Stewart writes (and I agree):
>  I find the concept of the guilty pleasure needlessly self-restrictive, 
>  and that I think people should like what they like without fear of 
>  mockery.  I absolutely did not mean that as a personal attack.
> 
> See, my own take on the phrase is that calling something a guilty 
> pleasure implies that I'm ashamed to admit I like something, and so it 
> comes across as needlessly defensive.

It sometimes does seem to end up that way, when people chime in
with comments of their own, backing up someone else's "guilty
pleasure," but I think our hearts are in the right place, no? We're
using "guilty pleasure" in this context to describe something we
already know other folks may have a strong opinion about and we're
saying "I don't care, I like it." It doesn't happen to me as much on this
list (where people are usually very open-minded, believe it or not)
compared with some of the other lists I'm on, where the mere mention
of groups like Bread or the Carpenters seem to send other posters
into apoplectic fits.

Bryan