Unthinkables

This is the first in a series of relevant emails I am dumping on here.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 12:52:32 -0500 (EST)
From: Daniel Saunders <xxxx@qlink.queensu.ca>

There are a number of seemingly trivial problems that I believe have been
oppressing me nearly every day for years, but just below the level of
consciousness - like the same level as that stiff lock that annoys you every
morning, but not so much that you remember it for more than two seconds
afterwards. They are the kind of problems that I've never heard discussed, that
you can't seem answer by searching on the internet or just thinking about them.
Because of that I have labelled them "unthinkables", and on wednesday night I
made a list of as many of them as I could dredge up.

It made me feel better just to see them written down, but I thought over the
next months and years I would try to answer them one by one. So I was amazed to
find that the combined smarts of a table full of psyc students, plus beer,
found solutions to *five* of them on friday, and helped me make progress on
most of them. Here's my list - the asterix means it's solved:

* 1 What to do with laundry that isn't dirty, but also isn't clean? (ie pants
that have been worn only once or twice)
2 How can you tell how much money you have, what you can afford and not, etc,
when you've got chunks of money going in and out at different time intervals?
* 3 What does it mean when honey goes granular? Do you have to throw it out?
4 Do I smell? How could I ever tell, since I'm probably used to it?
* 5 How should one behave towards dogs socially? Cats?
6 What's a good way to take notes on books you're reading?
7 How and when should you clean things like coats, sweaters, and quilts?
8 What is the right way to dance in a club?
9 How should you develop ongoing correspondences with professors at other
universities, as one book on grad school recommended you do?
* 10 How to deal with butter - it's hard and unspreadable if it's kept in the
fridge, but doesn't it go bad when it's out?
* 11 My mayonnaise seems to last for months in the fridge. Isn't it supposed to
go bad fairly quickly, since it has eggs inside it?
12 Can scuffed leather shoes be fixed, or are they ruined? Would just
polishing fix them?
13 Who do we get colds and flus from? How exactly does it happen?
14 Do people generally sit up straight? Should I?
15 What are the things that encourage zits? How can I make sure I don't get
new zits without using a special topical medication like Oxy cream?

This list isn't to be cute; I seriously believe these have been weighing on my
mind and slowing me down, by whatever fractional amount. I would love to hear
from you, if you 1) share one of the unthinkables I have solved and would like
to hear the answer, 2) have thoughts on one of the unsolved ones, like how you
deal with it, even if dysfunctionally, or 3) have some unthinkables of your own
- private, unconscious, unresolved problems gumming up daily life - that you
would like to add to my list so that we can all try to answer them together and
relieve a little of our collective burden.

About unthinkable #1: It turns out everyone has a personal
partially-dirty-laundry system, whether they've thought about it or not, and by
asking everyone I meet I've collected 9 examples of them over the last couple
of days. They turn out to be very interesting! After looking at the strengths
and weaknesses of them all, I've come up with one of my own that I think will
work for me and keep my floor more or less permanently clothes-free. I'm
planning to send out an email with those 9 systems and my own, but let me know
if you told me about your system and don't want it publically known (though
none of them seem
incriminating to me).

--
Daniel Saunders