Not really an answer to your "dystopistic" question but it may be a start :
http://typophile.com/node/17609

You're not likely to find such a thread because that is a really hard question to answer.

What is your favorite food?
What is your favorite song?
What is your favorite color?

No offense - please! - but I find those sorts of questions kind of pointless and not the best use of my time. But maybe others will differ.

i thought there was a thread like this in the past, cant seem to find it thought. it was a bit more helpful than this one: http://typophile.com/node/6863

My favorite typeface is the one I'm in the mood for using.

Addendum: I'm guilty of having type moods. For a while I was sick to death of flat-sided, square sans. I licensed Stainless before the huge onslaught happened and then I felt like a sheep using it like everyone else. Now I embrace my Stainless and my Vista Sans.

I guess that was kind of my point. Since fonts are functional, to have an abstract "favorite" font doesn't make much sense to me unless it is the perfect font for the particular job at the right moment.

But I've never been one to play favorites.

I'm a big fan of AG Super. It's sort of the typographic equivalent of an aluminum baseball bat when I need to make a point.

Univers mixed with different weights of Univers.

Paul D. Hunt, ROLF !

...but it's a dry humor... >^p

I guess I would answer "what is your favorite design job you would be using it for?"

ChrisL

Now that is really pairing it down Paul. :-P

ChrisL

Maybe he was looking for a font rated PG?
Pairental Guidence was needed :-)

ChrisL

Or maybe it was just a single glyph combination for parents who need help raising their children--an "O Pair"

ChrisL

ouch!

A more revealing question may be what do you use as a default -- either for surfing the web, or for a job when you can't really be bothered to think of what to use.
Or what do you use for your own ID and correspondence.
Or perhaps look at the last few bottles of wine you've bought, and see if there is any typographic thread running through the selection.

Default Serif:
Garamond Premier Pro Caption

Default Sans:
Univers 55

Default Mono:
OCR B

Default pairing examples as used in typography lectures:

Didot/Futura

Clarendon/Helvetica

Grotesque/Old Style

Century/News Gothic

Script/Typewriter

Blackletter/Humanist Sanserif

These are very general purpose and simply used to illustrate the principle; I'm also pretty sure there is a thread on this...

BTW, Ryan, if you're a design student then you'll know that Ellen Lupton's 'Thinking with Type' uses a combination of

Thesis/Scala

while Bringhurst's 'Elements of Typographic Style' uses a combination of

Scala Sans/Minion

and of course, has a whole section on this topic at p.93

http://typophile.com/wiki/Essential%20Typefaces

No offense, but that Wiki doesn't make any sense.

Hey Dan Gayle I see you got a new avatar!

I guess you might say that wiki is a bit like a popularity contest, but it's not senseless. So far it seems that Minion Pro is leading the field...

Pretty spooky, huh!

Dan — Is it (your avatar) perhaps an Odd Nerdrum painting? (Or at least Norwegian retrogardist school?)

Not my favourite but I thought I’d add to the combination list;

ITC Lubalin Graph/ITC Avant Garde Gothic

Christopher Walken is actually really nice and kinda normal. Hard to believe, I know.

Having seen Mr Walken dance on a (very wacky) music video I can believe it. So, incidentally, is Ernest Borgnine. A very nice guy indeed.

Ryan, if you're still reading? There is always Daniel Will-Harris's selection if you're still looking for recommendations for pairs.