Most people are aware that kryptonite is the thing that takes away Superman and Supergirl's powers. Unfortunately, we common folk do not possess super powers so the question is more rhetorical than real. When someone asks me what my kryptonite is, my response is "cookies". Yes - it is true - the common cookie is my kryptonite - beginning with the the shortbread cookie followed by the more sophisticated oatmeal/raisin/cinnamon variety and the snickerdoodle. You may find it hard to believe but the infamous chocolate chip variety can be easily resisted by me just as the Oreo can. But show me a shortbread cookie or a snickerdoodle - especially when I already have a fresh cup of coffee at hand and my will power evaporates. The aforementioned oatmeal/raisin/cinnamon variety is best dunked in a glass of cold milk (my opinion, based upon 65+ years of research).
Kryptonite is really, then, a metaphor for the thing that makes you lose your resolve and renders you easily coerced. One might make the argument that Donald Trump is half of our population's kryptonite. Personally, I prefer cookies.
Musically my kryptonite is the sounds of the sixties and seventies. I do like some later stuff, and I am a fan of the Baroque period, but nothing compares to the decades listed - that stuff gets me every time I hear it.
I stumbled upon a list of celebrities who listed their kryptonite - are any of them the same as yours?
- Brandon Routh (Superman Returns): his girlfriend, Courtney Ford. “You bring me to my knees. You humble me,” he told her.
- Eva Mendes: Cheese – on a margarita pizza with crushed red pepper.
- Jorge Garcia (Lost): I’m scared to death of spiders. But I also like to sometimes touch a web with a stick to see if I can make the spider move, then I’ll run away screaming like a girl.
- Jesse McCartney: I’m a double-shot espresso kind of guy in the morning. I’m addicted.
- Loretta Devine (Grey’s Anatomy): Self-doubt takes your power from you. Anytime I start questioning myself or my abilities or I let fear get in the way is no good.
- Andy Samberg (Saturday Night Live):Real World marathons – especially since they started casting hot people that have sex all the time.
- Kelis: Humidity and rain because it totally ruins my hair. Humidity and rain are evil.
Other things that can be someones kryptonite include overconfidence, arrogance, certain foods (hmm - fried chicken anyone?), biscuits and gravy for folks from the southern United States. I suspect most of us had a kryptonite in school - mine was calculus. One of the great things about being human is wE are flawed. IMHO, that keeps life interesting and gives us myriad things to talk about.
Kryptonite in sports? In football my kryptonite was a guy named Ed Galigher - a guy I was friends with since our little league days. If Ed and I went one-on-one a hundred times, he beat me ninety times, was sick five times and got really pissed at me the five times I beat him. I console myself with the knowledge that Ed played in the NFL for seven years. I had one in wrestling too - I guy named Bill Currier. I beat him the first time we met, he beat me the next three times. Bill and I also became good friends so kryptonite can at times be not all bad. Older baseball fans and may recognize that Willie McCovey was the great Don Drysdale's kryptonite. Any Giants or Dodger fan in the sixties will recognize that fact.
That is my quick take on this week's topic. See ya next week for another 2-on-1 blog.
As I had expected you have been more elaborate than I. After having posted my take before reading yours, I feel like kicking myself for not having been more elaborate. Perhaps for this exercise, you have been my kryptonite!
ReplyDeleteLOL - you are much smarter than I so I will take that as one for me LOLLOL as us8al you are a good sport about such things.
DeleteAs I mentioned to Ramana, I think we may acquire a variety of kryptonites beginning when we're children, but we gradually eliminate or lessen them as we mature -- unless we don't listen, learn and evolve.
ReplyDeleteI agree Joared -I just wanted something actually klearned in my youth that had meaning these days
DeleteOff topic — I just cked your ‘19 year-end review and see as I started to surmise, during the extended time last year when I was taking a blogging break, you have returned to Calif. Hope all is going much better for you and will continue to do so.
DeleteThanks - things are going well, i hope I can manage to stay
DeleteA surprisingly difficult subject.
ReplyDeleteOver at Ramana's I likened Kryptonite to the metaphorical Achilles Heel. Maybe wrongly. Kryptonite appears to be a power taken away from you, whereas an Achilles is, well, an Achilles Heel. Not imposed on you. It just is. Maybe same difference. You tell me.
So, unlike you (and possibly Joared) I do not see an Achilles Heel as "a metaphor for the thing that makes you lose your resolve and renders you easily coerced".
An Achilles Heel is the very thing you have no, not even little, control over. It is what it is. Waiting to be pierced. Or, with a bit of luck, not.
U
Achilles heel works too U - they are basing that efinition off a comic book character so anything that causes you a problem is kryptonite in my book - basically a fun way to look at issues is all
DeleteOh my god, Shackman. I am beginning to get it. If Kryptonite means, as you say, "anything that causes you a problem", well, now we are talking. Dear oh dear, holy shit.
DeleteU
I miss your "same bat **** same bat channel!" Shack.
ReplyDeleteare you not as batty now that you've moved back to the area of your old stomping grounds? :D
my kryptonite is salt. as I mentioned to Rummy.
but as I get older and older... I may someday decide... "what the heck!" and I'll eat all the salt I want. maybe there comes a time when one has to make that decision. xo
LOL - I still eat cookies so I get it
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