Love Is In The Air, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

October 6, 2012 Martha Thomases 11 Comments

When I was a kid, we didn’t say, “I love you,” a lot in my family.  We loved each other, sure, but we showed it in other ways.  For example, my mother both cooked for me and nagged me about my weight.

Confusing much?

When I met the man I would marry, we changed that.  We said, “I love you,” all the time.  We were always touching.  It wasn’t morning until there were hugs all around.  We also said, “Thank you” for every little thing that happened because we were so grateful for having a life together.

Still, the reticence I learned as a girl has stayed with me.  In the last year, I’ve noticed that people dear to me will end phone conversations by saying, “I love you.”  This startles me.

It startles me so much that I wonder why I’m startled.  My friends love me.  I love them.  Why shouldn’t we say so?  Life is short.  Get it while you can.

With that in mind, here are a few things I love:

•  Facts.  Modern media technology allows voters proof about whether or not candidates for elected office are telling the truth (see here, here, and here, just for examples).  Sometimes, as a human, a candidate will misspeak, and sometimes, as a human, a candidate will deliberately lie.  We now have a way to determine which it is.

•  Avocados.  While I’m not a fan of NAFTA, in general because of the way it makes it easier to ship American jobs to places where people work for pennies an hour, I apparently owe this policy my gratitude for letting me buy these slimy treats year round.

•  Judge Judy.  I find there is something so comforting about an old Jewish woman yelling at me.

•  Ohio.  Although I was born in Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio.  As a result, I took Ohio history and geography in middle school.  I know about snake mounds.  And, although I haven’t lived there in more than 35 years, it is still the place I think of as home.  So I’m not just an elitist New Yorker, I’m in touch with the masses.

• Flavored seltzers.

•  Cauliflower.  It’s in season now, so it’s sweet and crunchy.  I can eat so much at one sitting that I can’t eat anything else for the rest of the day.  Luckily, I live alone.

•  Paul Krugman.  I know he drives conservatives crazy, what with his facts (see above) and things, but I find him enlightening.  And cute.

•  And, while we are on the subject of cute New York Times writers, I must include David Carr.  He shares my obsession with the media business, and he’s Midwestern, too.

•  Cleaning out.  I’m still going through tons of crap, and, in the process, finding things I had forgotten.  I have more jewelry than I remembered which, in practice, is like getting new jewelry.

•  You, Constant Reader.  I enjoy our squabbles, and, even more, our consensus.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, will probably go back to complaining again next week when she has to go to New York Comic-Con at the loathsome Javitz Center.