Escape Through Obesity

After reading about a technology that can determine whether a picture has been photoshopped, illustrated by actual photographs of fashion models, first with rolls of stomach fat then without, I turned to the NY Times Obituaries to read:

Lana Peters, Daughter of Stalin for Whom Obesity Was Escape, Dies at 85.

Wait, what?

The misread word in this case was Obscurity.  Of course. She escaped by becoming an unknown.  But can't people escape life by eating to the point of obesity?  Maybe, but they are more likely to escape FROM obesity.  And, anyway, Lana Peters appeared to be a fit woman throughout her obscure life.

I'd love to hear from readers about your own bouts with Mislexia.  Just leave a comment and I'll be sure to include it on a future blog.

A Greek from Athens and a Pontiff at Pope Marina

Today, it's not so much about mislexia as it is about the coincidences that appear contrived by a B-Movie scriptwriter, but are actually true.  Take today's New York Times cover story about trends in treating schizophrenia, Finding Purpose After Living With Delusion.  The piece is datelined "Athens, GA" and focuses on Milt Greek - a schizophrenic capably living with the illness.  A guy named Greek from Athens?  For real?  Apparently so.  

Reminds me of the time I wrote a feature about New Bedford, MA for Offshore Magazine.  I had interviewed Captain Jeff Pontiff of Whaling City Launch Service that operated out of Pope Island Marina.  My editor emailed me shortly after I filed the story.  "Is this a joke?" he wrote.  "Pontiff at Pope Marina?"  As a non-Christian, I never even made the connection, but had to laugh when I read my editor's comment.  


"Yep, true," I replied.  "Sometimes truth is weirder than fiction."

Orgasm Experiments

This morning, after finishing the New York Times Magazine cover story, about a Sex Ed teacher who encourages his students to have good sex, I picked up the New Yorker Magazine Food Issue and was deep into a piece called "Sacred Grounds" by Kelefa Sanneh - an exploration of the high-end gourmet coffee market.

Midway, I read; "At boutique cafes, customers liked the idea of paying a premium for a premium cup, especially if the cup came with a story about a plucky farmer's daughter and her orgasm experiments."

Orgasm experiments?? With coffee beans??  Hold the phone!  Of course, the written word was organic.  But might there be plucky a farmer's daughter out there doing orgasm experiments?  I'll have to ask my email-buddy, Mary Roach, whose own investigations into orgasm experiments led to her wonderfully funny book, BONK.

Sell Your Child

Glimpsing through today's GO Magazine insert in the Stamford (CT) Advocate, I caught a piece about Heirloom Silhouettes with a picture of a black cut-out of a child's profile done by acclaimed artist Deborah O'Connor.

To the right of the article, there was an ad for Hochberg Jewelers imploring readers to "Sell Your Gold"

Seeing the little girl's silhouette juxtaposed with the ad, I mistakenly read "Gold" as "Child," which both startled and intrigued me.  Yes, I'll admit it now. There were those times when my kids (now grown) were throwing public tantrums that I would have read an advertisement to Sell Your Child with more than passing interest.