Brains and Lichens

I’d not seen the movie Underworld or its sequel but had the tv on the other day when an ad came on for another sequel in the franchise. I wasn’t watching at the time so just heard the announcer on the trailer reading his script. The music playing in the background was very dark and moody, out of the corner of my eye I captured a bit of the dark and moody look of the movie and got the impression of sci fi. And as often happens, I heard different words than what was being said. I heard Underworld: Rise of the Lichens.

So, of course, I stopped what I was doing and immediately thought “Rise of the Lichens? What the heck is that about? Plant life taking over the world or something?” and then something else got my attention, probably a piece of lint, and I forgot about it. Later on in the evening as I was actively watching TV and paying attention, the ad came on again and I caught the true title of the movie: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.

Ahhhh…that makes more sense. Lycans are werewolves or some such creature. Lyc is the root of lycanthrope and means wolf.
But the whole misunderstanding made me laugh out loud as I envisioned reindeer food propagating and covering the entire planet. There’s a definite parody in that title, Rise of the Lichens. According to Wikipedia there is an ongoing problem of lichen overgrowth on Mount Rushmore that requires regular cleaning by mountaineering employees. So it could happen.

I was also extremely amused when I left my brain on the dresser in my room. I turned out the light and it glowed in the dark. Cool. I had forgotten it did that. So now I’ve left it there to give me that little smile when the light goes out. (It's a hard plastic model of a brain with a brain eraser inside)

I have a couple of brains that I keep on my "medical" bookshelf. It is the final frontier(I keep saying that) and I know it holds all the secrets of the universe. I also have a little paperweight from the 25th Canadian Neurological Association (or some such group) meeting in 1973. There's a coin in the hard plastic weight with the Association name on one side and a brain on the other. I picked it up at a flea market or yard sale and because of the "brain" on it, I had to add it to my collection of weird and wonderful medical related stuff. I have a little Merck man from the 60s who bears a striking resemblance to Oscar (of Academy Award fame) that was actually an advertising gimmick for docs and pharmacists to display to advertise a certain medication. As a kid I had one of those really cool see-through anatomy models of a pregnant woman. Not sure whatever happened to her.

Last month I felt a cold coming on so one night I put some Vick's vapo-rub under my nose to aid in breathing. It's the cream stuff rather than the petroleum jelly based stuff. Anyway, the next morning I put a little more on my face and went to work. 3 hours later I was in the bathroom and discovered I had a white moustache from not completely rubbing the cream in and NOBODY told me! I was walking around work for 3 hours and not a soul told me I had a moustache. Were they just being polite? Did they think I was doing a milk commercial? Did they just not notice?

You already know that I'm easily amused. This is just more evidence.

S.