What It Means to See Jesus - A new book, at once skeptical and devotional, considers visions of Christ from the early days of Christianity to the present. - link
Joan Didion’s Specific Vision - In the face of the failure of narrative to make sense of life, she found meaning in the particular. - link
Joan Didion in The New Yorker - The singular writer, who has died, at eighty-seven, started contributing to the magazine after famously leaving its namesake city. - link
Why a New York City School Told Its Students to Stay Home - An assistant principal explains how a spike in cases caused by Omicron brought his school to the breaking point. - link
Three Christmastime Movies to Regift to Others - “Macbeth,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” and “The Matrix Resurrections,” reviewed. - link
From Vox
The surprising brain benefits of exercising with others -
Christina Animashaun/Vox
I reviewed the evidence on dozens of so-called brain enhancers. Here’s what actually works.
In 2020, the world spent more than $7 billion on supplements that promised to enhance brain health. We may as well be setting that money on fire. The quest for the perfect IQ- boosting pill, memory game, or creativity elixir has not been a successful one.
If you’re seeking that one weird trick to improve your brain health, the best place to look might be your feet. That’s the conclusion I reached after my journey through hundreds of studies assessing brain zapping, microdosing, games, and other popular interventions for my book, The Tailored Brain. It turns out one of the only legitimate ways to tailor our brains has been available to us all along: physical activity.
Getting moving has a number of effects that tie directly to the brain’s resilience, from increased blood flow to refreshed connections in the brain itself. But one of the less appreciated ways to enhance these effects even further is to engage with other brains while we engage in exercise.
Humans are, like elephants or naked mole rats, a social species. Evolution shaped us not as single brains making our way through life but as brain collectives, interacting, problem-solving, creating, and, yes, moving through the world, literally, together. A fascinating new hypothesis from evolutionary biology posits that physical activity builds a buffer against the insults of age so that we stick around and are healthy enough to support other people, not so we can sit alone in a cave or a castle and be lonely geniuses.
Interacting with others as we move can unburden our minds, leaving space for crisp new ideas, increased attention, memory power, and a lighter mood. The best news is that even modest amounts of activity offer benefits. Science says so.
How physical activity and social interaction work together
If you find yourself groaning at the idea of more exercise, that may be because “exercise” is an artificial form of physical activity, which can encompass many pursuits from gardening to shopping. And it may be that doing something social while we move around comes to us naturally.
Harvard evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman co-authored a recent review of evidence for the argument that physical activity is an evolutionary adaptation that supports brain health into old age. The idea is that as humans evolved, we moved around a lot to keep ourselves fed and cared for, which supported brain health. Both the physical activity and the healthy brain in turn made us able to care for younger generations into old age.
This idea is an evolutionary explanation for why humans survive well past the reproductive years, which is extremely rare among animals. It goes hand in hand with the “grandmother hypothesis,” which posits that in our post- reproductive years, we stick around to care for little ones in younger generations who carry our genes. By keeping them alive, we keep alive the genes we passed along to them, too. Lieberman and co-authors add to this picture by proposing that physical activity supports the brain and body “healthspan” that allows for a physically active old age.
Exercise gets molecules moving, too, for repairs and remodeling
Physical activity causes damage, Lieberman and his co-authors say, in the form of muscle breakdown and release of damaging oxidant molecules. But the scientists offer evidence that when we repair this damage, we overshoot a bit, leaving things even better off than when we started. A huge antioxidant release in response to oxidants from exercise, for example, could buffer against inflammation, which is linked to degenerative brain diseases.
Even a little exercise, like 20 to 30 minutes a few days a week, goes a long way. Moving around gets our blood moving, and that moves molecules to our brains more efficiently. It’s well known that physical activity can send more oxygen to the energy-hogging brain, for example. The presence of oxygen triggers cells to start using glucose, the brain’s preferred energy molecule.
Low glucose use in the brain has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, even in people without symptoms who carry genetic risk variants for the condition. One 2017 study looked at how well the brains of 93 late-middle-aged adults metabolized glucose after physical activity. The researchers used devices to objectively track physical activity for a week and found a link between moderate physical activity and enhanced glucose use in the brain, which is an indicator of good brain health.
