{"id":4649,"date":"2014-06-16T19:44:49","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T00:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=4649"},"modified":"2021-06-04T12:52:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T16:52:39","slug":"gulp-adventures-on-the-alimentary-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4649","title":{"rendered":"Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal<\/a><\/em> (2013) Mary Roach<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Gulp-Adventures-Alimentary-Canal\"<\/a>I love Mary Roach. I would love to be trapped in an elevator with her (unless she’s claustrophobic, in which case, that seems unfair).<\/p>\n

She is a science fan-girl of the best kind, and is unafraid to get into the nitty gritty details (and believe me, there are plenty of gritty details).<\/p>\n

In 2009, the United States exported 438,000 tons of frozen livestock organs. You could lay them end to end and make a viscera equator.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One serving from the Fruits and Vegetables Group in Nirlungayuk\u2019s materials is \u201c1\/ 2 cup berries or greens, or 60 to 90 grams of organ meats.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Americans preferred bland preparations of muscle meat partly because for as long as they could recall, that\u2019s what the upper class ate. <\/p>\n

So powerful are race- and status-based disgusts that explorers have starved to death rather than eat like the locals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And there are footnotes! I love footnotes!<\/p>\n

So great was the Victorian taste for order that displaced organs constituted a medical diagnosis. Doctors had been misled not by plastic models, but by cadavers and surgical patients\u2014 whose organs ride higher because the body is horizontal. The debut of X-rays, for which patients sit up and guts slosh downward, spawned a fad for surgery on \u201cdropped organs\u201d\u2014 hundreds of body parts needlessly hitched up and sewn in place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As well as bits of wisdom:<\/p>\n

there is a point at which efficiency crosses over into lunacy, and the savings in money or resources cease to be worthwhile in light of the price paid in other ways.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are many tasks I refuse to do, because I value my time more than my money.<\/p>\n

Which doesn’t explain why I blog every book I read, does it?<\/p>\n

But of course why I love Mary Roach best is her humor.<\/p>\n

This suggests that saliva \u2014or better yet, infant drool\u2014 could be used to pretreat food stains. Laundry detergents boast about the enzymes they contain. Are these literally digestive enzymes? I sent an e-mail to the American Cleaning Institute, which sounds like a cutting-edge research facility but is really just a trade group formerly and less spiffily known as the Soap and Detergent Association. <\/p>\n

With no detectable appreciation for the irony of what he had written, press person Brian Sansoni referred me to a chemist named Luis Spitz. And when Dr. Spitz replied, \u201cSorry, I only know soap-related subjects ,\u201d Sansoni\u2014 still without a trace of glee\u2014 gave me the phone number of a detergent industry consultant named Keith Grime.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I mean, how could you NOT love this bit?<\/p>\n

(The whisking of semen is complicated by its coagulating factor. Should you wish to know more, I direct you to the mucilaginous strands of the World Wide Web.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think I highlighted most of the entire section on whether you could survive in the stomach of a whale. And also the entire section on the “prison wallet” or rectum.<\/p>\n

And the entire chapter on defecation was fascinating and disturbing. <\/p>\n

It (Cardio-vascular Events at Defecation) happens often enough that stool softeners are administered as a matter of course on coronary-care wards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I mean, I was so curious about the bit about Elvis, I (warily) did a google search on megacolon. (Do so at your own risk. You have been warned.)<\/p>\n

I finished this book with a sense of profound gratefulness that I have a normal, healthy, alimentary canal. Not that I didn’t feel that way before–I lived with a woman who visited the Digestive Disorders department at the doctor’s office on a regular basis for multiple problems–but this reminded me just how lucky I am.<\/p>\n

I feel like I should go eat something to celebrate.
\nRating: 10\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by W. W. Norton & Company<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013) Mary Roach I love Mary Roach. I would love to be trapped in an elevator with her (unless she’s claustrophobic, in which case, that seems unfair). She is a science fan-girl of the best kind, and is unafraid to get into the nitty gritty details (and believe me, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4,5],"tags":[419],"class_list":["post-4649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-10","category-non-fiction","category-science-nature","tag-mary-roach"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-1cZ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3311,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3311","url_meta":{"origin":4649,"position":0},"title":"The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011","author":"Michelle","date":"November 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 (2011) edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger I'll admit I bought this because 1) it was on sale and 2) because it was edited by Mary Roach. I have no idea is Mary Roach is a good editor or not on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/best-american-science-nature-writing-2011.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8753,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/8753","url_meta":{"origin":4649,"position":1},"title":"My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places","author":"Michelle","date":"February 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places (2013) Mary Roach (T)he complete collection of her \u201cMy Planet\u201d articles published in Reader\u2019s Digest. She was a hit columnist in the magazine, and this book features the articles she wrote in that time. I adore Mary Roach's writing. She makes me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/my-planet.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":615,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/615","url_meta":{"origin":4649,"position":2},"title":"Spook","author":"Michelle","date":"July 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005) Mary Roach As much as I enjoyed Stiff, I found Spook disappointing. As a scientific look at life after death, excluding the last couple chapters, it read more as a debunking than a presentation. Of course that's partially because several chapters deal with things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/non-fiction\/history"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spook","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/spook.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/403","url_meta":{"origin":4649,"position":3},"title":"Stiff","author":"Michelle","date":"July 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003) Mary Roach I was wandering the bookstore and Stiff was sitting on one of the display tables, one of the \"Recommended Summer Reading\" tables or something like that. I'd heard a review or interview or something like that when it first came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14342,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14342","url_meta":{"origin":4649,"position":4},"title":"Blank Spaces","author":"Michelle","date":"May 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Blank Spaces (2016) Cass Lennox (Toronto Connections) Devon took a hefty gulp, then pressed his mouth to Toned\u2019s. Vaughn saw liquid dribble from one corner as the gulp passed from mouth to mouth. His stomach rolled. That couldn\u2019t be hygienic. He couldn\u2019t really say much about Jonah\u2019s clothes, except that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blank Spaces","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Blank-Spaces.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13257,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13257","url_meta":{"origin":4649,"position":5},"title":"Blank Spaces","author":"Michelle","date":"June 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Blank Spaces (2016) Cass Lennox (Toronto Connections) Vaughn Hargrave is tired of dating. He doesn't want what every other guy wants, so he's decided he'll just stop trying. Devon took a hefty gulp, then pressed his mouth to Toned\u2019s. Vaughn saw liquid dribble from one corner as the gulp passed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Blank Spaces","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Blank-Spaces.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}