And also oh dammit - that article is basically the piece I've been wanting to write about rain for the last couple of months. :D Amazing stuff, thank you - this will be a great jumping-off point for one of my essays.
And it is so delightful to learn that our least-regarded sense is so powerful. I mean, without smell we don't have taste, and everyone seems to agree (especially folk who had Covid) that losing your sense of taste is a surprisingly miserable experience. But not being able to smell things? It seems we're generally "meh, I'll live" - little realising what that would actually mean to our experience of the world...
Hurrah! I look forward to seeing what you write about rain!
When I had covid I lived off peanut butter on toast. I felt like there was no point putting effort into making yummy food when I couldn't taste it! (Nutrition, schmutrition.) You're right, it was unexpectedly impactful!
In terms of masters of writing about and combining themes that you’d never in your wildest dreams imagine going together, John McPhee is my absolute No. 1.
If you don’t know him, look him up; you’re in for a major treat. He’s 95 now, and still quite amazing!
Already there! I have been reading "Annals Of The Former World" for the last month, very slowly, because I'm savouring it and also suffering from mild existential horror at how well he writes. A legend of braided narrative storytelling, agreed.
Yes, “mild existential horror” is a spectacular way of putting it! A friend introduced me to his works back in the 1980s. I have read many of his essays and absolutely drooled over his geological studies, which had not yet been assembled as “Annals …”.
I’d love to learn echo location. Life goals! Rachel Entrekin just won a 250 mile race and broke the course record. First time done by a female at the Cocodona250.
Love it. I know people who do energy work that can get their hands really hot honestly just by imagining letting the energy flow. Like noticeably hot. It’s something I’ve always hoped to be able to do. I do not hope to eat metal. But hey, birds often eat whole critters, and then managed to just spit out the bones.
I have no doubt it's a thing! I may raise an eyebrow at the explanation from some folk, but voluntarily making your hands warm using biofeedback (and having superbly calibrated interoception), it doesn't surprise me at all. As much as Wim Hof has fallen out of favour after the recent allegations against him, there's clearly something in what he is/was teaching: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/can-you-warm-your-body-your-mind It's all fascinating stuff.
As for birds - how on earth do the innards of owls know how to make the pellets they cough up? And why don't other creatures (I'm very sorry about the following sentence) 'poop out of their mouths' like that? :D
I admire braided essays and hope, someday, to be able to write one. They move through my brain the way my thoughts often do - in strands that eventually weave together if I can just let them do their thing.
Re: #6: I have long suspected that humans can smell more than we think we can -- we've been intimidated by dogs for years. I have also found however, there is wide variation in what a human nose smells -- or chooses to smell. To this day, my husband -- who possesses a fine, well-boned and not-small Roman nose -- seems not to smell mold, the dog poop on the bottom of his shoe, or the milk going sour in the fridge. I, on the other hand, can walk into a room and sniff out the source of troubling scents within seconds.
Amazing post, and I always enjoy and learn from your syntheses of seemingly disparate curiosities! I think you have great connections between the left and right brain, the top and bottom and everything in between. Thanks for reminding me about my own post a while back. I still do that sort of breathing mid-office hours, and especially right before bed. It makes a difference for me, and has broken some horses in the sympathetic nervous system with time. I also recall reading about Michel Lotito and the incredible inedible feats of consumption he achieved... it hurts to think of even one moment on the toilet after eating a plane or something!
Re #6 - I recently read that human noses are more sensitive to rain than sharks to blood, by something wild like 100k times more sensitive. Which is oddly delightful! (BBC ref https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260415-why-going-out-in-the-rain-gives-your-mood-and-brain-a-boost)
Oh wow! Yes, that's wild, I didn't know that.
And also oh dammit - that article is basically the piece I've been wanting to write about rain for the last couple of months. :D Amazing stuff, thank you - this will be a great jumping-off point for one of my essays.
And it is so delightful to learn that our least-regarded sense is so powerful. I mean, without smell we don't have taste, and everyone seems to agree (especially folk who had Covid) that losing your sense of taste is a surprisingly miserable experience. But not being able to smell things? It seems we're generally "meh, I'll live" - little realising what that would actually mean to our experience of the world...
Hurrah! I look forward to seeing what you write about rain!
When I had covid I lived off peanut butter on toast. I felt like there was no point putting effort into making yummy food when I couldn't taste it! (Nutrition, schmutrition.) You're right, it was unexpectedly impactful!
In terms of masters of writing about and combining themes that you’d never in your wildest dreams imagine going together, John McPhee is my absolute No. 1.
If you don’t know him, look him up; you’re in for a major treat. He’s 95 now, and still quite amazing!
Already there! I have been reading "Annals Of The Former World" for the last month, very slowly, because I'm savouring it and also suffering from mild existential horror at how well he writes. A legend of braided narrative storytelling, agreed.
(I never even knew there was a name for what he does - “braided narrative storytelling”!)
Yes, “mild existential horror” is a spectacular way of putting it! A friend introduced me to his works back in the 1980s. I have read many of his essays and absolutely drooled over his geological studies, which had not yet been assembled as “Annals …”.
I’d love to learn echo location. Life goals! Rachel Entrekin just won a 250 mile race and broke the course record. First time done by a female at the Cocodona250.
Me too! Imagine how useful? A whole new world of night-walking, for starters. I'm actually considering having a go at the training....
And thank you! I don't follow running news and had no idea. Wow, what a thing: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/how-rachel-entrekin-led-a-paradigm-shift-and-became-the-first-woman-to-win-cocodona-250-outright/ar-AA22J8Nm
Love it. I know people who do energy work that can get their hands really hot honestly just by imagining letting the energy flow. Like noticeably hot. It’s something I’ve always hoped to be able to do. I do not hope to eat metal. But hey, birds often eat whole critters, and then managed to just spit out the bones.
I have no doubt it's a thing! I may raise an eyebrow at the explanation from some folk, but voluntarily making your hands warm using biofeedback (and having superbly calibrated interoception), it doesn't surprise me at all. As much as Wim Hof has fallen out of favour after the recent allegations against him, there's clearly something in what he is/was teaching: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/can-you-warm-your-body-your-mind It's all fascinating stuff.
As for birds - how on earth do the innards of owls know how to make the pellets they cough up? And why don't other creatures (I'm very sorry about the following sentence) 'poop out of their mouths' like that? :D
I admire braided essays and hope, someday, to be able to write one. They move through my brain the way my thoughts often do - in strands that eventually weave together if I can just let them do their thing.
Re: #6: I have long suspected that humans can smell more than we think we can -- we've been intimidated by dogs for years. I have also found however, there is wide variation in what a human nose smells -- or chooses to smell. To this day, my husband -- who possesses a fine, well-boned and not-small Roman nose -- seems not to smell mold, the dog poop on the bottom of his shoe, or the milk going sour in the fridge. I, on the other hand, can walk into a room and sniff out the source of troubling scents within seconds.
Wait--it takes 12 minutes to poop? This is a serious question: what are people doing for those 12 minutes? I do not understand.
#5 so if me and myself are busy doing and thinking, what’s I doing? 😂
Amazing post, and I always enjoy and learn from your syntheses of seemingly disparate curiosities! I think you have great connections between the left and right brain, the top and bottom and everything in between. Thanks for reminding me about my own post a while back. I still do that sort of breathing mid-office hours, and especially right before bed. It makes a difference for me, and has broken some horses in the sympathetic nervous system with time. I also recall reading about Michel Lotito and the incredible inedible feats of consumption he achieved... it hurts to think of even one moment on the toilet after eating a plane or something!
Cheers :)