Another study using devices for objective physical activity measurement found that people with higher levels of daily physical activity and good motor abilities scored better on tests of cognition. The 454 participants in that 2019 study underwent the monitoring and testing in the years before their deaths, and agreed to donate their brains for analysis after their deaths. Even when the brains showed changes linked to conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, physical activity levels and motor ability each separately were associated with better performance on the cognitive tests. The researchers speculated that factors like physical activity could enhance the brain’s “cognitive reserve,” or ability to work around damage to the brain and maintain function.
Another measure of the brain’s flexibility and health is how easily it switches from one task to another, which is called “set shifting.” Set shifting is different from multitasking, which is when you’re doing two things at once, like talking on the phone and making dinner. We use set shifting in social situations, for example: think of how you redirect mental resources at a party as you shift from talking with someone about the food to a conversation with someone else about the state of the nation. In a 2021 meta-analysis of 22 trials of how easily people engaged in set shifting, the authors found that light physical activity was associated with easier set shifting, especially for people who were older.
This ability to adapt fluidly as a situation shifts is the domain of the CEO in our heads, otherwise known as our executive function. Executive function is our ability to manage ourselves through working memory, self-control, and flexibility in thinking. A meta-analysis published in 2020 assessed the findings of 36 randomized controlled trials of physical activity’s effects on brain- related measures of executive function. Trials like these are considered the most rigorous kind of research design. These 36 studies collectively included 4,577 young people, and the review pointed to links between physical activity and benefits for different aspects of executive function.
A similar kind of review, also published in 2020, looked at the results of 33 randomized trials that had included people over age 55 and also found a benefit of physical activity for executive function. Yet another analysis of 25 randomized trials found physical exercise-related improvements in several features of executive function in healthy adults age 60 and older.
These analyses of findings from more than 100 studies suggest that physical activity benefits the aging CEO in our brains. If Lieberman and his colleagues are right, one upshot may be a longer healthspan for our brains to match our life spans.
How supplements have turned out to be “brain enhancer” duds
The pursuit of the fountain of youth has never turned up a supplement that works as well as physical activity.
Researchers initially thought omega-3 fatty acids might get some traction as brain improvers, especially for mood. These fatty acids stood out in uncontrolled studies, where scientists just observe people who have been exposed to a factor and compare them with those who haven’t. These so-called observational studies hinted enough at brain benefit from these fatty acids that omega-3s became quite popular as an “evidence-based” brain supplement. Imaging also seemed to indicate that brain connections might reconfigure in presumably beneficial ways with omega-3 use.
We use these molecules in building our brains, so the defensible intuition was that we could take them in pill form and reap brain benefits. But when omega-3 supplements were entered into more rigorous randomized controlled trials, they didn’t keep their brain-based promises for effects on mood and anxiety. They didn’t even best corn oil for improving depression symptoms when added to an antidepressant therapy. And randomized studies of the effects of these fatty acids on cognitive impairment, along with mood, have foundno benefit.
Generally speaking, no supplement stands out for brain benefits. Longtime stalwarts in some circles, including ginkgo biloba and vitamins B, D, and E, haven’t yielded protection from cognitive impairment in studies. So until we can get the effects of exercise into pills, the best we can do for cognitive enhancement is regular physical activity … perhaps with a dose of engagement with other brains.
The benefits of exercise and social interaction are a two-way street
When I talk about “being social,” the definition is broad and largely references connections between brains, in person or from far away in time or space. You and I are making a connection right now. Hello!
What I found in writing The Tailored Brain is an interesting interaction among a few easily accessible tools that seem to best serve our brains. You’ve met one: physical activity. Another is making connections with other people. When we connect with other people and hear their stories, we can boost general thinking capacity and enhance the influence of being physically active. Both can ease stress and anxiety, sand the edges off a bad mood, and lighten cognitive loads.
Strong social links on their own offer life span benefits that could be on par with quitting smoking. A 2020 study in China of almost 8,000 people age 45 or older found that social behaviors, including engaging in sports, benefit cognitive skills. The authors also concluded that the window of opportunity to take up these practices and gain improvements stays open into old age.
The benefits of exercise and social interaction are a two-way street. Physical activity eases anxiety, stress, and an overloaded brain, which makes space for us to truly engage socially. It’s tough to have empathy when your brain is sitting there like the “this is fine” meme featuring the dog in the room on fire. There’s no space left to react to, or try to interact with, or understand others.
