Types of Ungulates

An ungulate is a mammal with hooves. Lots of people know that but it's less widely known that there are two orders of ungulates.

Artiodactyla is the order that includes ungulates with an even number of toes. This is a big group that encompasses camels, pigs, giraffes, deer, cattle, sheep, goats, and others.

The smaller order of ungulate is called Perissodactyla. It includes odd-toed animals: horses, tapirs, and rhinoceroses.

http://www.ultimateungulate.com/familytree.html

Temperature-Changing Breasts

A woman's breast changes temperature in response to the temperature of anything touching it. Something cool will make the skin warm up, and something warm will make the skin cool down. This is a useful response to an fevered infant or a baby with a chill. All a mother has to do is hold her baby to her chest and her body will automatically adjust to keep the baby's temperature around 36.9 ºC (98.4 ºF). So, boobs are pretty cool. Or warm, depending on what you need.

http://jhl.sagepub.com/content/23/1/60.abstract

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/healthy_living/infant_care/hic_kangaroo_care.aspx

http://www.nursingcenter.com/library/JournalArticle.asp?Article_ID=670051

The Persian Custom of Ta'arof

Ta'arof is an exaggeratedly civil form of interaction in Iranian culture. It's a pattern of conversation that can lengthen and confuse a simple interaction with one party insisting on a favor, and the other doggedly denying it.

An few examples of ta'arof: a guest compliments something in the home of his host, and the host immediately offers it to the guest as a gift. The guest and host go back and forth, using flattery and modesty to indirectly determine if the gift is willingly offered. Or a shopkeeper insists an item is worthless until their customer has sufficiently begged them to take money for it.

Ta'arof stems from a cultural value on hospitality and politeness. It stresses that nothing is important but the comfort and convenience of a guest or customer. It can be kind of like a game, but when cues are misread or one party doesn't know ta'arof, things can get out of hand. Hosts promise more than they can afford, hungry people refuse food, and friends end up agreeing to a favor they never intended to carry out.

My boyfriend likes to tell a story about how his Iranian father subverted ta'arof by using an extreme version of it. He went out to lunch with his father and a friend of his father, who was also Iranian; knowing the friend would try to take the check when it arrived, his father pretended to go to the bathroom, then stopped the waitress and gave her his card before their food even showed up. Later, she dropped off the bill and of course, his friend reached for it, only to find it had already been paid for. My boyfriend says the friend was so upset, the following argument nearly turned into a fistfight. Apparently, missing a chance to be polite can make a person very impolite.

Sources:

http://www.iranian.com/Ghahremani/2005/March/Taarof/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taarof

Words

Chancre (shang-ker): A lesion that appears at the onset of syphilis. It is hard to the touch but doesn't cause pain.

Boscage (boss-kij): A clump of bushes or trees, apparently not large enough to be called a forest.

Gaslighting (gass-lite-ing): The act of using denial and deception to undermine someone's reliance on their own perceptions.