Never The Cool Nerd

M*A*S*H 30 Day Challenge, Day 21. Favorite M*A*S*H Friendship

It’s not “proving that crickets can be traumatized”. It’s proving that *animals can genetically pass on the stress that a dangerous situation causes, and the offspring will instinctually respond to the same situation without ever having personally experienced it.*

And that’s a big deal for many things, including human psychology.

When Nazis invaded The Netherlands, local Dutch peoples were under extreme emotional and physical duress. The Nazi army took their food for the soldiers, starving the population. They patrolled the streets and harshly reinforced their new laws. Existence was horrible and some parents had to give their children away to wealthier families because they couldn’t feed them anymore. This event is known as the Hongerwinter, or Dutch Famine.

One generation later, the children of mothers who were pregnant at the time of the famine have been proven to exhibit intense reactions to stress, and heightened fight or flight responses. They also experience more obesity because their bodies are prepared for starvation.

Some of these children were never personally exposed to the famine. Their mothers gave birth after conditions had improved, or even after moving to another country. But the effects are there, and those people are now adults who can recognize this and attest that they didn’t experience something else traumatic during childhood. It was passed on in the womb.

You can read about it here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/science/dutch-famine-genes.amp.html

This is called epigenetics. It’s essential to understanding how the human brain and body works. That our responses to stress can be passed on genetically. That it can show up in how we look physically, our physical health, our mental responses, our instinctual reactions. It’s especially important for people who are in therapy and need to understand *why* they act a certain way before they can actually work on it.

*inhales*

Vagina-having people have a shorter urethra, which means we’re more prone to UTIs because the bacteria doesn’t have to travel as far to get up into your bladder and cause a problem.

Which means if you’re exposing your bits to bacteria (as with sex), peeing will flush out bacteria in the urethra. (Urine isn’t actually sterile - that’s a myth - but you’re *supposed to* have a little bit of bacteria - that’s how bodies work. But it still flushes things out that shouldn’t be there.)

If you’re one of the people saying “You meant ‘women’”, fuck you. I meant “people who have a vagina, regardless of their gender or lack thereof”, and you can go fuck yourself with a cactus.

He nearly caught it 

Rest In Peace big Jack Charlton, England legend, world cup winner. Irish hero.

yeah, google it America/Canada ;)

It's hard to explain to my non-Irish friends what this man meant to us. At the time, other than a few decent boxers over the years, we were shite at all the international sports and our local sports were just that, local. Jackie changed that. Under the guidance of Big Jack, we arrived on the scene. We weren't going to be winning any of the cups any time soon (if we're being honest, and we still aren't), but we weren't the joke we had been before. We were the decent team that could upset your World Cup dreams.

The band is at the base of the condom. It’s latex is made thicker here than the shaft and is, therefore, less elastic. The band keeps the condom secure so it does not come off mid-insertion and so penial fluids do not leak from the condom. To do this, the band has to keep a very tight grip on the base of the penis. This is the main complaint from people using condoms too small for them. The shaft’s plastic can stretch comfortably, but the band is not so lenient and uncomfortably or painfully squeezes the base of the penis.

Condoms in use experience a lot of friction. For a condom’s shaft or band to be stretched farther than it was intended weakens the latex. The band and shaft are then at risk of being broken from the friction. It fitting does not mean it is sustainable.

One of the many failures of sex ed in this country is the notion that there’s only two types of condom, “fits everyone except those elephant-trunk-cock freaks” and “for elephant-trunk-cock freaks or lying braggarts” (and yes, there’s implicit shame in the idea of people needing non-”regular”-sized condoms and the genesis for such is pretty likely rooted in some really nasty viewpoints about certain groups of people but I’m digressing).

But penises come in a LOT of dimensions, and not all of them fit right in a “normal” condom. You don’t need to have a monster down there for a condom to be legitimately painful and/or break mid-act. This can leave a lot of people legitimately unawares that it doesn’t have to be like this. (I was, early on.)

Condom too tight? That’s a real problem for the reasons pointed out above. But it’s a solvable one at most drug stores, which generally have a broader (ha ha) selection than your Walmarts or Targets. Or suck it up (ha ha) and go to an “adult boutique” (a proper one) where they’re likely to have even more options and let’s be real here the people working at these aren’t gonna give you Looks over condom selection. Or shop at said boutiques online if you REALLY need to avoid the in-person thing.

And if you think you’re gonna be doing things requiring condoms, HAVE YOUR OWN. Yes, even if you personally don’t have a penis. Buy a box of large-size as well just in case.

Also, Not everyone is okay with using condoms, Girls can have issues with condoms as well.  The spermicides that are used may irritate and cause yeast infections and allergic reactions.  So if your girl says no condoms, this might be why.  

The trip to the clinic is quite a mood killer, too.

If you are with someone and don’t feel you can speak up about any of the above (or anything else?! Like what gets you going, etc.), ponder why that is. Is it the person, the timing, the act?

If something is warning you off, maybe decide if this the time/place/person/thing for you and your partner(s) at that moment.

There are lots of ways to have a safe fun time. And sometimes you may just want to assess what that means for you, whether it’s a trip to the 24 pharmacy to get a different size, material, etc. condom, a trip to the couch for a snuggle, a change in positions/actions, or heading out the door.

Seen in Mbour, Senegal by Sara Jabril

“Mbour is only a short trip away from bustling Dakar. Our house was a dream come true! In true Senegalese fashion, wrestlers came for their daily practice every afternoon. In the evenings, we were lucky enough to have fishermen return with their catch of the day.”— Sara Jabril

This Was Some Weird Shit…

Yesterday I was sitting outside reading a Leonard Cohen biography, and was at a point where the author was describing how Leonard was taking LSD as he wrote Beautiful Losers (no surprise there) when out of the sky, a small fish dropped onto the page of the book.  Perhaps this is a sign that I should go to Greece, take acid and write the great Canadian novel?