After years and years sitting on the mountaintop of pop culture, looking down at her acolytes and bestowing upon them free trips to Australia, Oprah is finally beginning to show her age and also her distance from her fans. Around this time every year she releases a list of her favourite things that is less 'brown paper packages tied up with string' than it is 'spend $356 on a "Smart Sonic Cleansing Face Brush" that is obviously a vibrator' marketed for the vanilla viewers of her former day-time show. The list of absurd items goes on. They're either closet-space black holes like this "Lasagna Trio Pan"(what's wrong with one lasagna?), or they're prohibitively, even comically, expensive like this $42 half-bottle of tequila, or this $180, yes $180, tin of popcorn. Not to mention that five of the gifts are truffle-related. The only thing more ostentatious than truffles is caviar. Somehow, Oprah sees her list as a gift to all of us simple people who don't have time to think about $150 anitpasti party baskets:
Once upon a time, during the Oprah show days, I discovered some very comfy red-checkered flannel pajamas and some unbelievably cozy shearling-lined boots that kept my feet warm on even the most chilling Chicago days. I adored those pajamas. And those Uggs. I wanted everyone I knew to experience and adore them, too. So I bought them for everyone I worked with, which at the time was about 490 people.
When I ran out of people I knew, I wanted to keep sharing–with everyone who knew me. Thus the idea of Favorite Things.
A bold commenter had the courage to speak up against the giant that is Oprah, she said: "I'm so disappointed. I can't afford any of these. Unlike the past years she had some that was under 25$! I think i can buy the animal hat. I mean 180$ popcorn. Oprah. Oprah. Oprah. Thanks for making me feel worthless."