Your Favoritest Thing: A Poll
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on January 23, 2012 – 7:13 AM72 Comments
Dave Dickerson and I want to know which of Maria’s favorite things is your favorite. We may or may not have a dollar bet on how various favorite things finish in this extremely scientific accounting of their popularity; in order for us to reveal our predictions, however, y’all need to vote.
Update 1/23/12: The poll has closed; you can see the results after the jump. DD’s and my aim was to identify the LEAST favorite of the favorite things, and the internet has spoken…about its apathy towards doorbells. Thanks for voting!
Of Maria's favorite things from "The Sound of Music," which is YOUR favoritest? You may vote for only one.
- Whiskers on kittens (27%, 455 Votes)
- Crisp apple strudels (18%, 298 Votes)
- Brown paper packages tied up with strings (15%, 257 Votes)
- Silver-white winters that melt into springs (9%, 151 Votes)
- Warm woolen mittens (7%, 117 Votes)
- Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes (7%, 110 Votes)
- Schnitzel with noodles (5%, 76 Votes)
- Cream-colored ponies (4%, 60 Votes)
- Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings (2%, 42 Votes)
- Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes (2%, 39 Votes)
- Bright copper kettles (2%, 34 Votes)
- Raindrops on roses (2%, 29 Votes)
- Sleigh bells (1%, 9 Votes)
- Doorbells (0%, 4 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,681
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Tags: David Ellis Dickerson friends just wondering shut up musicals
Great idea. Bet booze, not bucks. Also, thank you for your beautiful writing and sharing your life with us.
That was a tough choice! I was torn between the whiskers and the brown paper packages. It turns out that I like anticipation even more than kitten whiskers! (Probably because the whiskers are the second least-awesome attribute of the kitten, after the needle claws.)
“My Favorite Things are [sic] playing again and again
But it’s by Julie Andrews and not by John Coltrane
Endless balmy breezes and perfect sunsets framed
Vintage wine for breakfast and naked starlets floating in champagne
All the passions of your youth, now tranquilized and tame
You may think it looks familiar
Or you may know it by another name…”
Elvis Costello, ‘This is Hell’
What if what I really like is when the dog bites, or the bee stings? I’m a very perverse person, you know.
We will do a separate poll for those. I’m probably voting dog bite but I don’t want to tell anyone how to live.
Dude, I was SO tempted to vote “Doorbells”, just because.
Well, right now we’re learning that in this Tomato Nation, fans of sweet things (“crisp apple strudels”) outnumber fans of salty things (“schnitzel with noodles”) about three to one.
(Schnitzel all the way, with, yes, “brown paper packages” in my personal second place.)
Kitten whiskers? Really?? You cat people.
@Valerie: Darn tootin’, us cat people! Name another thing on this list that lets the bearer KNOW if he’s too fat to get through a doorway, BEFORE he goes through that doorway!
Apple strudel is way better than kitten whiskers. I was torn between that and the schnitzel. Gotta go with the food options.
I went with snowflakes. I think mostly because it (them staying put on eyelashes) is such a rare occurrence, it sorta feels like luck, or magic.
I’ve never had a tender schnitzel. Otherwise, I’d vote that right up. Further, I don’t think ‘crisp’ is a good attribute for strudel; flaky, syrupy? That’s the way to go.
I’m clearly giving the whole list more thought than Hammerstein did, I bet,
Warm woolen mittens, because in Canada (or Austria? I don’t know) anything else is just foolish. Kittens are lovely and all, but their whiskers do precious little to keep away the frostbite.
I briefly considered the melt-into-springs bit, but that entire melting season smells like poo.
The answer is always apple strudel.
Second place is a close race between brown paper packages tied up with strings and silver-white winters that melt into springs. The latter is out of longing, since I live in New England and we just get brown winters that sort of stay persistently slushy into April.
I’m with Julie. Vote food.
I went with the packages, mainly because schnitzel should go with spaetzle, not mere noodles.
I wish heartily that we had been able to choose three, much like the read along polls. :)
I was torn between the whiskers, the brown paper packages tied up with string, and the warm woolen mittens, but in the end I went with schnitzel and noodles because a) it doesn’t get nearly enough love and b) that’s what I want for dinner tonight.
I went with Girls In White Dresses With Blue Satin Sashes because for whatever weird reason it conjures up very specific Christmas-y images for me and I appreciate a well-deployed accessory.
I’m not even a cat person; in fact, I’m allergic and more sympathetic to the dumber, more loyal class of furball… but come on. Kittens. Little whiskers! Gyawww D’awww! Who can resist?!
I’m with Valerie. I expected the Apple Strudel. I always expect the strudel. But Kitten Whiskers, completely blindsided me. I always forget people like cats.
Apple strudel? Eh. If it had involved chocolate, that would have given whiskers a run for their money for my vote.
I love wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings, but that vision is obscured by Canada geese that winter over and poop all over the walk along the Schuylkill river, so again, whiskers.
