These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

Being a brief list of things which fill me with child-like glee out of all proportion to their real significance.

pockets
I am all about the pockets - as far I'm concerned you can't have enough of them. All jackets must have an inside pocket, preferably two. Cargo pants or shorts rock by virtue of having up to six (six!) pockets in which to store various items. My current favorite pocket? The extra pocket-within-a-pocket that certain men's pants have on the right hand side. No doubt meant for spare change, I find my cell phone fits in it perfectly, and I derive great satisfaction from that.

pocket knives
A logical progression, and like pockets, can you really have enough of them? Seriously now, I find you need one for your actual pockets, perhaps one or two more for the home (variety is good here - a buck knife and a Swiss army knife compliment each other nicely) and one for the glove box in the car. You never know when you're going to need to sharpen a pencil or slice open a package.

slang
Or maybe I should say jargon? Whatever, I delight in learning terminology specifically related to a certain things. It's almost like learning a new language, or least a dialect of one, along with the delight of feeling like you possess a sort of philosopher's stone of language that 'others' don't. Plus it sounds cool. Turning over your hole cards and saying 'aces wired' is much more fun than saying 'a pair of aces.' I'm sure much of my current fascination with poker derives in part from the large lexicon accompanying the game.

unusual words
This is a little different than the joy of slang. Every now and then I come across a unique and distinctive word that just lodges in my head. Once there, I feel obliged to pull it out, roll it around, consider it from various angles, and randomly insert it into conversations. The word figgy-dowdy, for example, captivated me for quite some time. Various acquaintances were tortured by my use of this word: 'I could really for some figgy-dowdy right now' or 'Do you think they serve figgy-dowdy here?' What a fun word - try it at home!

the doubleplay
I love baseball. I love the doubleplay. I love the combination of urgency and grace inherent in the doubleplay. The doubleplay is like sex - even when it's merely ok it's still pretty damn good.