But if we move around with others, as generations of humans have before us, we make that space. And if we share our burdens with each other on an evening walk, we get brain-boosting exercise and brain ease all at once, perhaps in a way that feels less forced and more like a fit for the brains that nature gave us.
Emily Willingham is a science journalist and author of The Tailored Brain: From Ketamine, to Keto, to Companionship, A User’s Guide to Feeling Better and Thinking Smarter (Basic Books, 2021) and Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis (Avery, 2020). She is a regular contributor to Scientific American.
How to recognize Covid-19 symptoms from the omicron variant -
A man is swabbed for Covid-19 at a walk-up testing site at Farragut Square in Washington, DC, on December 23. He said he was being tested just as a precaution ahead of the holidays. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP
A mild Covid-19 case from omicron might feel like a cold. You should still take it seriously.
The list of symptoms of Covid-19 has grown longer and stranger throughout the pandemic. With so many people now vaccinated, the warning signs of an infection have grown more subtle and vague. That’s becoming especially evident as the omicron variant gallops around the world, squeezing through the nooks and crannies in the wall of immunity that’s been built over the past two years.
An international team of researchers has been tracking signs of infection throughout the pandemic with the Covid Symptom Study using a mobile app where users could self-report their symptoms. Data on the omicron variant is still preliminary, but a group of 171 app users in the United Kingdom, most of whom are vaccinated, recently reported that their top symptoms for omicron were a runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing, and a sore throat. These were also the top symptoms for people infected with the delta variant.
That’s a departure from “the classic three” Covid-19 symptoms of fever, cough, and loss of sense of smell or taste associated with earlier variants, researchers say.
“For most people, an omicron positive case will feel much more like the common cold, starting with a sore throat, runny nose, and a headache,” Tim Spector, a professor of epidemiology at King’s College London and the lead scientist for the symptom study, told the BBC this week. ”We need to change public messaging urgently to save lives.”
Among the 171 people in the recent symptom data analysis who were suspected or confirmed to be infected with omicron by Britain’s National Health Service, the symptom study team found only half reported fever, cough, or a loss of taste or smell.
Researchers in Norway recently reported similar findings from an omicron outbreak among fully vaccinated guests of a Christmas party. In 87 confirmed or probable cases, the most common symptoms were cough, runny or stuffy nose, fatigue, sore throat, and headache. Just over half reported a fever, while 23 percent experienced a loss of taste and 12 had a decline in smell.
These cases are further evidence that the omicron variant is the most transmissible version of the virus so far, and it seems to be better able to evade prior immunity. Vaccines in the US still offer strong protection against severe illness, however, especially with a booster shot.
“We know we will continue to hear more about people who get infected who are vaccinated,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House press conference this week. “These people may get mild or asymptomatic infections and could unknowingly spread those infections to others.”
In South Africa, one of the first places where the omicron variant was detected, widespread vaccinations against the disease combined with some immunity from prior infection may explain why omicron seems to present with milder symptoms.
“We believe that it might not necessarily just be that omicron is less virulent, but we believe that this coverage of vaccination, also in addition to natural immunity of people who have already had contact with the virus, is also adding to the protection,” South Africa’s Health Minister Joe Phaahla told reporters last week. “That’s why we are seeing mild illness.”
In the US, 73 percent of the population has had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and more than 50 million people have been infected previously, so a significant portion of the population has some degree of protection against the disease.
Even so, some people with omicron will fall severely ill. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Covid-19 symptoms that demand emergency medical care include sudden confusion; inability to stay awake; persistent chest pain or pressure; trouble breathing; and lips, fingernail beds, and skin turning blue, pale, or gray.
In addition, severe illnesses often start out with mild symptoms, and many Covid-19 treatments are most effective in the early stages of the disease. The Food and Drug Administration recently granted emergency authorization to the drug Paxlovid from Pfizer, the first oral antiviral to get a green light from the agency. It’s recommended for “mild-to-moderate” Covid-19 cases in people with risk factors for severe disease.
The emergence of the cold-like symptoms with the omicron variant means that getting tested to confirm whether someone is infected with Covid-19 is more critical than ever to slow the spread of the virus. For people with preexisting health conditions, identifying infections early is key to deploying effective treatments in time.
