Lots of us are weird in big, noticeable ways, that’s for sure. But I was looking the other day at a series of photographs of people’s fridges and I realized, you know what’s weird about me? In a small, barely noticeable way? I don’t have any beer in my fridge. I never do. In fact, I don’t really have any alcohol in the house of any kind. Maybe a bottle of Trader Joe’s white wine I used a cup of for cooking at one point. OK, I just looked and there’s a bottle of rum in the back of the cupboard. Who knows where it came from or how long it’s been there?
It’s not that I don’t drink; I do. But I don’t drink at home. For me, beer is for drinking at bars, or at parties. I would never sit and drink a beer and watch the ballgame, or drink a glass of wine with family dinner. But I think this is actually slightly weird and almost all people have beer in the fridge.
Reader survey: in what small way are you weird?
(Note: this would make an excellent question for OKCathy!)
Quomodocumque 
I too never have beer in my fridge.
I don’t like fiction, but more specifically, unlike all my science friends, I don’t like science fiction — never seen a single Star Trek or Star Wars movie nor have any interest in them (“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” is the one exception; a film I did like).
I hate fashion. I daydream of a world where everyone wears snuggies and muumuus 24/7.
1) Maybe this isn’t a small way now, but I still don’t have a cell phone.
2) I don’t read books (of whatever kind) from beginning to end. Rather I tend to skip around, the way one might skip around a math book if you were looking for a couple theorems and some idea of their context. If it’s a good book, I’ll eventually read all of it, including the boring parts. Yes I agree a work of fiction is an ordered medium, unlike a painting, but I prefer to appreciate the order the way a Trafalmadorian would. (I wonder if this has anything to do with my musical training. Music is even more an ordered medium, but a classical musician has to concentrate on various details somewhat outside their context in order to get them right.)
I never have beer in my fridge. But I would hesitate to admit how many bottles of wine there usually are.
I do have a cell phone (the cheapest available), but I have yet to understand why anybody would want a smart phone.
My Pandora stations consist of classical music, classic rock, dubstep, and gangster rap.
This thread reminds me of the cocktail game from “Changing Places” that escalates until one English professor admits he never read Hamlet, promptly losing his job. Having said that, I just drank the last beer in my fridge. So, for the moment, I too have no beer in the fridge (a temporary oddity).
Like Mark, I too have a dumbphone, but unlike Mark I understand why some people want a smart phone. For instance, it helps distract them from being educated in class.
I bite my fingernails. Sure, lots of people bite their fingernails. Disgusting habit, I know.
I also bite my toenails.
(Not out in public or anything.)
@Mark Meckes
>but I have yet to understand why anybody would want a smart phone.
I suspect you are not lacking in imagination but that you just wrote that as a provocation.
Here are multiple reasons why I like my smart phone.
Email, web, games, books, etc. Sometimes I find myself stuck at a place with nothing to do (e.g. the waiting room at the dentist’s, at a crappy lecture, right Keith?). I can choose to catch up with email or entertain myself. BTW re: books. I now almost exclusively read on my phone, no paper books or kindle.
Maps. Many times I’ve used maps to get directions, find a restaurant, coffee shop, etc in an unfamiliar city.
I have an app to remind myself of which floor of the parking garage I parked my car.
Camera. Besides the obvious, I take pictures of information that I want to remember. Easier than taking notes. Also I can email a picture straight from the phone if I need to share it.
Flashlight. Handy sometimes.
Calculator. I even have Pari/GP on my phone and have used it a bunch of times, even while teaching.
Weather app, Calendar app, immediate access to information.
I’ve searched for reviews online while buying electronics and comparing models.
Airline apps. I have gate, arrival, departure info right away for me or if I am picking someone up at the airport. I can check in and have the boarding pass on the phone. That, coupled with TSA pre-check means I can head straight to the gate.
I have an app that displays a big digital clock and silences the phone. I always have it running when I lecture and I no longer wear a watch.
Did you know you can point your phone’s camera to a piece of text in a foreign language and have it translate it for you?
Felipe, since I don’t have a smartphone I resort to doodling (if not working on something) during a dull lecture. Those art lessons in childhood continue to pay off.
I can’t watch drama, unless it’s extremely artsy. Lost, House of Cards, Game of Thrones, Scandal, Mad Men… zero entertainment value for me. But I’ve watched near-literally every dramedy and comedy on television.
I guess one of the big ways you are wierd is that you enjoy looking at photos of people’s fridges?
For about 20 years, I never owned a pair of jeans. I bought some a few years ago, and I think I’ve worn them twice. I have no idea how they could be comfortable.
Not weird at all if one comes an Islamic background; I remember how weird I felt when I saw fridges with beer in – and I thought – Oh, I thought they only did that in movies…
I don’t have alcohol in my house, but then I don’t drink it.
I suppose I am odd in many small ways, but what else are a few small private oddities for but for keeping private?
The standard source of weird quirks (iamneurotic.com) was rather popular in 2008, but is fairly dormant now. The archive page is much easier to browse than the main site.
I time the national anthem every time I hear it – I started in high school after reading one of John Feinstein’s books where he talked about someone doing the same – when I was an undergrad at UW, I had a spreadsheet with the times for all of the football/basketball/other sporting events that I attended (pretty much every home game in the early 90s).