March 26 2020 - Losing Smell and Taste

I found out yesterday that one of the symptoms of the COVID-19 virus is losing one's sense of taste and smell.  Doctors are adding this to the list of screening tools. The condition of losing one's smell and taste is known as anosmia.  It can be caused by head injury, infection, or blockage of the nose.  Approximately 1 in 8 Americans over the age of 40 have this problem.  It is also known as smell blindness, or being 'nose blind'. When people have an absence of smell at birth, it often takes a few years before they realize the absence, and tell their parents. Smell and taste are considered a pleasure experience.  The absence of these mean the distinctions and differences of smell and flavours are lost.  This, according to one doctor: "When you lose your sense of smell, your whole sense of food flavor is distorted and diminished," Cowart says. "You can still taste the basic tastes which are sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami or savory. What you're missing are the sort of subtle distinctions, the difference between strawberry and banana; between chocolate and vanilla." Smell and taste has a safety aspect: There are also the warning things that keep people safe.  Is the milk sour, is something burning on the stove, is there a gas leak?   There are other medical conditions involved in smell:  There is the partial loss of smell - hyposmia.  More serious to me is Paraosmia - the illusion or hallucination of a smell - usually a bad odour such as drains or faeces.   The medically therapeutic potential of aromas has been proven in scientific studies.   Papers have been published since the 1920's outlining the effects of essential oils on the nervous system, and their influences on moods and emotions.  In 1998, patients with advanced dementia were the subject of a controlled experiment using diffused lavender oil, and it was effective in improving 60 percent of patients' behaviour compared with the placebo.  Lavender is well-known as a relaxant, and bees have been observed to fall asleep in lavender plants.  The science of aroma-chology is dedicated to the study of the interrelationship between psychology and fragrance technology to elicit a variety of specific feelings and emotions. This seems to me to explain the many different smells we have in every day products - from cleaners, air fresheners, soaps, and skin care products to paper. There are so many synthetic fragrances that fragrance-free is a phrase that implies non-toxic living.  So as we move into Spring, we move into flowers - some fragrant some not, and definitely with a benefit of Emotional Value, as outlined below.

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The Best of the Best

What is this website Best of the Best? I was looking for the top number 1 'things' and I found this British site,  It is a lottery for winning cars on a weekly basis.  The caption is:  Choose your dream car tickets.  This was started by William Hindmarsh in 1999, who says he loves cars. He grew up around his father's cars - Lotus Elite, Frog Eye Sprite and even an E-Type. There's a dream car winner every week so here's the latest winner story.  "THE STORY As a centre-forward for FC Le Mont in the Swiss football second division, Jorge Reixa knows a thing or two about challenging defenders for headers – which comes in handy when looking at the Dream Car Comp Spot the Ball photos! Jorge has been entering online for a while after seeing BOTB in Gatwick and last week he played for the half-price Ford Mustang GT. Christian was waiting for Jorge in the arrivals hall of Schipol airport earlier this morning with the incredible news that he was the 356th winner, taking him straight down the local Ford dealer to show him his new pride and joy. Jorge was ecstatic, particularly after getting the double delight of £10,000 in cash too - congratulations Jorge!" This is the way one wins: One has to identify the x y coordinates of a ball in a picture.  There is a panel of judges who are experienced football referees and ex-international players who use their expertise to decide where the centre of the ball is.  Game Credit is awarded for doing well in Dream Car Competitions, depending on how close you are to the winning position. It seems complicated, but extremely successful. The site says that  20 million pounds worth of cars have been won since it started.  There's an extensive array of all kinds of cars to be won.  I noticed a McLaren, a Maserati, and an Aston Marton as I scrolled down.   And there are cars with exotic names - a Vuhl, Caterham, and a Radical.  So in my search for the best of the best I seem to have found an example of that very thing. There are amazing things happening around us that are a testament to creativity in action.

Age Old or Old Age

Do you remember the 96 year old man who ran the marathon to become the oldest person to finish a marathon?  That was in 2015. There are others in that age range who have completed physical activities that most people would not be able to contemplate let alone to complete.   I found list25.com with all the oldest people accomplishments - bungee jumping at 96, visiting the north pole at 89, sail around the world at 77, release a new music album at 92, oldest practicing pediatrician at 103, and oldest doctorate at 97, and so on.  I could not predict this one, though.  It came via a headline in December in the Toronto Star:  Notorious 86-year-old jewel thief strikes again in Atlanta, police say "Doris Payne, who was the subject of a 2013 documentary, faces another shoplifting charge, this time for slipping a $2,000 diamond necklace into her pocket. Payne told the AP she realized a simple distraction could make it easy to slip out with a fancy trinket in hand after a friendly store owner let her try on watches as a child and then forgot she had the jewelry on. Her career was born in her 20s when she got the idea that she could support herself by lifting jewelry." I wonder if she has applied to the Guinness Book of Records to be the oldest practicing thief, 86. Or does the Guinness Book 'recognize' achievers without requiring an application? I was in the Watering Can in St. Catharines this week, and took these photos of calla lilies.

Who Could Love a Pig Lily?

Wake Up on the Bright Side How does a plant get its common name?  Calla Lily has a few common names.  They include Pig Lily, White Arum, Trumpet Lily, Florist's Calla, Garden Calla and Arum Lily.  One site tells me that the word Calla comes from the Greek term for beautiful.  The Merriam Webster dictionary site says that the origin of Calla Lily is new latin, genus name, modification of Greek kallaia rooster's wattles.  Two well-known artists made Calla Lilies a frequent subject of their work:  Georgia O'Keeffe painted Calla Lilies many times with swirling, flowing lines.  Robert Maplethorpe photographed them in black and white with light shining through the flowers.

Delicate Balance

There are so many flowers with lily in the common name.  I realized this when I started hosting a group on redbubble.  The group is All Glorious Lilies.  It was intended to feature Lilium lilies only.  Since the end of January the group expanded to include everything in the Liliaceae family as well as flowers with lily in the common name.  

Doing some research, I found out that plant families are in the process of being organized.  The defining factor is whether the genus plants are actually related. So many genera were removed from the Liliaceae family were removed and located elsewhere.  There are now only a few genera in the Lily family - of which Lilium and Tulips are the best known.  

The flower below is a calla lily, one of the flowers with lily in its common name.