A typical 2am conversation

[jedusor]

Mike: Why are cell phone ringtones always sounds?
Me: What else would they be? Smells?
Mike: I was just thinking that. Wouldn't it be nice if, when someone called you, your phone emitted the aroma of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls?
Me: What if your phone went off in a cinnamon roll shop? You wouldn't know it was going off. It's like if my phone went off in a sneeze shop. [note: my ringtone is a sneeze.]
Mike: That's ridiculous. Sneeze parlors haven't been around since the 1840s.
Me: Is that so?
Mike: Mhm. The antecedent of the modern sneeze took place only in designated areas. It was considered common courtesy to tip the handkerchiefsman.
Me: Really now.
Mike: Yep! The "ah-choo" sound wasn't invented until 1845.
Me: Who invented it?
Mike: Thomas Edison, believe it or not.
*pause*
Mike: Sneeze parlors were put out of business by the advent of the tissue.
Me: But you said there were handkerchiefsmen. Why wouldn't the handkerchief have put them out of business?
Mike: The handkerchiefs were usually chained down.
Me: ...
Mike: They had to be. They were made out of ivory.
Me: ...
Mike: Had little hinges so they could fold.

Comments

[imagines.livejournal.com]

I'm sleepy and headachey so I'mma just be lazy and say LIKE!!!

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Y'know, some folks recently named their kid Like. I think this may be a sign of the apocalypse.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I want that man's brain.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Whenever I say that, he tells me I'm being creepy again. 'Course, I usually specify the areas I want to dissect...

[42itous.livejournal.com]

but but but
if you dissect it, it won't think anymore!

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Psh. Functionalist. :P

[gerald_duck]

That reminds me of something that occurred to me a few days ago: I've only been aware of synaesthesia expressed in terms of the "traditional" senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. But there are lots of other senses.

Presumably there are people who perceive smells when they move their left leg, or to whom time appears to pass more quickly when they see yellows, or who think they need the loo if you touch their earlobe, or whatever?

(I'm only guessing you're the kind of person who might know this stuff, mind. :-p )

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

I don't think much actual research has been done with synesthetics outside the traditional senses, but I know for a fact that they exist, because I am one. I'm almost positive my own synesthesia is verbal/proprioceptive.