Random Stuff You May Not Know: Eighteen

 

From the historical bastardisation of words in 1920s Egypt, to unique English and French expressions, to the expansive fluidity of the human psyche: The world beyond our rigid cultural veils remains beautifully complex. Following Seventeen, here are five new topics to widen your horizon.

1. The Shebbak El Sayyed Haircut — حَلْقَةُ شُبَّاكُ السَّيِّدِ 

Back in the days in Egypt, especially in Alexandria, men would go to their barber and ask for the Shebbak el Sayyed ( شباك السيد ) haircut. Being a common request, “Look no further” would have then been the reply. ‘Shebbak’ means window in Arabic, while ‘El Sayyed’ is a name for males, also mister or sir; so the phrase means the window of El Sayyed.

As the days went by, many people forgot the origin of the name and even what it actually meant. So what is the “Shebbak el Sayyed haircut”?, I hear you ask.

Well, when British soldiers were stationed in Egypt they would go to barbers asking for “Shave back and sides”. With time, shaving the back and sides became known as ( شباك السيد ) Shebbak el Sayyed. And that is simply it. I truly wonder if there are people alive today who use the wording.

For the time being there is nothing about it on the entirety of Google, in both languages. How did I originally know? An old friend and schoolmate, Shokry, has once told me in our early teens — through his own grandfather. I later double-checked with my late aunt’s husband, Dr. Toutou [born in 1933 and originally from Alex] and he did know it. Other than verifying it from much older generation folks — who had passed on — I knew this forgotten lore deserves a spot on the Random Stuff You May Not Know series.


Now YOU know.

 

2. The Anatomy of Notorious Synchronicity: Kom Bakir [كوم بكير]

This is what happens when cosmic timing decides to flex.

Last week, I came across the above 2020 post about the mythical Shebbak El Sayyed haircut (حَلْقَة شُبَّاك السَّيِّد) from Alexandria. 

Few days later, my mother calls me, fresh off a sightseeing trip to Alexandria. “Grab a pen,” she says, “you’re going to love this.” Ooh, intriguing.

Enter Kom Bakir [ كوم بكير ], a historic corner of Alex’s infamous Al-Labban district. Back in the 1920s, this area served as an unofficial red-light zone operating right next to the British army’s base depot.

As the British soldiers would make their exit, the local women would call out after them: “Come back here!”.

Local tongues did what they do best, bastardised the phonetics, and linguistic history was made. “Kombakeer” was the Egyptian “Me love you long time”. Ha.

To add to the neighbourhood’s charm, this very same Al-Labban district is where Egypt’s most notorious serial killer sisters, Raya and Sakina, set up shop between 1919 and 1920 — terminating at least 17 women for their jewellery before paving them into the floorboards. A777oooo.

The area’s legacy even spawned Mostafa Awad’s vintage book title, A Prostitute from Kom Bakeer [ غانية من كوم بكير ].

Alexandria’s linguistic shapeshifting didn’t stop there, either. Take El Bayasa [ البياصة ] — which is just the local flavour of the Italian La Piazza. 

These obscure, often forgotten nuggets are primarily why I wrote Words With Italian Origin That Are Still Used Today In Egypt back in 2015, an article that still sits pretty at number 2 on One Lucky Soul’s all-time reads list. Ayyyoooo.

The universe drops the breadcrumbs; I just map them out.

For the true language hunters, the complete evolutionary archive on One Lucky Soul can be traced chronologically right here:

📜 The Sayings Archive (2016): Some Arabic Sayings With Translations — أمثال عربية و ترجمتها

🗣️ The Slang Catalogue (2024): Some Egyptian Arabic Expressions With Translations — مصطلحات مصرية و ترجمتها

🏺 The Rare Lexicon (2026): مفردات مصرية نادرة ومعانيها: من الجَلَنْف والخَبُوء إلى الأَرْعَنُ والدُغُـف 

3. Confessions of an Unmedicated Onomatomaniac

A Vocabulary for the Raw, Wild, and Solitary.

Being an unmedicated logo-lexophile, the following is a list of words for natural things which I happen to also love. What to say: Lots and lots of love.


• Pluviophile (n): Lover of rain; someone who finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days.


• Petrichorophile: Lover of the distinct, earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. (The ultimate sibling of Pluviophile).


• Astrophile: Lover of stars.


• Ceraunophile: Lover of lightning and thunder.


• Chionophile: Lover of cold weather and snow. 


• Dendrophile: Lover of trees.


• Nemophilist: Lover of the forest, fond of its scenery and solitude; a haunter of the woods.


