Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
Today I had the pleasure of meeting the department's new faculty member. She's a lovely person, but more interestingly, she studies jellyfish! I was so excited to learn this that I promptly overwhelmed her with talk of box jellies (my favorites!) and Portuguese-man-of-wars. Oh my oh my! She responded to my frantic chatter with a mild, "Oh, well, I don't study those jellyfish." Oh. I paused appropriately and waited for her to fill me in on her particular gelatinous subjects. Maybe the lion's mane...? Or comb jellies...?
Nothin'. I got nothin'! Perhaps she just thinks I'm a freak for getting so excited and she didn't want me to have some kind of enthusiasm-induced attack.
Then a few minutes later she casually mentioned that her husband is a post-doc at MIT in the neurobiology department!!!! I practically exploded. I must persuade her to be my lunch buddy next semester!
And speaking of brains, I'm re-reading The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. I was inspired after catching the very end of his lecture prior to the showing of Dial M for Murder at the Coolidge. He was there to explain how 3-D films trick our brains into thinking that objects (ie gleaming shears) are jumping out of the screen at us. It was a good time, and the theatre management took a photo of us all wearing goofy paper glasses.
Nothin'. I got nothin'! Perhaps she just thinks I'm a freak for getting so excited and she didn't want me to have some kind of enthusiasm-induced attack.
Then a few minutes later she casually mentioned that her husband is a post-doc at MIT in the neurobiology department!!!! I practically exploded. I must persuade her to be my lunch buddy next semester!
And speaking of brains, I'm re-reading The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. I was inspired after catching the very end of his lecture prior to the showing of Dial M for Murder at the Coolidge. He was there to explain how 3-D films trick our brains into thinking that objects (ie gleaming shears) are jumping out of the screen at us. It was a good time, and the theatre management took a photo of us all wearing goofy paper glasses.