Thursday 20 October 2011

A Ramble Round the Body; Fingers, Toes, Even a Nose.

    For no particular reason fingers made the news recently; medical research brought into the spotlight some interesting suggestions. Most men have ring fingers that are longer than their index fingers. Most women have longer index fingers or fingers of approximately the same size.
    Now the fun starts. Some research findings, I suspect to be taken with a pinch of salt!
Lesbian women tend to have longer ring fingers than straight women; longer ring fingers are also linked to success amongst female athletes. In men evidently longer ring fingers are associated with more aggressive behaviour and also with greater susceptibility to prostate cancer and autism. It's all to do with prenatal exposure to testosterone. Clever stuff, in a way, and how many of you have just looked at their fingers! But do reseachers use some facts and figures and discard others to back up their studies? Research, for instance, suggests homosexual men have an 82% greater chance of being left handed or ambidextrous. (I'm left handed, by the way, as far as I know I'm not homosexual!)
    Scientists might be clever, but nature and all that implies is in a different league. Don't they say nature's magic number is 1:1.618 and much in our natural world revolves round this ratio. Leonado DaVinci was no mug and he had no computer or internet to help him out. Didn't his Vitruvian Man with outstretched arms fit exactly into a square. Measure from fingertip to fingertip, your arms outstretched and it will be very, very close to your height, if you're relatively normal. Plus three times round your head will be, surprising, also your height. (The art world of course, is allowed poetic licence, depicting people differently to 'normal' beings for effect.)
    I'm not clever enough to be a scientist. I'm just someone fascinated by life and the idiosyncracies of people. Millions watched Strictly Come Dancing on television last week. The intricate dances, the skill, the glamour, the razmataz. And do you know which bit fascinated me most. The fact that Audley Harrison has size 17 feet! I remember a pair of boots in a shop window in Derby made for a man in Melbourne; they were size 22! Now why would I remember that from probably fifty plus years ago!   
But lose that curiousity and you might as well give up on living.
    I have some small toes that are longer than my big toes, if you know what I mean. Somewhere back in history an ancestor must have had that trait and it is being repeated, presumably for ever and a day; isn't nature clever. (Or perhaps someone picked me up out of the pram by my toes.) My eldest daughter has a party trick. She can touch the end of her nose with her tongue. Try it, is there anyone out there who can do this? Or anyone out there with a party trick they wish to share! Come to think of it, looking at my faltering visitors of late, is there anyone out there full stop!
    Talking of noses, a clip that might well amuse. A blast from the past, Chick Murray and his 'long nose' story. Some of you may well be amused; who nose!! 

15 comments:

Hanny said...

I'll be darned. Maybe my palm's not what should be read.

Pauline said...

If I didn't know myself so well, I'd be worried. Longer ring fingers than pointers, long 'tall man' toes than big toe and tongue to nose isn't a party trick, it's just how my tongue works! Thankfully, I am right handed so perhaps that makes up for something! You have unearthed some interesting research there! (Although I tend to believe that researchers choose which facts are meant to be relevant.)

Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden said...

When this research about finger length and testosterone first came out it merely confirmed what I already knew about myself - that I am an androgynous type, tall, big-boned, deep-voiced, hairy and I have no trouble parallel parking. But even with ring fingers the same length as my index fingers, I'm still more womanly than manly!

PS My second toes are longer than my big toes too:-)

Anonymous said...

"I watched her pick a bun up from the floor."

Lol

Expat mum said...

OMG - hilarious! Didn't know this comedian!
With regard to fingers. - my ring finger is much longer than my index finger and well, it's a bit late now to be thinking about being lesbian or athletic!!

Nota Bene said...

I'm glad...relieved to discover I am normal. Unless I'm a woman in which case I'm a lesbian

GrumpyRN said...

Oh dear! The spammers have found you. Be prepared for various comments about nothing in particular and relevant to even less. American Women........sigh!

Anyway, you had me worried for a minute as I too am left handed and perhaps my grandfather who insisted that I was not left handed was hoping I was not one of the 82% - 1950's Scotland not being a very supportive place for anyone 'different'. He would have hated the idea that I am doing a supposed "womans" job.
The real question about the size 22 boots was not why you would remember it but why you would ever forget something like that.

Keep writing Ken, I look forward to your posts.

GrumpyRN said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Prettypics123 said...

Hi Ken,
My toes are changing as I age. I must say that I use to really like my toes. Now they're getting a bit crooked. Maybe that symbolic of what becomes with American women up above in that comment?!! (smiles)

Suldog said...

Being an American, let me state up front that I like ALL women!

Party trick? I can bite my own eyeball. Of course, I have to remove my dentures to do it.

the fly in the web said...

I see Boycott American Women has found you too....
Thank you for wonderful Chick Murray, brought back many happy and funny memories.

An English Shepherd said...

You could have touched, but I did'nt.. ;-)

Heidi Olivia Tan said...

Had a good laugh over some of the comments above.
Like Expat Mum, my ring finger's longer than my index but then again, it's too late to think of being lesbian or a successful athlete.

Party tricks, I can't do any of the above detailed but the chomping on eyeball bit - great inducement to agree to dentures when my turn comes - in roughly a decade's time.

Have any of you seen this cool trick of rolling up the sides of your tongue - left and right towards the centre? I can't do it meself but I get a thrill equivalent to seeing a magic trick.

As for me toes, they're all in a descending line after the big toe. Always thought this structure is only good for playing the "This little piggy" thing. How else do I account for my always losing my balance, stumbling a lot, inability to bike, skate or ski or stand on a tightrope?

Grumpy Old Ken said...

Thanks, everyone.
Glad people liked Chick Murray. As my wife says when I tell jokes, the old ones are the best!
Loved the left handed bit.Five out of the last six American presidents have been left handed I believe. Whats normal anyway.

Whats the American women spam all about? Who? Why? I'm very green re so called spam.

Aren't we great though, you, me, all of us!

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