
My second thought, if I have time and the attention of the
commentator is to ask them, "Do you know why the sun can initiate a
sneeze?" Which often, and in this
case elicits, "No. Why?" And I'm off to tell my story.
When I was in graduate school at Bethesda, having been out
of Dental School for eight years, I was much more receptive to the lectures
than when I was at Marquette. Our
Anatomy professor, from Georgetown Faculty, was a great storyteller, to a point
where after yet another anecdote about how during a surgical procedure he was
involved in, the sheath of the throat being breached and blood spurting out so
fast the patient died from a tonsillectomy.
One of my classmates asked, "Do you consider your presence during
surgery to be bad luck?"
The story I remember was in response to my long-held and
unresolved question as to why I could trigger a sneeze by looking at light and
my wife could not.
Turns out that when we all were walking like Neanderthals;
hunched over and shuffling around, wary of dangers around us, our olfactory senses
needed to be at high alert and if our eyes watered, the moisture just dripped
on the ground. As we evolved and began
to stand erect an anatomical deviation became of more consequence: about half
of us have the tear duct above the nerve that triggers a sneeze and about half
below. Those above would have tears pass the nerve and stimulate a sneeze. Those with the opening below, just pass the
tear into the mouth.
Interesting but as the classic joke about the stutterer who
learned to say, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers", it is
hard to work into a conversation.

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The Knight's Dream |
Two that remain unanswered in my mind are: Why do some
people remember dreams and others not?
And the related: Are dreams in color or black and white? The second is: Do
we learn language from different parts of the brain as we age?
Those questions need someone like my Anatomy Professor to
answer because even current research seems divided as to the answers. Perhaps
some of you know the truth. If so,
please Comment.
Phil Everly recently passed away, which probably didn't hurt
the sales of Norah Jones and Billie Joe Armstrong's new album Foreverly. In my next Post I'll discuss why the Everly
Brothers were so special. Please join
me.
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