Frequent rapid testing for Covid-19 can catch omicron cases, though they tend to have lower accuracy compared to more expensive and time-consuming PCR tests. Many local health departments are scaling up their public testing systems, and the FDA has increased the number of rapid rests authorized for use. But in some areas, rapid tests remain scarce and too costly to use regularly.
So it’s crucial to take mild Covid-19 symptoms seriously and just as important to prevent infections in the first place. That requires getting vaccinated against Covid-19, getting a booster dose if eligible, wearing an effective face mask in public settings, and social distancing. Despite the latest twists in the pandemic, these measures remain the best bets for keeping the virus in check.
The world’s largest space telescope is set to launch on Christmas. Here’s how to watch. -
An artist’s depiction of the JWST deployed in space. | NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
The James Webb Space Telescope is finally launching. But so much can still go wrong.
After decades of planning, engineering, many delays, and some controversy, it’s finally happening: The James Webb Space Telescope is set to launch at 7:20 am Eastern on Saturday, December 25, making it a long-awaited Christmas present for scientists around the world. (Though further delays are possible. Earlier this week, NASA was eyeing a Christmas Eve launch but changed plans due to bad weather.)
After the telescope launches from French Guiana to a point nearly a million miles away from Earth, it will become the largest telescope in space, capable of showing humanity regions of space (and time) never seen before.
NASA, which is launching the telescope in collaboration with the European Space Agency and Canada, will broadcast the launch live, with a feed scheduled to start at 6 am Eastern. You can stream it below.
Be prepared for a nail-biter. The launch and subsequent deployment are high-stakes for a few reasons:
The telescope has to pull off a difficult mechanical maneuver: assembling itself, in space. The telescope is so large — about the size of a tennis court — that it needs to launch folded up inside the rocket. Once in space, it needs to deploy and unfold itself, flawlessly, in sequence over the course of several weeks. According to NASA, there are more than 300 “single point failures” involved in the mission. These are technical problems that, if they arise, could doom the whole endeavor. (See how the Webb unfolds in the video below.)
Because the Webb is being sent so far away — about four times the distance of the Earth to the moon — if anything goes wrong with the telescope mechanically, scientists on the ground will be out of luck. It will not be possible to launch a crewed mission to repair it. (The Hubble Space Telescope, infamously, had to be repaired after it was launched. It’s only 340 miles away.)
The cost. After being approved in the early 2000s, the telescope was originally supposed to launch in 2010 and cost around $1 billion. Since then, the price tag has ballooned to around $10 billion.
If the Webb survives its journey and deploys according to plan, scientists say it will be a paradigm-shifting telescope in terms of our understanding of the universe.
Why the James Webb Space telescope is such a big deal
The Webb, which is (controversially) named after a former NASA administrator, improves on its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, in two key ways. The first is just its size: Hubble was about the size of a school bus, whereas Webb is more like the size of a tennis court. “This thing is enormous,” Amber Straughn, an astrophysicist at NASA who works on the Webb, said earlier this year. “Webb is by far the biggest telescope NASA’s ever attempted to send into space.”
But it’s not just the total size of the contraption that matters. When it comes to reflecting telescopes like these, the key component is the size of its curved mirror. Hubble’s mirror was an impressive 7.8 feet in diameter. Webb’s beautiful, gold-hued mirrors combine for a diameter of 21.3 feet. Overall, that amounts to more than six times the light-collecting area.
NASA
The Webb’s other advantage is the type of light it collects.
Light comes in a lot of different varieties. The human eye can see only a narrow band known as visible light, but the universe contains lots of light outside this range, including the higher-frequency, higher-energy forms: ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays. Then there’s the lower-energy light with longer wavelengths: infrared, microwaves, radio.
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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Hubble could observe a little bit of infrared light, but Webb takes it much further.
The Hubble Space Telescope collects visible light, ultraviolet, and a little bit of infrared. The Webb is primarily an infrared telescope, so it sees light with a longer wavelength than our eyes can see. This seems nerdy and technical, but it’s actually what allows Webb to look further back in time than the Hubble.
