Bodies / This Weekend

First things first: Spectacular football weekend. The Colts absolutely took apart the Saints, Purdue had a convincing win over the Eastern Illinois School for Wayward Girls, and Notre Dame was humiliated by Penn State. The only game I was able to watch was Indy Thursday night, and though I always enjoy a Colts victory, I hate for it to come at the expense of my boy Drew Brees. What I did like was seeing former Colt Jason David get burned repeatedly- just like he did when he played for Indy!

As for Purdue, I'm not sure how I feel about scheduling games against Football Championship Subdivision (the artist formerly know as Division II) schools. I hate to see Purdue paying the little guys to come in and taking a beating in the name of helping their stats, but on the other hand, everybody does it. Why not take an easy win early in the season? Of course, it doesn't always go as planned.

I spent the weekend in Arlington, and our main activity on Friday was checking out the Bodies exhibit. Ramya had actually suggested it for our second date, but I had put it off, feeling that it was too early to pass out in front of a girl I was trying to impress. But you know what? It was awesome! They really blurred the line between science and art, with all sorts of different specimens opened up to show different aspects. There were many entire bodies, but also smaller things like just an arm or a leg, with enough information for a non-medical type like me to understand without being overwhelmed. My only comment/complaint was that they didn't leave the fat on any of the bodies, which made it look like they were all the remains of triathletes. Because if you think about it, is there really any difference between a fat guy and a buff dude once you remove that layer (remember: non-medical type)? Plus, the image of all that fat clinging to everything could be an effective diet aid.

There was a lady at the end who was answering questions, and since she was wearing white coat I figured she must be some sort of doctor (because they don't just give those things away). When we walked up she let us handle an actual heart and brain. It wasn't gross, because they just felt like the polymer they use to harden the samples. Anyway, I asked her what it would look like if they left the fat on the bodies and if there was anyway to tell how heavy they were during their better days. She sputtered out some nonsense that instantly let us know that for this job you didn't so much need to "be a doctor" as you did "memorize some factoids." Ramya asked if all the bodies were Chinese, and she confirmed that they were. And as we walked away she added "But it is true though- we all look the same on the inside!" Except that we don't...and they actually had an exhibit about how various muscle structures tell you what ethnicity the bodies were. But we knew what she meant.

After obtaining this new found wisdom, we did what anyone would do after examining a bunch of dead bodies: Head across the street for some Chipotle. Halfway through my burrito I realized that I hadn't washed my hands since handling an actual human heart. I said "I hope there's no residue that's going to harden my heart. Or gonna swallow my tears." At this point Ramya looked at me quizzically until I added "Or gonna turn...and...le-heave yooooou heeeeeeeeeere!" at which point she started to realized what she's signed up for. Actually, I was probably in more danger from whatever the kids in front of us had on their grubby little mits when they touched the heart than from the organ itself.

That night we watched a documentary called This Film is Not Yet Rated, which explores the MPAA and how they assign ratings to movies. I liked it, because they really break down how arbitrary and inconsistent the ratings are, and they have decent commentary from several frustrated filmmakers (including Kevin Smith and Matt Stone). They also examine how any hint of sexuality gets you an R or NC-17, but you can skate with as much gratuitous violence as you can cram in (which is exactly the opposite in Europe). Then it derails a little when the director is enraged that the MPAA will not disclose the identities of their raters, so he hires private detectives to stake out the building and follow them. Then they make a big production out of it by saying "The MPAA raters are:" and splaying their names and personal information up on the screen. They do it with a grand sense of self-righteousness, like they've found escaped convicts, and they're doing a great service to all of mankind by bringing them to justice. Which is really the problem with this movie: It thinks it is a very important documentary that should be required watching for all Americans. What's more is that people on Facebook give it five stars and say things like "OUTSTANDING! Everyone should watch this! People need to know what's going on behind closed doors!" Okay, yes. The MPAA is a little sketchy, and studios won't release pictures that have NC-17 ratings, so in turn filmmakers feel censored. But come on- it's not like we're talking about global warming or political corruption. Still, it's interesting if you're a movie buff.

We rounded out the weekend with a ride on the Mt. Vernon trail, which was really, really nice. We thought maybe we'd go all the way from Ramya's place to the end, but that quickly proved to be way to ambitious. We did make it to old town though, and all in all it was a nice ride. Ramya's doing really well for a newbie! We'll definitely be doing it again.

There's more, but this is getting long. I'll finish with my favorite quote of the weekend:
Marc: "How many feet are in a mile?"
Ramya (instantly): "Three. Wait...that's a yard. "
This is a good time to point out that Ramya is perfectly smart- I just like that for a split second, her brain thought perhaps three feet being a mile was reasonable. By the way, 5280 Feet= 1 Mile.

For the rest of this week I'm off to New Orleans, where I'm going to try to not touch anything and get out of there as soon as possible. Then this weekend: Rehoboth Beach!