lassoing the brain

Modified version of diagram by

Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator; C. Carl Jaffe, MD, cardiologist

On one hand, there is a clear boundary between the brain and the body. Reach into a cracked-open skull, peel away its linings and you can pluck a brain right out of a head. And in school diagrams, it’s clear where the brain stops and the body begins. The brain is the worm-like ball of pink, sometimes with a tiny tail at the bottom, sometimes not, floating in the middle of the head. So in one sense, yes, in a diagram-sense, there is a clear boundary between the brain and the body, but that boundary is an illusion. Of all the human organs, the brain is the most difficult to contain.

okra flower

photo: jetheriot

book signing

ten things i learned painting a large branch

photo: jetheriot

1. Even gray comes in shades of gray. A shade of gray can seem neutral on a swatch or looking down into an open can of paint, but when an entire wall has been painted, and especially when that wall is in a room carpeted with a different shade of gray, the hue of the paint is all too obvious and can take on unflattering tones of blue or yellow unexpectedly.

baby doll face hand

photo: jetheriot

rocking horse head

photo: jetheriot

The nine-inch-long wooden dowel still stuck through the plastic head-carcass can be slid back and forth about an inch in either direction, prevented from falling out by some hidden internal mechanism.

candlelight and panties

photo: jetheriot