Dead Fish Have Feelings Too

Just when I couldn't think of a good topic for blogging, Rich mentioned an article he had read in Science News this morning about functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): some scientists hooked a salmon up to an fMRI machine, showed it pictures of emotional scenes, and found that part of its brain lit up. Kathbert said, "Fish have feelings?" and I said, "Of course they do," thinking of Arphaxad and Amminadab, although I wondered if I could ever enjoy eating salmon again. Then Rich told us the kicker: the fish was dead! The scientists were demonstrating that statistical errors in fMRI can produce results that look spectacular but are of questionable validity. My first thought upon hearing that fMRI may be about as accurate as the guy who hooked up plants to lie detectors to prove that they have emotions was: "What a great title for a blog post! 'Dead fish have feelings too!'"

Anyway, the first Friday in Lent is as good a time as any to focus on fish. At work today a native Northerner was trying to explain to a recent newcomer from the South about the importance of the Friday Fish Fry in our local culture. She was not getting it until he said it was just like barbeque down South, then she knew exactly what he meant. Of course, if you go way up North, they have fish boils instead of fish fries, but that's equally delicious.

Just now Rich mentioned a friend who said something about the Brown victory on his MyFace page. I am obviously on a different wavelength than he is, because my first thought was, "What Browns victory? It was the Saints and the Colts!" It took me a moment to realize he was talking about the political situation in Massachusetts and not sports. Duh. He also gave me grief about a picture I claimed was of me, Famous Hat, and yet it was clearly a different hat. I said that the caption states it is my health food store hat, and he said, "But I didn't see a hat wearing another hat in that picture! How can you say it's a picture of Famous Hat?" So I had to explain to him that sometimes this blog is from the point of view of a person, and other times the hat, and still other times my plant Keith or my fish Arphaxad. And I even denote by font color who is writing, like Keith is in green and Arphaxad is in orange. But I guess some people still can't keep up, huh, Rich?

Famous Hat (or possibly her wearer)