Who taught you how to cook?
Submitted by Donna.

Cooking?  My mother showed me what NOT to do. 

"I'm making meatloaf," she tells me the other day on the phone.  "Do you want to come over?"

This is a very old joke.  I'm in Florida, she's in Ohio.  It ceased to be funny over 10 years ago.

"I hate meatloaf," I tell her in return.

"You'd like my meatloaf.  I make it with..."

"ESPECIALLY YOUR MEATLOAF!"

"What's wrong with my meatloaf?"

"The Sahara Desert has more moisture in it than you meatloaf does."

"You used to eat it when you were a kid."

"It was a matter of survival.  If I didn't eat it, I would have starved to death."

And then she wonders why I hate meatloaf.

My sister's cooking is even worse.  Supposedly, her first divorce was due to her cooking.  George does not let her cook.  He enjoys cooking, even after a hard day's work, so he makes dinner when he gets home.

So I sort of picked it up on my own, through friends and roommates and stuff.  But I'm a disinterested cook at the best, although I have several very good dishes.  My favorite thing to make however, remains reservations.

 Originally posted on capecat.vox.com

What was the one toy you wanted as a kid that your parents never bought you?
Submitted by Princess of Darkness.

It wasn't really a toy.  The one thing I wanted growing up was a horse.  Not a pony mind, a horse, one that I could use in equestrian sports, specifically jumping and dressage.  I liked the western equestrian sports well enough and still do enjoy rodeo, but I loved jumping and dressage riding.  I still do, even though, given my arthritis, I couldn't get on a horse, let alone sit one if my life depended on it.

However, while the inital cost of the horse wasn't much, the food and upkeep were out of the price range of my family, especially after my parents got divorced and my mother was trying to make ends meet on her own.  Even had she been able to afford the basic costs of the horse, entry fees for shows and trailering and the like would have ended the deal.

So...no horse.

It was kind of funny though because in talking to Bob and Arlene at FIRS a few years ago, and Bob was saying that he actually liked their horses, even though they were too old to be of any use.  He liked going out to the barn and talking to them, and Arlene (bless her heart) says she'd rather muck out a stall than clean up the kitchen.  The two girls wanted horses, Rob wanted dirt bikes.  I said something to the effect of "This is a classic case of parents buying pets for the kids, and then ending up taking care of them."  Arlene responded "Sure.  But who knew they were going to live 30 years!"

For whatever it's worth, their oldest daughter did grow up to become an equine veterinarian.  It kind of makes me wonder what I would have become if I'd been born into a different family.

I ended up scratching my horse itch by hanging around the race tracks and public stables and helping out where ever I could.  I'm still pretty darn good at handicapping horse races.

Originally posted on capecat.vox.com

What's the most famous movie you've never seen? 
Submitted by Mike.

Define famous.  My inital reaction was to simply say Star Wars.  But then, I wondered, what are the top grossers of all time?  In looking that up, my list (according to Movieweb) go like this:

ET - The Extra Terestrial
Jurassic Park
Forrest Gump
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Star Wars - Return of the Jedi
Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back
Shrek
Batman

But then...I was thinking.  That kind of skews things toward the more modern movies.  What about the old flicks which certainly can't outgross the multi-million dollar new releases?  Like Casablanca.  That's a very famous flick but given the date of it's release (1942) it's not going outgross some of the more modern releases like the 2007 Happy Feet.

So then I decided to define "famous".

fa·mous –adjective
1. having a widespread reputation, usually of a favorable nature; renowned; celebrated: a famous writer. 
2. Informal. first-rate; excellent: The singer gave a famous performance. 
3. notorious (used pejoratively). 

No where in there does it say money making.  So I felt I needed another source.  I decided to go with the Internet Movie Databases list of famous movies.  So then the list would go like this:

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Casablanca (1942)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Star Wars (1977)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

I can't say I liked all of them - Pulp Fiction being the notable exception, but I would agree more with the rankings this way.  So Shawshank Redemption is the most famous movie I've seen! It's also Cully's favorite movie, which is a useless bit of information, given this discussion.

Originally posted on capecat.vox.com