Harry Potter and the L-1 Dermatome

No spoilers here. I will not discuss the book yet.

I read it in a little under 36 hours, taking frequent brief breaks to eat, sleep, pee, and do homework. (Weird, how the work is done so much more efficiently when it's done as a break from something fun I get to return to. I might re-read the whole damn series now.)

I just want to point out that for the last eight weeks, I've been learning about stuff that has amusingly Potteresque nomenclature. Take a pen or pencil in your dominant hand, and flourish it with a sweeping motion, ending in a point directly out and away from your body, and yell out an Anatomy term. Then you'll see what I mean. Here are some to get you started:

Infundibulum!
Intercostalis!
Semispinalis!
Vastus Medialus!

Being hit with the gubernaculum charm would likely be no damn fun, if it did what I suspect. "Toxic Megacolon" sounds like a large, noxious creature that might live in the Forbidden Forest. You could store your spare tubercles in a vesicouterine pouch, assuming they had them in stock at Flourish & Blotts. Rectus Capitus might be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. It just goes on and on.

And I've figured out why. Rowling uses such decent fake-Latin in the books that it captures the sometimes just plain goofy-assed nature of actual Latin names. One example: There's a bit of the tibia, the shin-bone, where certain thigh muscles attach. Three muscles attach there, you see, so you get this triangular, webbed effect. I think it looks kind of like a duck's foot. If it didn't have a name already, I'd call it "the duck foot."

The actual, official, proper scholarly name for this little structure? Pes Anserinus. Sounds impressive, right?

Until you realize it's Latin for "Goose's Foot." Oh yeah, so much more professional than the thing I said, with the duck. Definitely.

And that's why I don't feel the least bit disrespectful, waving my pen in the air and repeating funny-sounding terms to the guy sitting next to me in lectures.

Plus, by now I can do a pretty decent levatores costarum spell.

Overheard in the Anatomy Lab

"Thanks, [Feb], for showing me your penis!"

It's pelvis and perineum week. My friends have a female cadaver, so they needed to check out what in the medical world we call 'the dude parts.' And my guy has some fine anatomy going on. We've spent enough time in this class now, about ten weeks or so, that we've really started taking ownership of our learning experience. That's reflected in the way we talk about cadavers as though they were books, or any other learning tool.

Naturally, I told the girls they were welcome to come by and check out my penis anytime they want.

Finally, something important to talk about

Here's a diverting little hypothetical, courtesy of one of the messageboards I frequent:

Assume you have been offered your dream job (that is, the dream version of your job, or else the job you really want to do). The catch is, you need to choose from only two possible job sites. One is in Gotham City, and the other is in Metropolis. Which would you choose, and why?

Obviously, there are some stark differences. How much you like sunlight, for instance, will probably be a factor. As would whether you prefer to carry cash on your person, outdoors, ever. Your feelings about the occasional superhero/ supervillain fight spilling over into your building and destroying a fair bit of it should probably come into play as well. There a pros and cons either way.

As for me, I found it was kind of an easy choice because I'd have to be working in one of the two ED's. No way am I going to deal with the Joker's deadly laughing gas, or some fiendish nano-virus engineered by the Riddler. I'm going Metropolis, hands down. Let the superintelligent gorilla commandos and trans-dimensional shockwaves fall where they may.

Plus, I bet the cafeteria food is nicer at Metropolis Memorial. That's just a guess, but it's an educated one.

So, how about you?

EDIT: Guess we got our answer on that one, eh?