In my weekly column at the DG, I ponder why we complain so much about the things that we love.

Here's an excerpt: 

"Every year I look forward to the Oscar nominations, and this year was no exception.

By 8:45 a.m., I had reviewed the list of nominees and made a list of films to see before the ceremony. And by 10 a.m., I was complaining — moaning and groaning about the number of films on my list (too many, in my opinion), as well as the overall quality of the nominees. There are usually one or two fi lms I don’t want to see but end up watching anyway because they’re up for awards in major categories. This year there are at least five fi lms that fit this description, which really annoys me.

I emailed my friend Hanna, who is also an Oscar junkie, and grumbled about how much I don’t want to see 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' or 'The Iron Lady.' In response, she sent me an email lamenting the fact that she now has to watch 'The Help' and 'My Week With Marilyn.'

We continued on in this vein for a bit, ripping the list of nominees to shreds and whining about snubs — the movies, films and actors we believed were unjustly overlooked. At some point it occurred to me that, considering how much Hanna and I both profess to love the Oscars, we were sure doing a lot of complaining. In fact, one could have been forgiven for thinking that we hated the Oscars with a passion, and would like nothing better than to see the Academy Awards disappear forever from the nation’s collective consciousness."

Click here to read the whole thing.