Oprah and Jen

So, I was babysitting the other night. NYC babysitting = tons of money for sitting on someone's couch eating their food and watching TV. Which is how babysitting is everywhere, I guess, without the beaucoup bucks. Yes, I did just use the term beaucoup bucks, but let's move on.
I hadn't sat for these people in a while and so was pleasantly surprised to see that they had gotten some sort of TiVo contraption since the last time I'd been there. I figured out how to see the list of shows they taped, and immediately went for the Oprah. It was an interview with Jennifer Aniston, (and also there was something about puppies? but that might have been a different episode) and so I just had to go for it. See, Miriam usually gives me my daily Oprah summary, especially if it's something she thinks I need to know, and luckily for me this particular episode was one which Miriam had already told me all about. So partly I watched to see how accurate Miriam's Oprah summaries really are, and partly I watched to see the pain in Jennifer's eyes. Which was there, and made me cry, because who hasn't had their heart broken?? But I digress.

So Oprah's interviewing Jennifer and she's asking her about coping, and dating, and blah blah blah and then Oprah gets to the really tough, hard-hitting, nail-biting questions:

O: What's your favorite time of day?
J: Sunset.

O: What's your favorite pig-out food?
J: Mexican

Now, I honestly didn't realize when watching this interview how much it would come to disturb me over the next few days. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Let me try and break down why that is exactly.

1. Do we really live in a world where SOMEONE cares what SOMEONE ELSE'S favorite time of day is? Not someone you're in love with, or answering a fourth-grade questionnaire about entitled "My Hero". No, a totally random person who happens to act and the world (because you know THE WORLD watches Oprah) needs to know her favorite time of day???

2. Jennifer answered "sunset" without batting an eye! If someone asked me what my favorite time of day was, I'd have to think about it , at least for a second! And I'd probably make some sort of exclamations about what an excellent question that was. When we came back from the fair on Saturday and Elizabeth's brother asked what my favorite part of the fair was, I couldn't believe what a great question that was! And you can damn well be sure that I thought long and hard before answering a question like that. So what we are to understand from this exchange is that Jennifer was asked to prepare an answer for this question well in advance of the interview. Somebody faxed or emailed Jen a list of questions and she was readied to answer WHAT HER FAVORITE TIME OF DAY AND FAVORITE PIG-OUT FOOD ARE.

Does that not disturb you? So all weekend I tortured poor Miriam and Elizabeth by asking them OVER AND OVER, "what's your favorite time of day?" And they, bless their hearts, never failed to answer "sunset".