Top 5 ways of starting a silly, pointless argument

Actually, all of the "Top 5 ways of starting a silly, pointless argument" are the same thing: "Best Of" or "Top 5 through 6 million" lists that newspapers, magazines, and blogs love to trot out for what I can only assume is an exercise in masochism. My personal favorite kind of list involves food, a category that is subjective to the point of absurdity. This is compounded further when these lists come up in big cities like New York or Chicago, cities that have literally thousands of restaurants and could conceivably have any number of restaurants taking the top spot in any culinary category. But even in smaller cities, like here in Madison, "Best Of" lists represent popularity, which is not necessarily indicative of quality, (the definition of quality itself can be argued endlessly.) I think it once again speaks to the power that opinion has on our society. Everybody has their favorite place to go for whatever, but why do people feel the need to get drawn into fits of pointless bickering about what are ultimately matters of personal taste?

More to come...tomorrow.

-Jay