Infrared light is often very old light, due to a phenomenon called redshifting. When a light source is moving away from a viewer, it gets stretched out, morphing into longer and longer wavelengths. Because space is constantly expanding, the farthest things away from us in the universe are moving away from us. “And as light travels through space from those distant galaxies, the light is literally stretched by the expansion of space,” Straughn says.
This is also why the Webb is being launched so far away. Because Webb is an infrared telescope, it needs to be kept cold. The Earth itself is warm and glows in infrared. “Anything warm glows in infrared light,” Straughn says. “If the telescope was warm, it would just glow and see itself.” So NASA and its partners are sending the telescope to orbit a point in space called a Lagrange point, a spot where the telescope can orbit the sun, all the while staying cold and in line with the Earth.
Michael McClare/Aaron E. Lepsch/Josh Masters via NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
The James Webb Space Telescope’s orbit, as seen from above the sun’s north pole and from Earth’s perspective.
All told, these features will allow astronomers to look not only farther out in space but also further back in time. Webb will be able to search for the first stars and galaxies of the universe, and see “cosmic dawn,” a time when the universe went from being opaque and dark to transparent and filled with starlight. It will allow scientists to make careful studies of numerous exoplanets — planets that orbit stars other than our sun — and even embark on a search for signs of life there.
“We’re going right up to the edge of the observable universe with Webb,” says Caitlin Casey, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. “And yeah, we’re excited to see what’s there.”
Further reading
For more on the capabilities of the James Webb, how it works, and answers to the question “Where do you point a $10 billion telescope?” — check out this in-depth explainer featuring scientists who will be among the first to use the telescope for observations.
Even the powerful James Webb has limitations, and scientists are already planning for future telescopes to observe things it can’t, like the cosmic dark ages or the inferno of the early universe right after the big bang.
Further listening
Vox’s Unexplainable podcast devoted two episodes to the James Webb Space Telescope.
The first describes the technical capabilities of the telescope, and how the telescope will help astronomers look for life on planets orbiting suns other than our own.
The second describes how astronomers will use the telescope to look for “cosmic dawn,” which is, as Casey explains, “the first [star] light that turned on at the very beginning of cosmic time.”
From The Hindu: Sports
Harbhajan Singh’s career in pictures - The veteran off-spinner announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Friday
Harbhajan Singh: A match winner who gave it his all - With 100-plus Tests and 400-plus wickets, most of them not exactly coming on rank turners, Harbhajan’s name will always figure among true blue cricketing elites.
Veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh retires from all forms of cricket - Harbhajan, who made his India debut during an ODI against New Zealand at Sharjah in 1998, last played for the country in March 2016
India in south Africa | Dravid talks about understanding mind space, I worked on it in last one year: Mayank Agarwal - “I am glad that I could comeback and put in the performances and I look to do the same”
The Ashes | McGrath expects ‘more aggression’ from England in third Test - “To turn things around they have to be much more aggressive. For all of us, the Ashes is the ultimate. All we want is to see a battle that’s close”
From The Hindu: National News
Anti-conversion bill faces hurdle in Karnataka Legislative Council - BJP lacks the numbers in Upper House
Kolkata counts down to a very festive Christmas - The city of joy has not looked this vibrant since the pandemic began. with Park Street bathed in colourful lights and giant billboards
Decision on holding Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls next week, says CEC - Allahabad HC had called for postponement given spread of Omicron variant
Lack of debates marks 10-day legislature session in Belagavi - Members cutting across party lines complain about paucity of time
Binay Tamang joins the Trinamool Congress - Former Gorkhaland Territorial Administration chief joins TMC along with Rohit Sharma, also a prominent leader in the crucial Darjeeling hills area
From BBC: Europe
Russian priest who adopted 70 children jailed for abuse - Nikolai Stremsky, reputed to have had Russia’s biggest family, is convicted of raping children.
Mali: West condemns Russian mercenaries ‘deployment’ - Fifteen European countries and Canada accuse Russia of providing support to the mercenaries.
Switzerland’s wolves get too close for comfort - Alpine villages say the animals have started approaching children and they need to fend them off.
US and Russia agree to talk as Putin hits out on Ukraine - Russia’s leader demands an immediate response to his calls for Nato to pull back in Eastern Europe.
Selfridges sold for £4bn to Thai-Austrian alliance - The British luxury store chain is being bought by Thailand’s Central Group and Signa Group of Austria.
