The Life Experience ~ Winter '11

[bloodyrosemccoy]

What I Learned Since The Winter Solstice:

• Clarence “Ducky” Nash not only voiced Donald Duck in English; he also did the voice on all the dubbed shorts Disney made so that the voice would remain consistently unintelligible across all languages.
• Before she became a TV cook show hostess, Julia Child INVENTED SHARK REPELLENT.
• Shakira sings very differently in English than she does in Spanish—to an amazing degree. In English, she sounds like so many other Madonna clones; in Spanish she’s got that rich and confident voice. I’d never listened to one of her songs’ English and Spanish versions back-to-back before, but it’s amazing how different it is.
• Drawing something that looks like text without being legible is called “Greeking”—the written equivalent of “rhubarb.”
• Generally speaking, the human brain can only really count up to 4 at a glance. Numbers beyond that slow us down.
• Cookie Monster’s name in Hindu Hindi is Biscuit Badsha.
• BONUS EDIT WITH NEW LEARNED THING: Hindi is the language; Hindu is the religion.  I never was really sure of the difference in the terms.  Thanks, sriti !
• It’s incredibly convenient to have a portable musical instrument to carry around and practice when you’ve got a few minutes, instead of having something too huge to lug around.
• There is an explanation for my complete inability to ever adhere to the crazy raw food diet so many of our library patrons seem to be interested in starting up: Oral Allergy Syndrome. (I’m sure those raw food books would assure me that I wouldn’t have this syndrome if I just ate enough raw food to detox, but fuck ’em.)
• You can get hives ON YOUR GOD DAMN EYEBALL.
• There are a few drawbacks to nuclear power. [/understatement]
• Mushrooms grow fast.
• Calendars generally follow three main types: lunar, solar, and lunisolar.  A great deal of work goes into keeping calendars on track, especially the lunisolar ones.  Some calendars also have a really complex way to make the weekdays dependent on the date and even more complex astrological positions.
• The term for the shaved head, or part of the head, of a monk is tonsure.
• It is possible for me to find stars in the sky if I concentrate!
• Also, Betelgeuse really does look orange.
• The effectiveness of toilet paper follows a bell curve along its price range. Too cheap and it’s painful and thin; too expensive and it’s so pumped with lotions, layers, and moisturizers that it forgets its function as, well, toilet paper, and winds up just waving at your butt as it goes by.
• There are Geno fans on the internet. I should have known.
• Pizza sauce is a lot simpler than I thought, but crust is still a bit tough to work out.

Comments

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I have OAS to a bajillion things, such that pretty much every time I eat I get horrifically congested, and I have a nasty allergy to raw spinach which ensures that never again will I know the delights of a raw spinach salad with hard boiled eggs, mandarin oranges, and warm bacon dressing. *sobs*

Also I appear to be lactose-intolerant or something along those lines, which profoundly sucks but gives me a good excuse to give to my doctor when he complains that I don't drink enough (read: *any*) milk.

[van.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty lactose intolerant myself, but there are pills you can take to compensate. They can be a bit expensive so I ration them out, but if I just HAVE to have a bowl of ice cream, I can pop two-three of them and do pretty well. I've tried a bunch and the ones that work best for me are Malabar's Super Milk Digestants.

[childthursday.livejournal.com]

I so didn't believe that the pills worked (as in the U.S. they have to carry a "This claim has not been evaluated") sticker...but two months ago my partner finally made me try them and...what do you know. It works!

I find they work best if I eat active culture yogurt at the same time.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, thank you. I got out of the milk-drinking habit (probably an unconscious reaction to my body not liking it) but sometimes ice cream is necessary.