I think with the food question, it shouldn't encompass the physically-harmful dealbreaker. Because "peanuts can kill me" is different than "omg, that's so gross!"

My brother will eat anything. And in fact, likes to try new stuff. He ate dryroasted crickets and worms, even. ( Crunchy! ) I'm betting his wife hasn't tried something new in the past 20 years. He makes sure if they go out to eat, it is somewhere she can get something she'll eat and she refrains from telling him what he's eating is gross. Ok, she doesn't, but he likes baiting her, so it works for them.

Eldest nephew is like his dad, with extra bizarre choices. (Juice from canned olives? Canned carrots? Wha?)

Food is hard. DH likes things much spicier than I do, by quite a bit. So if he is cooking, sometimes the food is hotter than I like. But he has things he only likes cooked only one way. However, we have the same attitude towards food - good food well-prepared, equals bliss. And we will try/eat almost any cuisine out there.

I admire people that can get along despite wildly different food prefernces

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

OOh! Me! I have stated I don't think I could date a vegan. And there are a lot of lesbian vegans. I can (and have) date a vegetarian, especially if they're not too fussed about me cooking meat for myself while they have extra salad or whatever. But vegan is too hard. Even if they were an amazing cook and made dinner all the time, it would limit the restaurants we could go to, adn they wouldn't eat my cupcakes! Too sad.

Music and movies I see as different from reading since the first two might entail you participating, while reading is basically a solitary activity that wouldn't really affect the partner.

Food falls between the two. When I kept a vegetarian kitchen and was cooking for one of my exes, he (I later learned) would eat something out on his way over. That's just doesn't seem sustainable in the long run. Plus, it really pissed me off.

Of course, he was a big reader, and actually knew a lot about French history, which probably kept us together longer than we should have. It's hard to break up with someone that actually wants to hear about your dissertation.

my dexh used to eat these dried shrimp thingies that smelled incredibly strong. We finally agreed that he would only eat them when I wasn't home and keep them tightly sealed when not in use. If he'd insisted of eating them when I was in smelling range... well we're divorced now anyway.

I deeply love music and I would only break up with someone who judged the music I listened to. You can take your snobbery and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Yeah, I stopped bothering to hate other peoples' music somewhere in my twenties.

If we can't stand listening to things the other likes? Well, that's why God made headphones.

I was packing books, recently, and was alarmed by the amount of crap books I read. I have a whole shelf loaded with crappy horror, which is one of my faves.

I think I'd not date someone too into Palahniuk and Bukowski. And by "too" I mean quoting during dinner.

Music and movies I see as different from reading since the first two might entail you participating, while reading is basically a solitary activity that wouldn't really affect the partner.

Exactly -- which is why I wouldn't really bother getting worked up about someone else's taste in reading. But I can see a general ignorance of widely used cultural references being an issue, just because it points (to me) to a general lack of interest in the world.

Ooh look! Another doomsday cult:

A priest specialising in apocalyptic literature has been brought in to persuade members of a doomsday cult to leave a cave in Russia.

The 28 cult members barricaded themselves in the cave 750km (450 miles) south-east of Moscow in October.

The priest, an expert in the Book of Revelations, has spoken to them through a ventilation shaft.

On Saturday, several members of the cult, who believe the world will end in May, came out of the cave.

They left their refuge in the Penza region after part of the roof collapsed.

The seven women were allowed to leave with cult leader Pyotr Kuznetsov after he was brought to the scene to negotiate.

...

Up until now, the cult members have strongly resisted attempts to force them out.

They threatened to detonate gas canisters if attempts were made to remove them and last week reportedly shot at police to drive them off.

However, there are reports of a split in the cult after a number of cave-ins due to prolonged rainfall. There are fears the cave could collapse completely.

[link]

I deeply love music and I would only break up with someone who judged the music I listened to.

Kristen is me. I gently mock my mother for listening to Kenny G, but I would cut a bitch if anyone looked down their nose at her for doing so.