Strange, Stranger, Strangest
But, not necessarily in that particular order...
Over the past 10 days or so several "strange" things have happened (or I have happened upon several strange things?...one never knows). As I was walking back from JD's place today, I started thinking of some of these bizarre happenings--my own mental musings were sparked by a simple flashback to wandering down the very same street where only days earlier I had stopped to take note of the movies playing at the local theatre, suddenly turned around to leave, and nearly stepped on a dead chicken, head and neck lurching out of a bag, eyes glossed and somewhat "perky." Recalling the feel of nausea and disgust naturally led me directly to the other "strange" things rummaging around in the backyard of my brain. How these things seem to escape simple everyday conversation, I quite honestly don't know. But anyway, here goes.
Top three strange things that I have stumbled upon (you can rank them if you like, since I can't seem to find a good "order" of strangeness, strangosity, strangementedliness, strangeryeous, ersumthing....):
1. An email from the U of M Orthopaedic Surgery Department titled "Mouse surgeries"
Text as follows:
Hi Pernillie,
This is Jason over in Kurt Hankenson's lab. I wanted to let you know that we were doing some more ovarectomy surgeries on Monday around 9:30 if you were interested in observing any more of them. This time there will be some genuine surgeries instead of them all being just shams. If you're interested, let me know.
Thanks, Jason
2. A photo on flickr titled "French Chicken"
3. A movie that Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia made--together! Unbelievable. Absolutely fucking unbelievable.
So, just to clear up for everyone in case anyone should leave this blog entry feeling a bit confused-- 1. In addition to all the "fake" mouse surgeries taking place at UM laboratories, there are, in fact, "real" ones which should interest us and which Pernillie may or may not watch. 2. Chickens can act or be stage props in Frenchy theatrical performances in Tokyo or Paris, although the best combo seems to be men in underwear with chickens. and 3. Raul Julia must have done a shitload of drugs before agreeing to play an evil dictator in Streetfighter opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme. Wow. I guess all I can say in the end is strange, very strange indeed.
posted by Patty @ 1:36 PM
16 Comments:
way too lazy to edit the post now, but i just realized after rereading it that i forgot a crucial part of the "mouse surgeries" email--at the bottom after signing, mr. jason had written:
"Electronic Mail is not secure, may not be read every day, and should not be used for urgent or sensitive issues."
hahaha! ah, the sweet irony made this one stranger than it had been before (?) if that makes sense (which it probably doesn't)...
g'nite!
How soon you forget: you're in Spain, my lovely one. Everything and anything makes sense there.
Looks like Pernille Keller is a Visiting Research Investigator in Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the U-M Medical School. Her uniqname is kellerp - though I'd bet she's as unlike Patty as can be imagined. It also looks like she has somewhat more than a layperson's interest in cutting up mouse ovaries. Yech.
Jason, on the other hand, remains forever a mystery. He's probably some drab, overworked, white-coated med-student type from Saginaw who drinks heavily after hours, secretly lusts after girls in the lab, and has a long-standing mixture of filial fear and admiration for his advisor, Kurt Hankenson, whoever the hell he is.
I think it's a telling sign of the mystery of human life that in the precise moment when a little portal accidentally opens between you and a complete stranger, their entire life seems at once utterly bizarre and strangely like your own. From a sufficient distance, it may be true that virtually everything about us dissolves into comedy.
Holy shit, she's Dutch!
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ok, let's not lose something from sight: even when it's easy to identify all things spanish as exotic, mouse surgery looks like very very american (and what could be more american than a dutch girl... new amsterdam?) and let me remind you how weird non-americans think this country is. getting married in vegas by elvis? that's just a sample...
and talking about drugs: as we say in peru, raul julia was a "good poor", that means that probably any job was always welcome. who used to really be into cocaine (a peruvian staple) was good old van damme, the belgian karate dwarf.
but dead chicken and male underwear... that's unbeatable! i decree: number 1 for the chicken!!!
van damme is into cocaine?!?!
oh shatter, shattered, my innocent fantasies of a childhood hero. lost and gone forever.
oh dear christ! this is TOO funny. i don't think i understand all of what cabezon is saying, but i still nearly shit myself laughing (jd, you ARE rubbing off on me!)
as for dutchiness, cocaine, and raul julia being a "good poor"--can't we just call it a tie? it's all SO strange!!!! hahaha.
and mike, the mumps really have sent you into another dimension--you actually looked up all the members of the laboratory where mice are bludgened for their ovaries in the science? wow, i'm impressed...although it is STRANGE!
that last bit should be "in the name of science"...more coffee, more c o f f e e...
You guys... Mikey takes research to new levels of intricacy and depth, while Nandito decides to share with us the incredible trivia knowledge that his big head posesses. What more can I wish for?
As a for Jon, my sweetheart, the same childhood fantasies have just been shattered also!
Long live the chicken! (with or without ovaries)
Look, all I did was type Pernille's name into the UM web directory - a web resource that I alone in the whole WORLD seem to know how to use, given how generally ignorant of it people seem to be - to find out what her position and uniqname are. Then I Googled her. REALLY basic, here, people - and besides, I'm bored here at home all the time! It took up 10 mins of my day - and that's 10 mins I don't have to spend dwelling on my mortality.
All that talk about Homer--no wonder you dwell on your mortality, Trojan War hero that you are! :D
"And Spectacles, king of Cynorches, thrust his ash spear into the pancreas of Megalopugides, son of Mikropugides the actuary, /
Who had warned his son against entering the war because of the statistical likelihood of personal injury or death - /
Little did his father's warnings avail him now, as he lay, mightily in his might, where he had fallen, and whined and gibbered like a monkey with his guts falling out of his breeches."
mike, when are you stop being a big dork? oh right...never!
teheheehee.
Le sigh. Only Nicholas, perhaps, will grasp the comedy behind the Greek names I've just invented. This is a tough crowd for classics jokes. For the rest of you:
Spectacles = that's obvious
Cynorches = "Dog-balls"
Megalopugides = "Son of Big Butt"
Mikropugides = "Son of Little Butt"
This only confirms and reaffirms Patty's comment, monsieur Le Mike. ;D
I'd just like to point out that our esteemed visitor Pernille appears to be from Roskilde, which is in Demark. More recently she was studying in Copenhagen, also in Denmark. Which would make one think that she was Danish, not Dutch.
I only point this out because northern europe is now the only part of the world with which I can claim a decent idea of the geography. Woot american educational system! (Disclaimer: I can not name the capital of any state or country anywhere.)
The funny part is that I'm not sure which country that mis-identification would insult more.
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