My favourite things #2 olives

There are of course two schools of thought. Try to convince everyone of the brilliance of olives or conversely try to deliberately put them off. Pros and cons to both approaches.

The first approach is obviously more altruistic, sharing the good things with others, getting them beyond that difficult adoption phase which inevitably leads to adoration. In general, it is in my nature to try hard to convince people of olives, and for that matter many different things, music, films, places to go etc.

The second approach I guess could be considered to be likewise helping others, after all maybe people will never like olives, maybe they will find them revolting and stay in the adoption phase for years. The second approach however is more commonly applied when quite simply, you want all the olives for yourself.

So at a party, you can easily picture the scenario.

'I'm not sure you would like them / oh they take a bit of getting used to / they can provoke severe diarrhoea / I only eat them because my doctor says it helps my bowel movements (delete as appropriate), let me finish the bowl / I can easily have them off your pizza / are there any more in the fridge?'

So are they any good? No they're pretty foul. All I will say is that child #2 who had been eating green olives since she was 2 was reluctant to move onto the black ones.

'If you eat four, you will help yourself to the fifth.' I said, which she did and we have been using olives as a bargaining tool ever since.

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