• Nyctophile: Lover of night or darkness.


• Selenophile: Lover of the moon.


• Heliophile: Lover of the sun.


• Opacarophile: Lover of sunsets.


• Thalassophile: Lover of the sea.


• Limnophile: Lover of lakes. 


• Hodophile: Lover of roads, travelling. 


• Autophile: Lover of solitude, being alone.


• Anemophile: Lover of wind; someone who finds peace, clarity, and life in a gusting breeze.


• Nephophile: Lover of clouds; a constant seeker of shapes and shifting shadows in the daytime sky.

Cremnophile: Lover of cliffs, ridges, and steep mountain slopes. (Perfect for the rugged terrain of the coast).


You may love all the above even more while enjoying a glass of wine or three because...

• Oenophile: Lover of wines, connoisseur.

4. The Spectrum of the Fluid Psyche

Beyond the Veils of Cultural Monoliths.

To strip away the protective illusions of tradition, religion, or family is to look the actual reality of the world in the face. For the younger generations navigating spaces where these matters remain heavily tabooed, discovering these concepts isn’t just about learning new words or to enhance one’s vocabulary — it is about realising that human nature refuses to be permanently entrapped in any single cultural box. You also understand life through the words. Because there is always a bigger picture. 

For anyone inherently interested in psychology and philosophy, topics like drugs and sexuality, along with dreams and consciousness, remain essential material. Through these, one better understands the inner psyche as well as the Human Condition in its entirety. The following are some lesser-known terms to be acquainted with.

It remains however worthy of note that when it comes to sexuality in particular, labels may still be just labels — since sexuality is too fluid to entrap in boxes. It is not polar, not black and white, as there are various shades of grey in between. A reason why we find new words being “invented”, and new letters and colours added with almost every generation.


• Demisexual: A person only attracted to someone with whom they have a very close emotional bond. Feelings do not develop until they have known a person for a long time and feel emotionally connected.

• Greysexual/Graysexual: Someone who experiences occasional, conditional, and/or very mild sexual attraction, existing in the fluid space between asexuality and regular attraction.


• Pansexual: Also known as Omnisexual. Someone who is attracted to people regardless of their sex or gender identity; a “gender-blind” capacity for love.


• Polysexual: Someone sexually attracted to many or multiple, but not necessarily all, genders or sexes. 


• Minsexual: Someone attracted to individuals with a masculine gender expression; an attraction to masculinity itself, regardless of whether the person is a man, woman, or non-binary.


• Ceterosexual: Previously referred to as “Skoliosexual”. Someone explicitly attracted to non-binary or genderqueer individuals.


• Polyamory: The practice of having more than one romantic or sexual partner simultaneously with the explicit consent of all involved.

Distinct from Polygamy (which legally/traditionally implies multiple spouses), and distinct from Polyandry (which specifically denotes multiple husbands). Polyamory literally translates from Greek and Latin as “multiple loves”.


• Queer: One of the most fascinating linguistic evolutions in modern history. Originally a 16th-century English word meaning “strange,” “peculiar,” or “eccentric,” it was heavily weaponised as a derogatory slur for decades. Today, it has been completely reclaimed as an expansive, proud umbrella term for anyone whose identity or orientation falls outside traditional heteronormative boxes — proving that language can be captured, flipped, and repurposed for liberation.

The Blueprint Check: For the uninitiated, the “Q” in the global LGBTQ acronym carries a dual history. Emerging dynamically around the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was originally introduced to signify Questioning — representing individuals still actively exploring their orientation or identity beyond default societal expectations. Today, it comfortably represents both Queer and Questioning.

“The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”

― J.B.S. Haldane, Possible Worlds

For a deeper exploration of how primal sonic expression unlocks hidden human desires, read the full case study on the 2017 exposé, The Intertwining of Music and Sexuality ― A Djembefola’s Tale.

5. French Paradoxes: From Lagging Brains to Unmet Desires

The Architecture of Frustration.

• L’esprit de l’escalier: Also known as L’esprit d’escalier (lit. “staircase wit” or “wit of the staircase”), is a French term used in English for the predicament of thinking of the perfect retort too late; that unpleasant feeling when the witty comeback you wish you had delivered only comes after the conversation is already over; hindsight wit or afterwit; repartee thought of too late, on the way home for instance — or at the top or bottom of the stairs. It is sometimes referred to as “escalator wit” in English.

The name of the phenomenon and origin of the idiom comes from French encyclopedist and philosopher Denis Diderot’s description of such a situation in his Paradoxe sur le Comédien (Paradox of the Actor), originally published in 1830. 

