Thursday, March 06, 2008
The Footedness of Beaches
Discussing the three right feet - each wearing a trainer - that have washed ashore in Canada, Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer, said, 'Left footwear and right footwear often tend to wash up at different times at different places because they float differently. There are beaches that collect mostly rights and other beaches that collect mostly lefts.'I was in danger of never finding that out. My mild OCD will now oblige me to check every beach I visit for its footedness.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
I wish I hadn't read that. My mild OCD will now oblige me to check every beach I visit for Bryan Appleyard checking every beach he visits for its footedness.
ReplyDeleteWell maybe I've led a sheltered life, but I've yet to see a foot washed ashore on a beach. It sounds as if it's pretty much an everyday occurrence, if they can form such confident conclusions. What about hands? I'd have thought you got more of them, what with crims wanting to avoid fingerpint ID of their victims...
ReplyDeleteNige wrote: What about hands? I'd have thought you got more of them, what with crims wanting to avoid fingerpint ID of their victims...
ReplyDeleteYes, gives a new meaning to the phrase "Hands across the ocean", and not one you'd want to shake by the time it arrives. One wonders if these scientists have done a bit of Burke and Hare to test their theories. "Alas, poor Yorick. His left hand cost me two bucks, Horatio."
I read the same quote today and threw the newspaper across the room. How is it possible for a left foot and a right foot to travel differently? Is one foot slightly bigger than the other, or what?
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