The things I don't know. . .

. . . could fill a book. Okay, maybe a few books. All right, a friggin' encyclopedia.

I have always prided myself in learning broadly and felt confident I was a dependable repository of knowledge ranging from essentially worthless to absolutely critical. However the boundaries of knowledge keep receding further and further from my reach and. . . well, how's a girl to keep up? There are only so many hours in the day for reading, studying, researching, and gargling at the fountains of wisdom. And lately, I've been coming up a little short in some areas.

For YOUR enlightenment, I thought I'd share a few of the ideas and concepts I've tripped over and skinned knees on lately.

Tappas. . . which sounded like a 1950 brand of ovens to me. (Turns out, that was "Tappan.") My second guess was that it was a style of Brazilian gaucho pants that were last in style in the 70's. (I don't get out much.) Turns out, it's "meat," [Well, perhaps not. It turns out that what I heard was wrong-- it comes from the Spanish word "tapa," which means "cover" See, I'm always learning!]. Little tasty (meaty or cheesey or dippy) dishes that are served as apperitifs or light meals in trendy bars. Accompanied by trendy alcohol. Couldn't they just say food?

Feng Shui. . . which sounded like "funk sway" to me and reminded me of George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadellic. Or some such. Movin' and groovin', anyway. Turns out, it's a Japanese philosophy of spatial and architectural arrangement, the principles of which are meant to increase the flow of "chi" in our homes and lives and bring us into harmony with our surroundings. Not a bad concept. Now, if I only understood what "chi" was.

Consilience. . . which sounded like a bizarre blend of "silly" and "conscience." (Kon sil e ence). I had no idea where to start with this one, besides a dictionary. Turns out, it's a new expression of an old idea. . . that similar ideas arise or are deduced (inducted?) from separate fields of study and point to the concurrence or agreement of natural and philosophical concepts. Separate lines of inquiry ultimately leading to the same place? Sounds like a variation on synchronicity to me. Not sure it will catch on at cocktail parties.

Prions. . . sounded vaguely like a humanoid race encountered by Jean Luc Piccard and Number One in episode #46 of The Next Generation. Prions. Weren't they the blue ones with the funny little cone tipped antennae? Turns out. . . not so much. Prions are proteins with an attitude. They're proteins that enter cells and interfere with cellular metabolism and cause mega-illnesses. They've been determined to cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which is a nasty kind of encephalitis similar to Mad Cow. . . that can be spread through injestion. . . eating. There have been cases of prions causing clusters of fatal illness. . . and prions are one of the several boogeymen pointed to by opponents of genetic alteration of foods. Prions may be bad, but they must not be too widespread or we'd be hearing a lot more about them!

GMF. . . (NOT to be confused with GMC!). . . sounded like a new brand of mountain bike to me. Or maybe a new all-weather radial from Goodyear. Nope. GMF stands for Genetically Modified Food. And it turns out, there are precious few things on grocery shelves these days that don't contain ingredients that come from genetically modified (altered) plants and animals. Virtually all wheat, corn, and soybeans sold for human consumption in the U.S. are "transgenic". . . that is, have genes from other organisms inserted into their code. It ain't just "franken-tomatoes" anymore, folks!

Bioprospecting. . . sounded like biology and prospecting put together. And it is. Bioprospecting is the practice of going to regions identified as rich in "biodiversity" and looking for biological materials--especially genetic-- that may be useful in the "engineering" of food or medicine and can be patented by a bio-tech company. Said bological materials may include the blood of native peoples. A very touchy issue in some parts. And, yes, they're patenting human genes. All over the place. Did you know that patents have been granted for something like 20% of the human genome? Yes, YOUR human genes. Patented. You can't do whatever you want with your genes now. Except, of course, pass them along to offspring. Thank heaven nobody's patented that. Yet.

Polyamory. . . this one I got a handle on without a lot of sweat. It sounds curiously like a combination of "poly" (many) and amorous" (love). Well it is. Defined in the New Webster as: the state or practice of having more than one open romantic relationship at a time. Not exactly a new concept. . . so why haven't we heard the word before? Because before when we talked about it we called it "open" marriage, cheating, philandering, swinging, etc. . . and it generally had a stigma attached. Now we need a new term because we want to be able to talk about it without attaching fusty old moralistic labels. This is a sociological term for a new age.


Well, there you have a few things I didn't know. From time to time, I'll try to update you with neat new finds.

What about you? Got any new words or concepts you're fascinated with and willing to share? They don't have to be new. . . just new to you. . .