Since we’re at it, 

• Femme mal baisée: Cruelly but accurately translated in French dictionaries as: Femme frustrée, insatisfaite, insupportable qui n’a pas eu sa dose quotidienne de sexe pour être assez aimable.

Coming across this French expression, which has no direct single-word translation to English, one is instantly reminded by a few people ― females as well as males. In English, it literally translates into “badly fucked”. In other words, “a woman who isn’t getting any”. It is usually used when describing a frustrated, intolerable, unsatisfied woman. According to the expression, the reason why they are unable to be loving and pleasant is that they didn’t get their healthy dose of sex… and Love.

A funny memory is that when first sharing the above linguistic bit back in 2021, the post received an angry emoji response ― from some woman, of course. 



Et voilà. À la prochaine.



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Random Stuff You May Not Know: Seventeen

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Random Stuff You May Not Know: Seventeen

To carry on the revival of the series following Sixteen, here is the new article. 

1. Three Christs: Based on a True Story  

One of the most fascinating stories about the human mind is that of The Three Christs of the Ypsilanti State Hospital. In the late 1950s, three paranoid schizophrenic patients there each believed they were Jesus Christ. Polish-American social psychologist Milton Rokeach decided to put the three men together to see what would transpire, later detailing the experiment in his 1964 book, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti.


This story is a neat find for those of us who are into psychology and the inner reaches of the human mind. It was eventually adapted into a screenplay, a stage play, two operas, and the 2017 film Three Christs (also known as State of Mind), which is currently on Netflix. I found it there in 2022 when I went back to watching movies while living alone in Sokhna.


The movie — directed by Jon Avnet and starring Richard Gere (as Dr. Alan Stone), Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins, and Bradley Whitford — follows the experiment at the Michigan hospital starting in 1959. Rokeach brought the three patients — Clyde Benson, Joseph Cassel, and Leon Gabor — together daily for two years to see if confronting their shared delusion would force them to face reality or re-evaluate their identity. Instead, it resulted in intense conflict and the patients simply adapting their delusions rather than finding a cure.


Not to spoiler-alert the movie for you, I will only add that the actual study faced heavy ethical criticism. It’s now regarded as manipulative, and Rokeach eventually acknowledged his own “godlike” attempt to manipulate the patients, apologising for his methods. I absolutely recommend it.


Fun Fact: My shaven teenage face used to get “Richard Gere” from quite a few people. What took it even further is that I was seeing a girl who kind of channelled a Cindy Crawford air — who was married to Gere during those same few years. Boy Oh Boy.

2. Urinals Aiming Flies

 

During the Netherlands escapade in my 20s, I've seen these flies in Schiphol airport a few times and likely aimed at them. I don’t recall mentioning it to anyone or thought much about their actual use; maybe a cousin brought it up once.

But in fact, before Amsterdam I recall my father and I seeing something similar in 1980s Europe. Maybe not always flies, but other aiming signals. When the above poster was found in my feeds, I connected dots that went further back to my childhood while digging into the history of the whole piss-aim thang.  

 
So, the guy behind the Schiphol fly, Jos van Bedaf, was actually inspired by his own memory of the Dutch Army in the 1960s. He noticed back then that someone had painted small red dots in the barracks urinals, and those specific latrines were always the cleanest.

The 70s “Tinkle Target”: In 1976, a dentist in New Jersey actually patented a bullseye decal called the “Tinkle Target” because he was fed up with his kids’ (and patients’) aim. Those were sold as stickers and were found in European pubs or rest stops during the 80s — probably where my father and I first brought it up. 

But that wasn't even the origin.

Victorian Bees: Victorians were doing this in the 1880s. Another true story for you. They used to etch a bee into the porcelain. Why a bee? Because the Latin word for bee is Apis — which was a cheeky 19th-century pun for... well, you get it. Noice, my kind of silliness. 

So while the Schiphol flies are the “modern” superstars of nudge theory, there were earlier versions of the invention — whether dots, bullseyes, or perhaps even those Victorian bees that may still be seen in particularly old pubs. 

And now we know. 

3. The Maths of Human Kinship 

Do You Know, Consanguineous Brothers & Sisters?

I’ve always been fascinated by history and my own lineage. I can trace my roots back seven generations — a journey that leads from Egypt back to Kavala, then part of the Ottoman Empire. But before the 1700s, the trail grows cold. Imagine going back 500 years, a full millennium or even further to the Bronze Age; what a vastly different world conspired to create you.

