Jason E. Andersen

If I struck a nerve with last week’s post, I apologize. It contained the following phrase: “…when that same stuff is wet, the light first hits the thin layer of moisture, which bends and diffuses the light…” The italics weren’t there by coincidence and I’m sorry if it offended anyone. That was insensitive of me and it won’t happen again.

Bonus Fun Fact: An investigative paper from Oberlin College found that approximately 20% of the population equate the word moist to the sound of nails scraping on a chalkboard. This is likely due to moist being closely associated with bodily functions and other anatomical unmentionables.

In psychology, this is called word aversion.

If you want to learn more about moist, and the other words considered in the investigation, you can read the Scientific American article titled Probing the Moist Crevices of Word Aversion. It’s a hoot.

Completely Unrelated Bonus Bonus Fun Fact: Whoopi Goldberg’s real name is Caryn Johnson. I bet you didn’t know that.