From Ars Technica
The 20 most-read stories of 2021 on Ars Technica - Pandemics, a fragile electrical grid, Lego, and rocket launches galore. - link
Review: Matrix Resurrections has just enough of the old magic to delight fans - It’s a flawed but solid addition to the franchise that works more often than it doesn’t. - link
Big Tech split leads to demise of Internet Association - US lobby group closes as Silicon Valley firms are distancing themselves from each other. - link
Rainy years can’t make up for California’s groundwater use - And without additional restrictions, they may not recover for several decades. - link
2021 was the year the world finally turned on Facebook - Can a name change save the company’s tarnished reputation? - link
With a seductive voice… With a very seductive voice the woman asked her husband, “Have you ever seen Twenty Dollars all crumpled up?” -
“No,” said her husband. She gave him a sexy little smile, unbuttoned the top 3 or 4 buttons of her blouse, and slowly reached down into the cleavage created by a soft, silky push-up bra, and pulled out a crumpled Twenty Dollar bill.
He took the crumpled Twenty Dollar bill from her and smiled approvingly.
She then asked him, “Have you ever seen Fifty Dollars all crumpled up?”
“Uh…no, I haven’t,” he said, with an anxious tone in his voice.
She gave him another sexy little smile, pulled up her skirt, and seductively reached into her tight, sheer panties… and pulled out a crumpled Fifty Dollar bill.
He took the crumpled Fifty Dollar bill, and started breathing a little quicker with anticipation.
“Now,” she said, “have you ever seen $100,000 Dollars all crumpled up?”
“No way!” he said, while obviously becoming even more aroused and excited.
A man walks by a 5 star restaurant and sees a sign on the window that says “piano player wanted” -
He asks to speak to the manager, who he then tells he’d like to apply for the job. The manager brings him over to the piano to see what he’s got. The man plays the most beautiful piece the manager has ever heard. He pulls out his handkerchief to wipe away a few tears.
Deeply moved, the manager asks him what the name of the piece is. The man says “Well it’s an original work of my own composition. I call it the I fucked your sister in the ass and came all over her tits in D minor.”
Slightly taken aback, the manager says, “Oh. Do you know any other songs?”
The man plays another one even more beautiful than the first. The manager excuses himself to step outside and collect himself. When he comes back, he asks for the name. The man tells him it’s another original he calls “How the hell did I get dog shit all over my nuts blues.”
“Look.” The manager says, “I’m going to hire you because quite frankly, you’re the best piano player I’ve ever heard. On one condition though; never tell the patrons the names of the songs you’re playing.”
The man agrees, they shake hands, and he starts that very night. He’s killing it on the stage while the customers are both enjoying their dinner and being moved to tears at his masterful playing. At one point in his set, he has to go to the bathroom. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be taking a short intermission. Please enjoy your dinner and I will be right back.”
He goes into the bathroom and takes his piss. In his rush to get back to the stage, he forgets to pull his pants up as he rushes out of the bathroom. As he’s walking out the door, a guy is coming in and tells him “Hey. Do you know your pants are down and your cock is hanging out?”
“Know it?” The man says, “What do you think I’ve been playing the last twenty minutes?”
A 65-year-old man walked into a crowded waiting room and approached the desk. -
The Receptionist said, ‘Yes sir, what are you seeing the Doctor for today?’
‘There’s something wrong with my dick’, he replied.
The receptionist became irritated and said, ‘You shouldn’t come into a crowded waiting room and say things like that.’
‘Why not, you asked me what was wrong and I told you,’ he said.
The Receptionist replied; ‘Now you’ve caused some embarrassment in this room full of people. You should have said there is something wrong with your ear or something and discussed the problem further with the Doctor in private.’
The man replied, ’You shouldn’t ask people questions in a roomful of strangers if the answer could embarrass anyone. The man walked out, waited several minutes, and then re-entered.
The Receptionist smiled smugly and asked, ‘Yes??’
‘There’s something wrong with my ear,’ he stated.
The Receptionist nodded approvingly and smiled, knowing he had taken her advice.. ‘And what is wrong with your ear, Sir?’
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NASA
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Michael McClare/Aaron E. Lepsch/Josh Masters via NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center