Whenever I'm asked about reality TV show, I like to share a favorite quote of mine....
Great minds talk about ideas
Mediocre minds talk about events
Small minds talk about people....
So... I'm sorry.. which person were we talking about here?
I wish I knew who said it originally. I think it was a First Lady...
My thing is, I truly love discussing and learning about ideas and concepts and such. I will talk about brewing, cooking, pets, baseball (playing it, or statistics, not watching it), philosophy, car repair, home repair, driving skills, motorcycles, flower arranging, airplanes, the war in Iraq, tax policy, chess, drugs, the constitution, geology, literature, body building, cookware, softball, fencing, chemistry, astrophysics (I listen more than I talk on that one), etc. There's hardly any topic that I would pass up an opportunity to learn about it from an educated person in the field. I just don't talk ever about people and hardly ever wish to talk about events. It's stupid and mostly pointless. And it's rare that you find someone who wishes to discuss ideas... I find that troublesome and disappointing. I'd love to open a bar that catered to intellectual people... instead of having TV's showing basketball games, you show one hour specials with Steven Hawking, the animal planet, and interviews with Gandhi and Mother Theresa ans stuff like that...
You folks pointing out that these people are just trying to be friendly/social do have a point. However, when I am forced to make inane chit chat, I try to leave the other person/people with something that may be of benefit to them. They ask if I watched xxxxx tv show. I say no, "I did xxxxx instead". They tell me some useless tidbit about their show and then I tell them something like... "I made teriyaki salmon. And I learned that if you use a wok and start cooking it skin-side down, you can get an awesomely crispy texture to the salmon and the thin layer of fat on the fish renders down, frying the skin from both sides... it's awesome!" Or... "I saw the local booze shop had honey flavored 42 below vodka on sale for $10 so I bought a bottle and experimented. It doesn't go well in most common drinks, but man oh man, I think you could make an amazing hard fruity iced tea out of this stuff and I also managed a pretty tasty Honeynut Cheerios shot with Frangelico, Bailey's, and the honey vodka...."
If I didn't do anything interesting the previous day or so, then I usually fall back on a tip or two that most people find useful.. like instead of buying grenadine for your bar, use pomegranate schnapps instead... it costs less, gives an extra alcohol kick, and is naturally, rather than artificially flavored, so your drinks all taste better. Another thing I will often recite is the virtues of cast iron cookware. IMHO, it beats talking about American Idol any day...