Gniklat Sdrawkcab

There is an Italian graduate student in our lab named Clea. Clea is a cool girl, with European-style glasses (thick white frames that are more square than round) and a funny story about eating one too many marijuana brownies. However, her real claim to fame is that she can talk backwards extremely quickly. You know how it used to be fun to attempt to pronounce your name in reverse (Nayr Llennoccm), but it would take you a few seconds to actually reverse the letters in your head? Well, Clea has been practicing since age 12, and she can talk backwards with extreme ease. You can tell her a complicated, lengthy sentence (in English -- her second tongue!) and she will immediately begin spitting it back to you, reversing each word individually. For example, the phrase "today is Wednesday" would be pronounced "Yadot si yadsendew." She has been featured on Italian radio (and perhaps televion) several times. The topic of her talent came up in the lab today because the new undergraduates had never seen her demonstrate her skillz. We proceeded to start with easy questions, but she implored us to challenge her: "Make me sing a song," she said. I fired back, "What songs do you know in English?" She immediately started singing the Beatles' "Yesterday," perfectly in tune and in proper rhythm, but with each word reversed. It was amazing! She told us that a psychologist once evaluated her while studying people with her talent. Apparently, there is a special lobe of the brain that controls word ordering (also apparently separate from the area causing dyslexia) that is very small in most people. Some people have a very large lobe and are born with the ability to easily reverse words. Others have normal sized lobes but can train their brains through lots of practice. Clea claims to be this second kind. I'll see what medical school has to say about this...

In other news, I have a hole in my shorts right in the middle of my crotch that is now about the size of the eraser at the end of a pencil. One day something very embarrassing is going to happen, but that's not stopping me from wearing the shorts a few more times!

Feel free to leave comments regarding Bush's Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts. I'm leaning towards the "he's an asshole" conclusion, but I'll "withhold judgment" until I'm 100% confident that he's a douche bag.

55 million Americans liked this guy. He started 2 wars, lost 1 million jobs, ruined international relations and rejected the Kyoto Accords, which had been agreed upon by about 100 other naitons (just to list a few lines from his CV). But he's such a cutie pie!

Music of the Moment: "Jaded" by Mest