Probably TMI, but I have a very good sense of smell. I once figured out my coworker was pregnant because she basically smelled the same as a baby's fontanelle (I kept this to myself, I'm not insane).
To be a fly on the wall for the hypothetical alternative timeline where you decided to have that conversation. "Not to sound weird, but you smell like babies..."
I don’t know if this counts as a pheromone, but babies definitely emit _something_. As a recent father, I have had numerous people remark on how wonderful babies smell after smelling my child. I can’t smell anything. People who can smell this particular smell seem very perplexed that I can’t smell it.
I had developed a minor obsession with home security and we quipped that it must be the pheromones.
I don’t know if this counts as a pheromone, but babies definitely emit _something_. As a recent father, I have had numerous people remark on how wonderful babies smell after smelling my child. I can’t smell anything. People who can smell this particular smell seem very perplexed that I can’t smell it.
There is something magical about being a father. I remember a scene in the sitcom Friends, where Chandler mumbles cute words after seeing emma. I feel exactly the same whenever I see my son. And he is 5 years old now. So grown up and all. HN successfully attenuated the magic, by floating out these articles which reduce the magic to chemical factors. PS - On a lighter note.
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" ― Douglas Adams I never understood how explaining something makes its "magic" go away. If anything, it usually made me appreciate it more.
I'm the same way.
Going to Disney, I feel deeply unnerved by all the "magic" happening behind the scenes, where forces unknown to me are observing by behavior and sculpting parts of the experience to meet me when I arrive somewhere. It's like being hunted by a bizarre and inscrutable predator.
But if I'm aware of the exquisite engineering, and understand how my behavior shapes the experience, then I'm pleased rather than startled when the host at the restaurant greets me by name even though I haven't introduced myself. I can enjoy the care and effort they're putting in, and the vast scope and scale is all the more impressive for understanding it. It starts to feel magical after all.
Probably TMI, but I have a very good sense of smell. I once figured out my coworker was pregnant because she basically smelled the same as a baby's fontanelle (I kept this to myself, I'm not insane).
Could this be related to when pregnant people are referred to as "beaming" or whatever the phrase was?
Technically 23 and Me monetized this as the fun holiday gift for everyone + the reddit thread you post in the aftermath.
My wife is on a number of genetic genealogy Facebook groups, and this time of year is peak season for confused new posters who are desperately trying to get some rationalization as to why their father (or mother!) didn't match with them on 23andMe. Many just cannot accept reality and continue posting convoluted possible reasons ("23andMe messed up both me and my fathers tests, but we both still matched with lots of o…
I did hear a story about one of the genetic testing places accidentally rotating one of their sample trays 90 degrees.
For serious? The top of my kids heads smelled intoxicating for the first 6-9 months. There is still a special scent but not quite the same. And I smell it on other babies, too. It’s like smelling breast milk, but emanating from the Fontainelle
It would be funny if you could only smell it if it was your biological child. Although getting serious statistics on the matter is not easy, the estimated numbers can be surprisingly high (e.g: "One in 25 fathers is not biological parent": https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/aug/11/childrensser... ) If suddenly we discovered an easy way to give a hint you should do a DNA test, it could do some serious noise.
There is something magical about being a father. I remember a scene in the sitcom Friends, where Chandler mumbles cute words after seeing emma. I feel exactly the same whenever I see my son. And he is 5 years old now. So grown up and all. HN successfully attenuated the magic, by floating out these articles which reduce the magic to chemical factors. PS - On a lighter note.
The loss of magic is real. Though one thing I've found helpful to understand this phenomenon what is called in some circles "quadrant absolutism." That is, reality can be understood from four perspectives, or quadrants: 1st person singular "I"; 1st person plural "we" or 2nd person "you"; 3rd person singular "it"; and 3rd person singular "its".
Quadrant absolutism is taking one or two of these perspectives as more real or true than others. Examples: A religious fundamentalist takes more real or true what his/her community or scripture (1st person plural) believes about reality, leaving out the 3rd person perspectives that would demonstrate, say evolution. Or scientific materialists who only take as ultimately real the "things out there" - chemicals, atoms, quarks, etc, considering 1st person experiences such as love to be somehow less real.