Recently in my Pathophysiology class, we have been talking about the cardiovascular system, and naturally, because heart disease is so prevalent in our country, we were talking about prevention methods.
My nursing professor, a woman around her mid 40s who is about 60-70 (or more) pounds overweight, said, “As soon as we make broccoli taste like potato chips, people will eat it. Until then, it doesn’t matter how much education we get or how many more studies are conducted to show the effects of eating well on our health, Americans will not change their eating habits. It will only happen when broccoli tastes like potato chips, and whoever figures that out will be a wealthy man. Just look at me! I won’t eat broccoli till it tastes good, and I’m teaching you this stuff!”
So apparently the rest of the university is wrong; people won’t change just because of their level of education.
By the way, I certainly hope we never figure out how to make broccoli taste like potato chips because I happen to love broccoli the way it comes off the plant.
In my ethics class we have been studying ethics around how we treat the land. Today my TA was wondering out loud if it were morally wrong to eat a tomato that had been flown in from Mexico during the winter because of all the green house gas emissions that were produced in transportation. That made me think of one of my nutty customers at Bloomingfoods last summer. She was at the salad bar, and demanded,
“Why aren’t these greens organic!!?”
“Well, they actually are. But because they are grown locally and not certified, we can’t sell them as organic.”
Then she exploded.
“I don’t care if we have to kill the whole state of California!! You NEED to see organic greens here.”
My A&P lab, which starts at 7:30 every Tuesday, way too early to be dissecting, poking etc., is usually interesting. It is especially when the TAs preface it with tips on how to help a fainting friend, or people who are squeamish at the sight of blood.
This morning, it was warm enough to ride my bike to campus for the first time all year! So I got to Lily in about 10 minutes as opposed to the 25-30 it usually takes me to walk there. It was great! But my tea was hotter than normal, and I completely forgot about its presence in my backpack, so when I bent over by bike to lock it up, I got soaked with nice smelling hot water. Ouch! And the Brrr. Oops.
Then I went into my lab and watched the coordinator set up lots of sharp boxes and “incinerator” boxes for biohazard materials. This was going to be exciting! Then our TAs arrived and started talking about what to do if one of us started fainting. Really? Who would really faint at the sight of blood? And it would be only the sight of blood because not everyone had to get stuck.
So we started out lab, collecting about half of the student’s blood, and then someone went down! Not all the way down to the floor, but far enough down. The excitement started. The TAs started calling for emergency personal to come and the first police man who came was on his bike. He road it to the basement of the Biology building!! The next half hour or so was spent trying to revive and stabilize the girl, until all the blood was put away and cleaned up.
It was a nice way to wake up this morning, and when I was fully awake, I realized that it wasn’t a dream. I just hope that student who fainted wasn’t a nursing student. There should be some way to test whether girls will faint at the sight of blood before they are allowed into the nursing school. =)
This semester, I am taking an Art History class (1400AD-Modern) from one of my sister’s favorite Profs (who remembers her most for her bear, Edward.) On the first day of class, a student’s cell phone started ringing. Without missing a beat, Professor Parrish said, “silence that phone immediately. This time I will let it pass, but in future do you know what we do to phones that go off in during class? We take them up front, put them on the floor and grind our heel into it. Then it will not ever go off again.”
The student whose phone was ringing frantically found her phone and turned it off. Then there was no more ringing in class. Then, Monday rolled around. Professor Parrish was lecturing on early Renaissance architecture. Suddenly, in the middle of talking about Philippe Brunelleschi, who lost a competition in Florence to design the doors to the Baptistery, the ringing of the phone breaks Professor Parrish’s sentence. Confused, Professor Parrish says, “That sounds like my phone. Oh well. They must not know I’m in class… or it’s an emergency. But you can never get to it on time. So where were we. Oh yes! Brunelleschi…” The phone finally stopped, but then immediately started again. “Well! It may be an emergency. Excuse me, I’m going to answer this… Hello? Yes, I am in the middle of teaching a class. Can I call you back later… I need to teach, I’m in the middle of a lecture! Yes, thank you.” He hung up and said, “Dentist office. Now, dear me, where were we…”
If that had been any of us, we would have had a smashed phone. Everyone wanted to laugh, but he was so matter of fact about it and already back in the middle of the lecture that nobody could. So much for setting a good example for his students. =)
