Fun Fact Friday #3

Hello! Welcome to this week's Fun Fact Friday!

IZ FRIDAY (I may or may not have been inspired by one of the articles this week...)

I'm playing catch up with some older articles that have been opened on my browser for ages, hence the reason for the more dated articles for this week's FFF. Hope you enjoy them nonetheless :)

This week's instalment includes:

• Why is there so much hate for the word 'moist'?
• The transgender glass ceiling in Thailand
• Why some people are always late (and the types of people who are)
• The quest for the perfect pad thai

Culture/Language

Why Is There So Much Hate For the Word "Moist"? by Jim Davies via Nautilus || dated 8 June 2015

This is a pretty short article discussing a study carried out by psychologists and researchers from Oberlin College and Trinity University looking at word aversion. They found out that this dislike to the word "moist" is moreso due to its meaning, and less so due to its sound.

I am firmly in the UGH I HATE THE WORD MOIST category myself. Hearing it just makes me shudder, and causes me to involuntarily make a face. Personally, I dislike the word so much because it just seems to conjure the image of unpleasant environments for me. It's also a word that perfectly captures the feeling of being sticky, sweaty, and gross after walking about outside during the day in a hot and humid climate (like Thailand). It's an unpleasant sensation and state of being, all of which is evoked when I hear the word "moist". Ugh ugh ugh.

Culture/Society

Trapped beneath the transgender glass ceiling by Jitsiree Thongnoi via Bangkok Post || dated 7 June 2015

This is a fascinating article providing insight into a less-talked-about aspect about Thailand's transgender culture. On the surface, Thailand seems to be a very accepting country when it comes to gays, and transgendered people. I mean, Thailand is stereotyped with that image in mind. However, there are actually a lot of problems with how Thai people treat gay and transgendered Thais, and it's not okay. This was an eye-opener for me, and highlighted a subculture that I never truly considered.

Culture/Society

Why I'm Always Late by Tim Urban via Wait But Why || dated July 2015

Source 

Wait But Why has been one of my happiest blog discoveries in the past year, because I just love Tim's posts on such a wide array of topics from Tesla and Elon Musk to procrastination. His latest article on why people are late and the types of people who are late was both amusing and very interesting. As a person who is on time 80% of the time and internally freaks out when I'm late meeting anyone, Tim's article was a good glimpse into the mindset of those who are perennially tardy. Click for the short, informative read, stay for the insights and funny pictures!

Food

The quest for the perfect pad thai by David Farley via BBC || dated 28 April 2015

*grumblies* | Source

This is an older article, but I found it while perusing the BBC website, and immediately read it and wanted to share! The first two paragraphs perfectly encapsulates my own reaction and sentiments when someone asks me about pad thai in Thailand:

“Oh god!” said the American expat, rolling her eyes disdainfully, when I told her I was here in Bangkok to write about pad Thai, the noodle dish found in almost every Thai restaurant around the world.

I understood her aggrieved response. Pad Thai is the first dish most newcomers to Thai cuisine try. And going to Bangkok to find the perfect pad Thai is, to a Thai food aficionado, the culinary equivalent of wearing a Nickelback concert T-shirt. It’s just not cool.

Pad Thai is like the gateway dish to Thai cuisine, but it's pretty un-Thai. I'm not sure how accurate Farley's claim is that this dish is Chinese. However, what I do know is that this dish does not truly have Thai origins. What I mean is that it seems like this dish was sort of forced into our food culture, instead of being an organic addition to our food culture. I read somewhere that pad thai was actually created in order to conform more with Western standards of food, so Farley's brief history into pad thai at least corroborates the idea that pad thai is essentially rather un-Thai.

This article is an interesting weave of pad thai (and Thai) history, as well as Farley's quest to find great pad thai in Bangkok. It was neat to see where he ended up going while trying to find the perfect pad thai, because I rarely eat pad thai and am always stumped when people ask me where to go for good pad thai.

I have said pad thai way too often in the past two paragraphs.

-----------------

Thanks so much for reading! Have a wonderful weekend!