Guilty Pleasures

C'mon, we all have them. And deep in our little hearts, we know we are doing something ever-so-slightly naughty and potentially embarrassing. It's buying a can of corned beef from the coop you shop at, or reading Cosmo at the gym, with "Oh, it was there when I got on the machine." For my mom, it's cheese whiz. Only she eats it openly and with great pleasure… hmm, ok, for me, it's reading chick lit on planes…but only if I'm traveling alone or with my family and never, EVER in front of my bosses…or any work colleagues for that matter. Indeed, admitting even knowing the definition of the genre, much less devouring it is rather looked down upon in some circles. Less so when it is released in film as a "romantic comedy." It is as if there is less value in appreciating a predictably happy ending than a sad one. An article in the New York Times last week reported an increase in the production of "chick flicks" with the hope that men will follow (oh, because manly man flicks with shooting and cursing are oh, so much better). But the reality is, at least my pink and fluffy version of it, so many of the classics in film and literature are, indeed, versions of chick flicks. When Harry Met Sally, Casablanca (ok, maybe not a happy ending, but a chick flick nonetheless), Romeo and Juliet (hmmmm, again, not so happy, but you get the point). So what's wrong, I ask you, when life is full of uncertainty, to want a happy ending, especially when movies are $10? Why pay full price to be sad when you can be sad for free? Actually, some people pay therapists big money to make them not so sad.

Ok, off the soapbox and on to guilty pleasures… a friend/colleague and I have been discussing the pros and cons of one bad reality TV show to another. The "interesting" family on the West Coast or the "interesting" – erm– wives on the East? In secret, of course, because why? What is wrong with spending an hour of mindless -er- "appreiciation" of the seeming bottom-dwellers that parade themselves on realtiy tv (and I'm sorry, if you are on a show about your life, you are fair game)? Because it might ruin our reputations, compromise our credibility. We are supposed to be news hogs, watching cycles of CNN, MSNBC and even – CSPAN out of the office. Or reading tomes heavier than our purses and drier than gluten-free cookies while eating organic, heirloom tomatoes not picked by migrant workers… not perusing the latest issue of Vogue and eating, say, M&Ms, or, gasp, white bread. Ok, I personally don't eat processed white bread, but you get the picture. So go on, what is your guilty pleasure?