tonight as i was driving home, i was struck by the sweet smell of kettle corn. there is a man who lives a block away with a kettle in his garage. i think he sells it at farmers markets and similar places. the smell is so distinctive. and it makes me miss Linda a lot. she was the queen of kettle corn (well, the queen of f**king everything, according to the magnet on the fridge, and now according to the mug which was brought to me from england!) but definitely the master of regular popcorn and more recently kettle corn. i would be completely unable to stop eating it. a bag or a bowl would simply sit there in my lap, and my right hand would move, reflexively, back and forth, from bowl to mouth, until it was all gone. many times Linda would make a batch on the stove (after she got used to the differences with an electric burner) and we would contentedly munch the slightly salty, slightly sweet kernels. yum.
tonight on NPR there was a Radio Lab broadcast on choice. and a small snippet with Malcolm Gladwell on his new book "The Outliers," people who are successful. the show on choice was very interesting. i learned that the part of the brain which registers warmth (temperature) is right next to the part which registers trust. this goes back to our infancies, where we need to trust that which keeps us warm, as in survival. psychologists have done studies where someone who holds a warm cup of coffee is more likely to have a positive view of a photograph or description of someone, than a person who holds (even momentarily) a cup of iced coffee. another snippet was about choice: if we have to describe why we chose something, it affects the choice process itself (we choose differently and possibly less sophisticated) than if we can make the choice without explanation. very interesting stuff. researchers ask intriguing questions.
this weekend will be my first at "home" in 5 weeks. wow. that in itself is remarkable. hopefully i will have something to show for that. i have goals.
