What's Op Op, Part 2

(Part 2 of trying to explain the title of this blog. With more to come.)

So, yeah, it’s an attitude. “Opulent opossum” is an oxymoron, and it describes so much of life. There can be such richness and luxury, exquisite gourmet extravagances, while at the same time we plod along in our mundane, unexciting little ruts. Or, to put it another way: Sometimes the things that we think are boring, the same ol’ same ol’, can actually be a wellspring of luxury.

Take, for example, the humble billy goat cookie. I held up on eating the last one we had left over from Christmas, a cookie made by my mother, a cookie just like all the other lumpy brown billy goat cookies she’s made every year for at least four decades, and which her mom no doubt made all the years she was able to.

Billy goats aren’t hard to make, though they take some attention to detail. They’re not exactly “pretty” cookies, either. But man, do they taste good! The flavors of dates, black walnuts, and spices harmonize as well as the flavors in any high-class European pastry.

You can’t buy these in stores; they only come from Mom. And because we have them only once a year, because we associate them with Mom, and with her mom, they become important beyond description. . . . That’s opulence, man.