Guilty pleasures:<\/b>Everyone has at least one.\u00a0 You know what they are, those innocuous, low-brow, or tasty-but-nutritionally-empty things and activities you hate to love.\u00a0 You there\u2014yes, you, the woman in the green dress who is reading this at your desk while you are supposed to be reviewing an employee\u2019s monthly expense report\u2014do not look away. \u00a0Do not glance down at the bottom drawer of your desk where you hide your stash.\u00a0 All it takes is one guilty-looking, downward turn of your eyes and your coworkers will correctly conclude that\u00a0you<\/b>\u00a0are the culprit responsible for the five dozen Twinkies wrappers discovered today in a malfunctioning heating vent.<\/p>\n
And you!\u00a0 Yes, you, in the pinstriped Armani suit. Pretend all you want to find it an imposition on your valuable time, but you are not fooling anyone.\u00a0 Even your five-year-old grandson realizes that nothing pleases you more than opening up a brand-new jumbo box of crayons, and then coloring half the pages in his Batman and other superhero coloring books.<\/p>\n
Some guilty pleasures are less benign than others.\u00a0 The Twinkies lover mentioned above might have been warned in the past that she is flirting with incipient diabetes.\u00a0 It would therefore behoove her to find an alternative guilty pleasure. (Bagpipe and square-dance lessons come immediately to mind; she just might savor these activities enough for them to qualify as her new guilty pleasures.)\u00a0 There is no reason whatsoever, though, for Gramps to turn in his crayons for fishing gear or golf clubs.\u00a0 The same could be said for the neurosurgeon who likes to unwind after a difficult procedure by reading a chapter or two of the latest Harlequin romance novel.\u00a0 If I were her patient, I would rather see an assortment of steamy reads on her desk than to note that her office bookshelf was crammed with first-year medical-school textbooks or tomes with titles such as\u00a0Brain Surgery for Dummies<\/i>. Why she would find it necessary to hide her particular guilty pleasure from prying eyes is something I simply would not understand.\u00a0 I am a fairly tolerant person; perhaps others are more judgmental, or more likely to poke fun.<\/p>\n
You might be somewhat amused to learn that Abraham Lincoln\u2019s guilty pleasure was to scarf down a plateful of gingersnaps.\u00a0 Yes, you read that correctly.\u00a0 Honest Abe\u2019s guilty pleasure was gingersnaps, the 19th<\/sup>-century equivalent of animal crackers.\u00a0 I heard somewhere recently that the world-renowned chef Anthony Bourdain\u2019s guilty pleasure is also food related.\u00a0 No surprise there, but the delectable item in question is macaroni and cheese, and\u00a0not<\/b>\u00a0of Bourdain\u2019s own creation.\u00a0 His favorite mac \u2018n\u2019 cheese dish comes from the kitchens of Kentucky Fried Chicken.\u00a0 (Go figure.)\u00a0 Jessica Simpson\u2019s guilty pleasure is Nicorette gum, but she claims to be a nonsmoker. She says she just likes the taste of this quit-smoking aid.\u00a0 (I\u2019m sorry, but Simpson\u2019s is a guilty pleasure which I cannot help but compare to that of a guy who claims that\u00a0his<\/i>\u00a0guilty pleasure is to re-read back issues of\u00a0Playboy<\/i>\u00a0magazine because they contain such thought-provoking articles.)<\/p>\n One woman I know confesses that doing laundry is her guilty pleasure. She fully realizes that she is supposed to grumble and groan about pairing endless socks, folding her husband\u2019s tee shirts, and sorting the underwear of her four children into tidy stacks. To the contrary, she finds a soothing comfort in handling the warm cotton fabrics as she pulls them from the dryer.\u00a0 Her house could go un-vacuumed and undusted for a month, but her family members sport the cleanest, least wrinkled clothes in town.\u00a0 Best of all, one of her husband\u2019s guilty pleasures complements her own.\u00a0 After the kids clear the dinner table, Dad washes and dries the dishes, glassware, flatware, pots, and pans by hand, even though this couple has a dishwasher in perfect working order.\u00a0 I would call their marriage a proverbial match made in heaven, wouldn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n Many Americans will spill their secrets when asked, especially when they learn that others share their passion for watching \u201cHere Comes Honey Boo Boo,\u201d eating a breakfast consisting of peanut-butter-and-pickle sandwiches washed down with chocolate milk, or making semi-regular midnight runs to Dunkin\u2019 Donuts for a box of glazed Munchkins \u00a0\u00a0Some find the disclosure of their guilty pleasures difficult, but a word of caution here:\u00a0 Do not, even for one nanosecond, believe folks who adamantly deny having at least one guilty pleasure.\u00a0 Such people are not to be trusted.\u00a0 For your own good, you should not encourage their friendship.\u00a0 Oh, and one last bit of advice:\u00a0 Do\u00a0not<\/b>, under any circumstances, invite self-proclaimed guilty-pleasureless individuals to attend the spring concert of your adult-ed musical ensemble.\u00a0 Their snorts and snickers will echo unpleasantly throughout the auditorium when they discover that it is\u00a0you<\/b>\u00a0who has the tuba solo.<\/p>\n This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.<\/span>” mce_’ + path + ‘\\” + prefix + ‘:’ + addy2723 + ‘\\’>’+addy_text2723+'<\\\/a>’; \/\/–><\/p>\n Follow us on Twitter – @DigiPrintNews<\/p>\n