too aware of its own strangeness.

And yet, all that being said, I would recommend it. My husband and I watched it separately and we came away with very different answers to the unanswered questions. That alone makes for a movie which stimulates conversation. The questions begged to be discussed. Which brings me right back around to the feeling that this movie wasn't made as entertainment but as an intellectual exercise . . .