International Cheese Display

"The French say 'fromage,' the Spanish say 'queso,' I just say YES!"

This is my first post in what is apparently a pop culture phenomenon amongst young people. Personally I'm not really one for fads (I don't want to do MySpace and it took a lot of persuading for me to join Facebook), but out of sheer desperation I must have some sort of outlet for what's going on in my head. To make a long story as succinct as possible: I recently finished graduate school, I'm unemployed, living with my parents, and frantically trying to find a job in a shitty economy. So... I've decided that I will start a blog about things I adore and things I abhor. And possibly I'll throw in something that strikes me as particularly humorous. My first post will explain why I've named my blog International Cheese Display. Primarily it is because I love cheese more than an individual rightly should, but also it is the first in my archive of things I adore.

This Thanksgiving my cousin came to visit in the evening after he had gone to a very fancy Thanksgiving Day Buffet at the Marriott. Chic. He brought along the menu so we plebians could peruse the offerings of such a lavish spread. While he explained some of the finer delicacies and said he was far to interested in the "real food" to bother with the fresh fruit trays I spotted something that made my heart skip a beat.

"Wait...does this really say International Cheese Display?" I asked, waiting with baited breath.

He then confirmed that yes indeed there had been an entire table of cheeses from around the world. I truly don't know when I started to love cheese so much or exactly why, all I know is that friends who stupidly decide to stand in front of a cheese platter at parties have nearly been stabbed to death by those multicolored, plastic party skewers that are made to resemble swords. In all honesty, a cheese tray does not need to be international in nature for me to love it. I'm perfectly happy with those grocery store platters that carry the classic four: cheddar, colby-jack, pepper jack, and swiss. For that matter I'm also satisfied by a can of low brow spray cheese, as long as I'm given some means of eating it (cracker, cardboard, finger).

All I can say is that a party host/hostess gets my thumbs up if they supply cheese at their party, and a double thumbs up if there is more than one kind. I truly hope that one day I will get to feast my eyes upon a landscape of international cheeses...and that I will be able to stop myself from knocking over that display while in a cheese-induced intoxication.