Packages were third…
But ponies are so cute, y’all. PONIES! Do a google image search of ponies and try not to smile.
I’m sorry to see that raindrops on roses aren’t getting more love, because I totally would have voted for this if kitten whiskers hadn’t been on the list. Roses in your yard that are all fresh and cool with raindrops on them = AWESOME.
We’re assuming this strudel has no raisins, yes? Because if it does have raisins, my vote will be changed.
@Georgia: Ew, mine too.
Whiskers on kittens FTW! Not surprising with this crowd…
I’m wondering if the results would be different if the poll widget had randomized the order of the choices.
Good question. Don’t know how much difference it would have made in the fortunes of the unloved doorbell, though.
Hah, even as a kid I never got the inclusion of “doorbells” as one of Maria’s favorite things. I would think that hearing the doorbell in pre-Nazi takeover Austria might be a little nerve wracking actually. Then again, I’m not sure the Nazis followed common rules of courtesy by ringing the doorbell before invading.
What about crisp apple strudels (WITHOUT RAISINS) enjoyed with girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes?
I don’t need a doorbell. I have a dog. With whiskers, no less, so there.
Ponies. CREAM COLORED PONIES. I will compel the girls in white dresses to lead them around and feed them schnitzel.
I was in a production of Sound Of Music when I was nine. I was Louisa, the naughty child who puts toads in beds. Hey, she dressed me in curtains!
@attica: The apple strudel has a lovely crisp, flaky crust, then it’s filled with delicious soft filling…struuuuuuuddddeeeeeellllll……
Everyone wants a PONY!
And to the best of my recollection, I’ve never had schnitzel, so I couldn’t choose it as an option – I’ve no idea what it tastes like.
@Grace, I believe schnitzel refers to the preparation — it’s basically an escalope (i.e., pounded flat), so it could really be anything. Wiener, chicken, etc.
It’s definitely meat, so I haven’t had it in a decade, but I’m dying for someone to come up with a soy version and name it “ersatzel.”
I figured, considering the audience, kittens would win, but I am really surprised with strudel taking over brown paper packages! I mean, you know what you are getting with the strudel. But a package! There could be strudel IN the package! The possibilities are endless!
I’m with Nic. The brown paper package COULD contain any or all of the other things on the list! Well, I guess maybe not a girl in a white dress…that would be pretty creepy.
“What’s in the box?!”
oooh, that was tough to choose between roses, kittens, kettles and mittens.
Vote: Strudel.
Logic: On a diet DESSERTS NOM NOM
Also: what are those three kids looking at to the left of the still Sars posted? Kurt (or is it Friedrich?) especially seems disturbed by something he sees offscreen. Could it be the schnitzel?
@Brian: I don’t see Nazis on hostile business as big doorbell-ringers, no. The “We’re on your front porch” signal, if any, would be knocking. Not the dainty rap with the knuckles, either; the heavy pound with the side of the fist. Maybe that’s WHY doorbells make the hit list. “I have company, and it’s probably NOT Nazis.”
Of course, to me, the doorbell usually mean someone selling something, a needy neighbor, a local political candidate or the flunkies of same, a holy roller…but once in a while, it might be the delivery of a brown paper package.
Sars, I think your results maybe skewed because of all the feline lovers in your readership.
I went for bright copper kettles because they’re so pretty, although I do also love schnitzel (without noodles) and strudel (with or without raisins). Actually I’ve eaten strudel outside the church in Mondsee where the wedding was filmed.
Anyone else trying to sing the song according to poll order? Just me? Ok then.
I went with kettles, too. I guess this was way weirder than I thought it was going to be. I find apple desserts sort of insipid and boring, most of the time; the good part of schnitzel with noodles is the noodles; and the kittens didn’t even register. Brown paper packages came in very close, but ultimately, copper is pretty and makes me feel like I’m in a Martha Stewart Homes feature and a kettle means hot tea is on the horizon. Packages can have disappointing things in them, too.
@ Krissarissa- Nope, not just you.
I want the copper kettles…so I can *cook* food. And look at the pretties!
I’m hoping the two lonely souls who voted for the doorbell will pipe up and ‘splain why, because I totally never got that one.
Brown paper packages FTW! I love getting snail mail! One of my New Year’s Resolutions last year was to send more snail mail (in the hopes of receiving more of it) and I didn’t do very well with it. I think I’ll be bringing it back for 2012.
Look, kittens are great, but the whiskers are pretty far down on the list of Cute Kitten Things.
Then again, I’m not sure the Nazis followed common rules of courtesy by ringing the doorbell before invading.
Maybe that’s WHY doorbells make the hit list. “I have company, and it’s probably NOT Nazis.”
Brian and Todd K, providing the two most recent reasons for why I love the Nation so.
Me? Schnitzel, baby!
Those of you who voted for anything but ponies are nuts. See: http://cuteoverload.com/2006/04/01/omg_ponies/