Venus,

I thought more about it and came to the conclusion that you have a defect similar to mine. You have a defective sense of taste and I have a defect in music appreciation. The difference between us in that you do not recognize your defect and are even proud of it, while I know that I am defective. Look, Trippin posted her 11PM playlist. How many names did I recognize? One (!) - cranberries. I promptly left her thread. I have nothing to contribute to it. She is clearly superior to me and she can hear what I cannot and be happy with it. I did not write: "Trippin, you are obsessed with music, why do you distinguish between all those songs - some other people can just listen to any generic music". I know that she is gifted with something I do not have.

Nothing has ever helped me with music. That my aunt is a musician did not help. That I was taught how to play piano did not help. Later on I had two composers for lovers, one extra composer for a male friend, and a bunch of gfs who were pianists. I listened to them play, went to concerts with them... and nothing helped. My friend D likes to Skype me when it is about 3AM his time, drink his wine and listen to classical music and talk about it. For him listening to music with a friend is happiness. Last time it was Mozart. I was so bored that I positioned myself in such a way as to make my keystrokes invisible and started posting and responding to email. I like Mozart, but I cannot become immersed in his music for a long time. Back when I was mothering my girls, I would take them to several Nutcracker performances by different ballet companies in one season. I love ballet - both visually and aurally. But first of all visually. I loved the opening sounds of the Nutcracker to the point of crying once... but if you play them to me now, I might not recognize them. Despite having been to more than 10 (!) Nutcrackers performances in the Bay Area alone.

I do differentiate the sounds of human voice well and I care for the sound of male voice to an extreme: it is the main component of attraction to me, much more so than looks. Why so dumb when it comes to music and so discriminating when it comes to conversational male voice? God knows.

What seems an obsession with food to you is not only normal to me but desirable. I like that I can distinguish between Swedish and Finnish crackers even though they are similar. I distinguish between feta cheeses from different countries and I like this way. I definetely wouldn't want to live in a world where all apples are indistuinguishable. How boring, my god! I will exaggerate my analogy but it is almost like being color-blind. And you say that you can tell pears from apples - how, may I ask? By the shape or the taste? I would never want to become a person who cannot tell the fat content of milk by tasting it. I enjoy dairy from different animals: goat cheese and sheep's milk yogurt and sheep's milk cheese. Sheep's dairy is expensive so I do not eat much of it, but what I do I definitely enjoy and I am thankful that the world of dairy is not limited to cow's milk derivatives. I distinguish between different brands of olive oil. My nuts are ranked: walnuts are the best, then filberts (hazelnuts), then almonds, then pecans as so-so. I would not want to live in a world that just has generic nuts.

I am equally discriminating visually. I appreciate the many faces of Blacks and Asians - I do see infinite variety in them and if someone teaches me I would probably be able to tell what province a Chinese person is from by his or her looks.

But with sounds of music, I am just hopeless.

Whose defect is bigger? I think that mine is. If I could make a swap, I would give up my discriminating taste in food and drink in order to gain musical ear and a discriminating ability to appreciate music.

I even think that maybe your bisexuality was given to you as compensation for the "low resolution" (too few pixels?) in food taste. You have a wider range of sexual options and that makes up for the sensory defect in taste. Makes sense? Why not - it is well-known that blind people have a much more developed sense of touch than normal people.