Page 11 - PGA Community News - April '23

April 2023 April 2023 PGA C.A.N.!, Page 11
Book Review

Stuff You Should Know: An • Mr. Potato Head: sniffing, can be mildly annoying to those within earshot.
Incomplete Compendium Of America’s Toy And yet others, like knee bouncing, are extremely annoying
to the entire world, without exception, and must be stopped
• Murphy Beds: The Bed
Mostly Interesting Things That Tucks Itself In forthwith and posthaste under every circumstance.
• The History of Income “But there is another group of repetitive behaviors that
By Nils A. Shapiro Tax: Honest Abe’s Other transcends this petty spectrum of annoyance and instead
The first thing you need Legacy directs their worst onto the very people who engage in them.
to know is that I am not • Trillionaires: Are They Collectively they’re called body-focused repetitive behaviors,
a podcast person. In fact, Possible and Who Will or BFRBs to those who are pressed for time, and they can
I have never listened to a It Be? produce actual physical and emotional damage, not in
podcast, nor do I even know • The Scotland Yard Crime bystanders and observers, but in the people who suffer from
how to tune into one. I much Museum: Nothing to See them. Individually they all have names you might hear in
prefer to get my information Here the quarterfinal round of a spelling bee: enychophagia (nail
about the world from books • The First Gun(s): The Legacy of an Alchemical Accident biting), onychotillomania (nail picking), dermatophagia (skin
– hence my preference for • Dog Smells: Canine Scents and Sense Ability biting), dermatillomania (skin picking), rhinotillexomania
works of nonfiction – and as • Keeping Up with the Joneses: The Unwinnable Human (nose picking), trichophagia (hair eating), and what appears
for current events (as much Race to be the queen of them all, trichotillomania, or hair pulling.
of it as I can bear), they are well covered by television news. • Aging: Do We Gotta? “Trichotillomania, or TTM, or “trich” as it is sometimes
So when the front cover of this month’s book selection The following brief excerpt from the opening of another called within the community, causes people to pluck their own
listed the names of its authors, Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, of the essays – Trichotillomania and the BFRBS: The Tics hair, often one at a time, often in a methodical or ritualistic
who have been the cohosts of a very popular podcast since That Have Psychologists Scratching Their Heads – will give way. It’s a unique disorder with power over its victims that
2008 with the same title – Stuff You Should Know – their you a good idea of the authors’ style (or, rather, that of Nils is hard to convey in normal terms. So we’ll try to do it in
names didn’t ring a bell with me at all. Parker, who is credited as the ghost writer who worked with abnormal terms instead…”
But the catchy title and subtitle did the trick. I was hooked. the authors on the final manuscript). If I can be accused of having an excessive habit, it might
And that turned out to be a fortuitous discovery. “….Not all tics are created equal. Some are (innocuous: well be that of a bibliophile. If you share that with me, Stuff
For this is a collection of 27 illustrated essays averaging toe tapping, excessive blinking, hair twirling, nose You Should Know would be a good choice as the next way
about 10 pages, each devoted to a subject having little or no scrunching. Some, like knuckle cracking, grunting, or for you to exercise that trait.
relationship to any of the others except that
they are all kind of offbeat, interesting and
informative in a “weird” sort of way, and
are treated in a writing style that apparently
matches the playful sense of humor
approach their large audience has come to
expect from Clark’s and Bryant’s podcasts.
Indeed, as stated in the book’s introduction,
a number of these entries were originally
the subject of past podcasts.
Here, for example, are just a few
of the topics discussed in these pages,
accompanied by two-color drawings,
charts and graphs:
• The History of Facial Hair: The Long
and Short of It

Yesterday I was diagnosed with Cancer

Today I start the fight.

At the Anderson Family Cancer Institute at Jupiter Medical Center, we believe that no one should wait for cancer care. That is why
we are offering next day oncologist appointments for newly diagnosed patients. Rapid access to leading cancer specialists will
empower patients and their families to jump start their journey to beat cancer.

For Next Day Oncologist Appointments call 561-263-4400.