Weekend of Cool Grossness

Friday night I went out with some friends to The Flying Fish, a sushi restaurant with a cool renovated "speak easy" in the basement.

Since I don't like sushi, I was perusing the salad menu when my Romanian Friend (RF) asked what I was thinking of ordering.

Me: Well, the Caesar sounds good but it comes with white anchovies.
RF: Ah, you don't like anchovies?
Me: I've never had them.
RF: Well you have to at least try them!!
BSA: If they're gross you can always just pick them off.

This is true. A fish is probably the easiest thing in the world to pick off a salad.

So I ordered the Caesar, and so did RF. When they brought out the salads the two white fish were laid dramatically across the top. I was admiring the effect of their shiny, shiny whiteness against the dark green of the romaine while RF happily speared one with a fork, and popped it in her mouth.

"It's good! Your turn."

So I speared the fish, which promptly flopped over the fork in order to show off it's flippy-floppy tail for maximum effect.

I decided that it might need a little help from a piece of romaine with lots of dressing.

And some cheese.

And maybe a crouton.

As I was trying to get the crouton on my overloaded fork RF sighed "Oh just eat it already!"

So I did. It was surprisingly good. It was neither as crunchy or as fishy as I was expecting.

***
Saturday I went to the Bodies Exhibit.

This is where people have donated their bodies to science, and the scientists have used a special plastic preservative to keep them from decaying. They have all kinds of fascinating dissections with zero nasty smell.

I have dissected my share of critters, as well as handling human cadavers and I can un-equivocally state that the lack of smell was very nice.

The skeletons with intact eyes were a little bizarre though.

Some of the specimens are preserved in action: playing basketball, conducting music, performing tai chi, etc. so that you can see what your muscles are doing when you move.

Very cool.

I think my favorite was the circulatory system. They had exhibits with all the arteries of various body parts. The amount of skill to dissect and remove all those tiny vessels intact is just mind boggling. I must have stood in front of the lower leg for 5 minutes, just staring at that amazing mass of blood vessels.

Some of the exhibits aren't very pleasant. They have specimens with cancer, smoker lungs, and other such unfortunate health problems.

The only exhibit that really creeped me out though was the human skin that had been removed in two, complete, giant pieces. Front and Back. With little holes where the eyes, nose and mouth had been. Then the two pieces laid out, front on the back, like someone had just unzipped the guy all the way around and peeled it off.

The only other thing on the table was a small placard telling you all about the amazing organ that is the human skin.

It just seemed... so wrong.