A Listicle is what it sounds like—an article that has at its core, or heart, a list of things.
There are two types of Listicles in the world: fact-based, and opinion-based.
Fact-based Listicles can be things like “The 10 highest mountains in the world,” “The 12 longest rivers in the world,” “The 5 Most Populous States of the United States of Mexico,” “The 10 Most Popular Rambo Movies,” etc.
Opinion-based Listicles can be an enumeration of anybody’s opinions or pet peeves, such as, “The 10 Best Places to Walk Your Dog Other than Clint Eastwood’s Lawn,” “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” “The 100 Dumbest Congressmen of All Time,” “The 500 Best Polka-Punk Songs,” and so forth.
This Listicle is a Listicle of Listicles. It is the holy grail of Listicles, a somewhat mystical Listicle, if you will. Although it contains both fact-based and opinion-based Listicles, it itself is an opinion-based Listicle, as it is my opinion that these are the dozen most interesting Listicles.
On that note, and without further ado or adon’t, here they are (along with some random comments by moi):
What can I say? My favorite colors are purple—which is twice as likely to be a favorite of women—teal, sky blue, amber, and auburn.
My family (self, wife, children, parents, siblings) are not represented at all in this list. My brother Jon comes the closest (but no cigar, due to the missing “h” in his name (short form of Jonathan)).
I am a pie fanatic. In Mark Twain’s time, there was an expression, “I wouldn’t do that for pie!” which is equivalent to our modern saying, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars!” I would have been right at home, epoch-wise, back then. Of the ten listed here, though, there are only two that are among my favorites is #3 (Strawberry-Rhubarb) and #1 (Peach). I would definitely not choose pecan—way too sweet! Sickeningly sweet.
My pie faves are: Blackberry, Apple, Cherry, Strawberry-Rhubarb, Gooseberry, Banana Cream, Peach, Pumpkin, Mixed Berry, and . . . ? Maybe one I haven’t discovered yet.
My favorite football team (the Green Bay Packers) comes in at #5, the top spot for an “American football” team (in other words, not soccer, which most countries call football). The Dallas Cowboys, who claim they are “America’s team,” are below the Packers at #6.
The top three teams are Manchester United (football/soccer), New York Yankees (baseball), and Los Angeles Lakers (basketball). #4 is also a soccer/football team: Fake Madrid. I mean Real Madrid. But why do they call themselves that? Is it really necessary? Shouldn’t it be assumed that they are real?
I have to admit, though, that “football” actually is a better name for what we United Statesians call soccer. After all, those athletes perform their feats of sportliness mainly with their feet (since they can’t use their arms), right? “American football” is a little awkward to say; maybe it should’ve been named “prolate spheroid ball.” Then again . . . you see, it’s a bit of a conundrum. Touchdown ball? Nah. That’s why we can’t have nice names, I guess.
Note that these are bundled into categories; some have several entries; for example, the “On Truth” category has 4 entries:
My favorites on the list are Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs (how cool can you get?!?), Jessica by the Allman Brothers, and Wipeout by the Surfin’ Smurfs (that drum intro!).
This list omits a slew of instrumentals that I like more than most that made the cut, such as A Taste of Honey by Herb Alpert, Waterhole by The Outlaws, Long Hard Ride by the Marshall Tucker Band, Take 5 by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Begin the Beguine by Artie Shaw, lots of “songs” by J.S. Bach, and Uncle Jam by Ten Years After, just to name a few.
Pulitzer Prize Winners for Fiction
Years ago, I read at least the first 50 pages of all Pulitzer Prize fiction winners. If I wanted to, I continued on, but I gave them at least 50 pages. The one I was happiest to thrust aside after slogging through 50 pages of mental torture was Gone with the Wind. Among the works (and authors) I discovered by this process are Lonesome Dove (1986), A Confederacy of Dunces (1981), The Executioner’s Song (1980), The Killer Angels (1975), Angle of Repose (1972), The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1959), and Andersonville (1956).
Lonesome Dove and “Jaimie McPheeters” are special favorites. On finishing the former, I told my wife, “This would make a great miniseries!” And it did.
I had already read (and loved) To Kill a Mockingbird. In fact, I’ve read it several times in English and at least once each in German and Spanish—and watched the faithful-to-the-book-but-naturally-greatly-truncated movie multiple times. It was recently assessed the best novel of the last 125 years by readers of the New York Times, and I have no quarrel with that (after all, Twain’s “Tom Sawyer” is 146 years old, and “Huck Finn” is 137).
I had also already read and enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea (1953), The Caine Mutiny (1952), The Way West (1950), and Tales of the South Pacific (1948).
Pulitzer Prize Winners for Nonfiction
I also applied the 50-page process with nonfiction Pulitzer winners. Rather than bore you, though, I will simply note that I especially enjoyed the following winners: 1990, 1989, 1986, 1985 (Oral History of WW2 by Studs Terkel!), 1980, 1975, and 1966.
I see I’m going to have to catch up with the more recent winners. That 50-page project was about 30 years ago. I’m behind the times; but then again, I am, after all, the “Geezer-at-Large” here.
Most Popular Ethnic Cuisine in America
An interesting factoid is that tortillas have outsold hot dog buns in the United States since 2010. Chinese came in at #1 over Mexican, but Mexican actually is the favorite ethnic food in more States, as this chart from that site shows:
As far as the world goes, according to this page, Italian is the most popular food, then Chinese, then Japanese (what?!? raw fish?!? No thanks!).
Rolling Stone actually lists the top 500, but here are just their top 50.
For those that I have both heard and like on their list, Born to Run by Springsteen, What's Goin' On by Marvin Gaye, and A Change is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke are my favorites. I never understood why Purple Rain was popular—it’s almost as boring to me as The Eagles’ The Best of My Love (great band, terrible song).
On one of these types of lists, I saw Video Killed the Radio Star as the supposedly greatest song of all time. I had never heard it at the time (I'm pretty much stuck in the 70s—1970s, that is—music-wise, and haven’t listened much to the radio in decades). So, curious, I sought it out. My reaction? Meh.
Best Albums of All Time
Similarly, here are the top 50 that Rolling Stone chose.
The only ones I agree with (although, admittedly, I have not heard most of them) are Abbey Road and Rubber Soul by the Beatles, Innervisions by Stevie Wonder, Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix, Horses by Patti Smith, Tapestry by Carole King, Springsteen’s Born to Run, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (although their previous eponymous album was better), and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.
So many great albums were left off the top 50 that deserve to be there, such as Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, Greetings from Asbury Park, and Born in the USA; Against the Grain by Rory Gallagher; Seventh Sojourn by the Moody Blues; Machine Head by Deep Purple (by far their best album—they all hit their peak at the same time and fed off each other); Who’s Next by the Who; Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones; A Space in Time by Ten Years After; Drift Away by Dobie Gray; A Rock and Roll Alternative by The Atlanta Rhythm Section; One More From the Road by Lynyrd Skynyrd; Boston’s debut album; Desperado and On the Border by The Eagles, as well as their debut album (those were their first three albums—they got worse and worse as time went on); Sweetheart of the Rodeo by The Byrds. I could go on and on with albums by Jackson Browne, CCR, Grand Funk, Al Green, Louis Jordan, the Outlaws, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Dwight Yoakam, etc. etc. ad infinitum ad nauseum.
I don’t have too much of a beef with this list; my two favorites come in at #9 (Twain) and #19 (Steinbeck).
However, MIA is my third favorite, William Saroyan. I also think Robert Lewis Taylor, Wallace Stegner, Ring Lardner, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Bill Bryson (among others) should have been allotted a more prominent place.