Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

Guilty Pleasures.

From time to time it's fun to list one's guilty pleasures. These are things that we like, even though we know that we shouldn't; things that we indulge in from time to time, knowing that other people will look on with dropped jaws and say, "Why on Earth are you doing that?" Here are a few of mine.

(A quick note: By my definition of "guilty pleasure", I do not include The Phantom Menace. That's because a guilty pleasure is something we like even though we know it's bad. That doesn't apply here: despite the fact that most of the world considers Phantom to be a bad movie, I do not. I don't like it in spite of knowing that it's bad; I like it because I genuinely believe it's good.)

:: Ramen noodles. I've almost been out of college for ten years, so why am I still eating these? Not out of any sense of thrift (although you can't beat eight-for-a-buck). No, I actually like them. It's probably one of those food-as-memory things, because I was actually eating Ramen noodles way back when I was a kid. My father liked to eat them with a piece of rye-crisp on which he'd spread a bit of butter; you dip the buttered rye-crisp into the broth before eating. Great stuff, that. I don't eat Ramen noodles very often -- their sodium content is staggering -- but I always keep a few packages around. (And there are some nifty flavors now, like "Chicken Picante". No, it doesn't taste particularly like chicken, but at least it's something other than beef, pork or Oriental.)

:: Clint Eastwood's "Philo Beddoe" movies, Every Which Way But Loose and Any Which Way You Can. How in the world did anyone conceive of these two movies? A truck-driver who is also a bare-knuckle boxer; his two best friends, one of whom is an orangutan; a beautiful country-western singer who is on the run from her abusive husband; Ruth Gordon as the foul-mouthed mother; an incompetent motorcycle gang; many a bar-room brawl; bittersweet love affairs; loads of country music. There is really no way to describe these movies in such a way that they don't sound absurd. But damn, they're fun.

:: Independence Day. I've never in my life seen a film with more plot-holes and implausibilities than this (well, except Armageddon). And yet, the thing has such a sense of goofy fun that I still have a good time every time I watch it.

:: Buffalo-style chicken wings. 'Nuff said, I think. I doubt there's a single food that is less healthy than these...or more perfect.

More another time....