Or... if you'd break up with someone that ate food you disliked?

We have had several firm discussions about the amount of pepper that is acceptable to put in food.

The Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream that looks like regular chocolate chip (it isn't dyed green) at 3 a.m. led to a....strident discussion.

I wonder if people who deeply love music would break up with someone who listened to music they hated?

I let DH have his Paul Simon and he lets me have my Oingo Boingo. But I'm not sure either of us is really a music-lover when it comes down to it.

Food...that's trickier. I'm not sure I would last long in a relationship with a cilantro-hater, because where would we go out to eat? What would I cook for them?

When it comes to food, I think people are more likely to break up with me than I with them... I'm not really sure a vegan would ever want to be with me as I'm a total meat-arian.

I am sure there are people who would never date a vegan, and people who would never date carnivores.

I know someone that said that ketchup on scrambled eggs was a dealbreaker.

Pro or con?

Flea, I think I could date a vegan, but it would have to be a certain type of vegan -- one accepting enough of my non-vegan ways. I'm pretty laissez-faire so if you want to eat baked products that use no dairy, more power to you. As long as you don't force your oat-cake on me.

I would be hard-pressed to find someone who read more lowbrow stuff than I do, so.

In other words, if you set out to write trashy entertainment that makes people forget their troubles for a while, people have less room to turn up their noses if you succeed in writing a highly entertaining trashy novel.

This sounds right to me. And is actually the same way I feel about a lot of music -- I like pop music that appeals to the masses, and basically believe that if millions of people like it, it's got to have something going for it.

I can't imagine a food that would be a deal-breaker.

Actually, I would probably have more of an issue with someone whose taste in movies wasn't compatible with mine, since I think of movies as something to do together. So if he only ever wanted to see obscure and depressing films, I would be bummed out.

Pro or con?

They were very anti-ketchup.

They were very anti-ketchup.

they're right - it keeps the Old Bay from making it to the eggs.

I think I'd draw the line at thinking the Left Behind books are the pinnacle of literature, but outside of that I'd like to think I'm open minded.

t points and nods

I read, on average, 120 books per year. DH reads about 10. Mine are about a 50-50 split between fiction and nonfiction; his are almost all nonfiction. I wish he read more, but it's hardly a deal-breaker. He's still intelligent and well-informed and interesting to talk to.

What would be a deal-breaker is if he thought my writing was trash just because it's genre fiction with happy endings. I work my ass off trying to improve my craft and be the best writer I can, and I couldn't stay in a relationship with someone who didn't respect one of my central driving passions.