Odessa’s Oddities & Curiosities Week of 12/11

Happy Hannukah, dear friends,

I am returning with edition two of Odessa’s Oddities and Curiosities. In addition to the obvious joy of hearing myself talk (or write, rather), this newsletter keeps me particularly alert to interesting morsels to include here. I hope these morsels will pique your curiosity and tickle your brain.

Note: I’ve decided to not stick to any sort of form, at least for a little while.

It is first-snow time of year, which is just delightful. There have already been some flurries in New Haven. My dear friends know how much I cherish and delight in snow so whenever it begins to flurry I get a series of texts along the lines of ITS SNOWING ODESSA. And I make sure to rush outside, but so far, no snow has stuck. Instead, we’ve gotten SO MUCH rain. OY! I’m hoping it snows before I fly back to California so we can engage in our favorite snow tradition: Midnight Snow Soccer. We dig out the soccer ball, put on snow boots, and play soccer in the snow in the Branford courtyard at midnight while blasting Christmas music — pretty goddamn perfect.

Last week, I was swamped with studying for three exams. I just love the use of swamped in this context — I imagine that I am a little goblin barely peeking her head through the bog. So I’m going to share some fun facts from my classes.

My social neuroscience professor covered a study where they examined brain activation (really BOLD signal but that’s a whole other conversation) when viewing a loved one versus an acquaintance. They found both activation in reward areas of the brain (striatum), but also a deactivation of critical social assessment areas (temporal pole, temporoparietal junction, medial premotor cortex). When we view our loved ones, we are less likely to be critically assessing them, the authors cite this as a potential basis for unconditional love. Who knew neuroscience could be this mushy?

My probability theory professor’s enthusiasm has made me a probability theory nerd. Thus bear with me as I explain the mystifying phenomena of Benford’s Law. To unknown forces, perhaps G!?d, the frequency of the first digit of large numbers tends to obey a pretty stable distribution, which is fascinating and strange and awesome (in the most thundersome sense of the word). They can use this phenomenon to detect cheating in tax returns.

If I haven’t talked your ear off about Wendover Productions, well, you’ve been lucky. But your luck has run out. Wendover Productions is my absolute favorite YouTube channel (it’s logistics porn imo). I want to highlight their most recent episode on How Modern Treasure Hunting Works. Were you ever curious about the Wild West of dinosaur bone hunting? Or searching for long-lost ships bearing gold? I want to put it in conversation with one of my favorite series on Freakonomics about art theft: Stealing Art is Easy. Giving It Back is Hard. The art world (particularly art theft) is of particular fascination to me …it will definitely come up again in this newsletter. I think there is something about art, especially art valued at such impressive amounts, and how we will go to great lengths for great art that makes my heart (well, really my limbic system) swell. What beautiful and crazy humanness.

I also want to highlight the joy of the over-the-ear headphones (mine were only $40 on Black Friday). I’ve recently started as a Slifka receptionist, which means my headphone purchase felt a little less indulgent. And wow, these headphones slip me into a whole other world. They block out noise, and they’re pink! What could be better!

In a clunky transition, I direct any Jews feeling a little uneasy about Hannukah this year to Silcoff’s excellent defense of the holiday for the New York Times: This Hanukkah, Light The Candles. I will just note that I disagree with the New York Times decision re the spelling of Hannukah. I will die on this goddamn hill: 2 n’s, 1 k!

In an effort to be mindful of all the time I spend in Jewish spaces, I’ve been focusing on reducing my profane use of the word God. I also am always charmed by how religious Jews choose to spell God either with a dash (G-d), no o (Gd), or G!?d. So I’ve been gradually sprinkling in alternate uses of the word, which has led to some good lessons. First, gosh adds a layer of unintended irony, so I will not be using that one in the future (sorry Dad!). I also don’t anticipate adding Oh Golly to my vocabulary. Second, G!?d makes me sound “alternative frum” according to Sophie…perhaps also sending a misleading message. But this is something lovely about how Judaism treasures the power of words. Speaking of the power of words, I cannot recommend Adam Mansbach’s Golem in Brooklyn enough. I mean, golem on LSD watching Larry David…this book was made for me! Fun fact! Adam is Henry’s uncle!

Another recommendation: singing on the treadmill! If you didn’t already know, Taylor Swift was named Person of the Year by Time Magazine. They asked her about her preparation for the Eras Tour and she revealed that she trained by running on the treadmill while singing her fast songs and walking for her slow songs. Liana and I have engaged in a similar type of exercise, but we are not training for a three-hour concert — sorry to disappoint our fans. Instead, we get on the treadmills in the Branford basement (speed: 3, incline = 15), and we perform our hearts out to Hamilton, Green Day and of course, All Too Well (10 Minute Version). While it takes some chutzpah to do so in a public gym, if you have the opportunity to sing on the treadmill, I’d take it! It adds an extra cardio component, and boy do we have respect for performers who sing and dance at once.

In a last expression of gratitude, I want to express my undying love for free speech. Not to make this newsletter too political (although, I do detest when people avoid politics, because what a privilege to remain apolitical!!!), but I have been most disheartened recently over the Jewish brouhaha against free speech (as I was checking to make sure this was an actual word, I learned an interesting linguistic fun fact — brouhaha may come from the Hebrew phrase Baruch haba which means welcome!) When did Jews forget how dear we hold free speech? To me, free speech might as well be the 11th commandment. Not that I follow the Ten Commandments anyway. How the fuck would Moses get away with arguing with G!?d if not for free speech? Raising my metaphorical cup to more robust and controversial and, most of all, free speech in the coming year.

Because I’ve sworn off being apolitical, I recommend an excellent article on the role of intergenerational trauma in violence in Israel, Palestine, and Gaza: “Whatever comes next, it will be important to bear in mind that after having been hurt, hatred can be enormously energizing, while mourning, reciprocity, and reconciliation are profoundly complex and laborious processes. But they are the only hope for breaking the intergenerational transmission of violence.” And Danya’s brilliant statement with Yale Jews for Ceasefire in the YDN.

This newsletter is turning out particularly schmaltzy, but oh well, it’s that time of the year anyway. I want to highlight the tradition of clapping on the last day of class. I believe this is a college phenomenon (I certainly don’t remember it in high school). But the substantive round of applause at the end of each of my classes is just so lovely. I mean, it’s also objectively awkward. One could make the case that it transforms this beautiful act of cultural transmission of knowledge into a performance that is unnecessarily transactional. But I refuse that interpretation, I love this tradition.

With love & curiosity,

Odessa