Imagine each and everyone of those thousands of individual humans had their own lives; their hopes, dreams, fantasies, orgasms; as well as their own fears, pains, doubts, sorrows, afflictions, and dependences. And — despite it all — their story of survival unfolds with your own existence. Look at the odds.

Some years ago, my friend and former teacher from AUC ’96, Osman, introduced me to “Family Constellation”. It’s a therapeutic method designed to resolve unconscious, multi-generational patterns by “mapping” family relationships to reveal hidden imbalances or exclusions. Bringing these shadows to light can help break cycles that have persisted for centuries. Interesting stuff.

Then I saw this graph, and the number of great-grandparents is mind-boggling. But even more profound is the realisation that if we travel far enough back, the branches of our trees begin to overlap. We aren’t just neighbours; we are consanguineous brothers and sisters. That is the open secret of our existence.

Love One Another.


*Recently I found someone offering bespoke, one-to-one Family Constellation sessions... in Dahab, of course. Because where else would you go to unpack several generations of trauma if not between a dive and a sunset tea?


4. Jujube — نبق / سدر

The Apple of Paradise.

While stocking up at the fruit van I spotted a small, unfamiliar specimen. The vendor called them “Nabq” [ نبق ], which sounded like the protected area in South Sinai, Egypt. Noting they were from Saudi Arabia and tasted like apples. He kindly tossed in six for me to try — a cadeau for a loyal customer.

Back home, curiosity took over after the first bite. These “apples” are Jujube, locally known as Nabq or Sidr (Ziziphus spina-christi). While the Chinese variety (Z. jujuba) is famous for turning into a “red date” [ عنّاب ]*, the Saudi varieties are typically the desert-hardy Sidr or the tropical Indian Jujube (Ber). They did taste familiar and I have probably had them before without all this inquiry.

• Taste & Texture: Fresh, they are yellowish-green, crisp, and mildly sweet — strikingly similar to a miniature apple. Once dried, they become chewy and wrinkled with a rich, butterscotch-like profile.

• Nutrition & Wellness: They are powerhouses of Vitamin C, fibre, and antioxidants. Historically used in traditional medicine to aid sleep and digestion, modern studies also point to anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties.

• Culinary Versatility: Beyond snacking raw, they shine in salads, teas, jams, and soups.

Perhaps most notably, the Sidr tree holds deep spiritual significance. Mentioned in the Quran [Surah Al-Waqi’ah and An-Najm] as a tree of Paradise, it is depicted as a thorn-free, abundant symbol of purity and divine creation.

All six didn’t last more than a few hours and I was back for more some days later. And that’s a small “Wasabe” plate in the photo by the way.

Et Voilà. And now we know.


*A story I’ve heard many times is that when my mother was pregnant with me, she had a fierce craving for “red dates” [ عنّاب ]. Local superstition links this to the mole on my left wrist —supposedly a single red date, a عنّاباية, marking me because they couldn’t find any for her since August is not the season. Pfff.



5. The Rosenhan Experiment [aka Thud Experiment]

On being sane in insane places.

Since we’re already dissecting the “God complex” of those 1950s doctors, let’s look at how the 70s proved they couldn’t tell a sane man from a schizophrenic — a story I first dug into for my piece The Intertwining of Genius and Insanity.


How do we know if someone is truly insane? Does psychology have the final say?

In 1973, Stanford psychologist David Rosenhan set out to test the validity of psychiatric diagnoses by designing a study titled On Being Sane in Insane Places. He sent eight healthy “pseudopatients” to different psychiatric hospitals across the U.S. Their “in” was simple: they claimed to hear a single word — usually “thud” — and nothing else.


Once admitted, they immediately resumed their normal behaviour and spent their days taking notes on the ward. The result? All eight were diagnosed with serious disorders: seven with schizophrenia and one with manic-depression. Their only way out was to admit they were mentally ill and agree to “treatment” (psychotropic drugs), which they fortunately pocketed and discarded.

The remarkable part? While the doctors were oblivious, 35 actual patients saw right through the act. “You’re not crazy,” they’d say. “You’re a journalist or a professor checking up on this place.” Hm. It takes one to know one, it seems.


When Rosenhan published his results in Science, it shook the foundations of the field. It revealed how heavily psychiatric labels are influenced by perception rather than objective reality, and how nebulous the line between sanity and insanity truly is. This “Rosenhan Effect” helped accelerate the movement to reform and deinstitutionalise mental health care.


However, the story has a final twist. The investigative book The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness by Susannah Cahalan (author of Brain on Fire) suggests Rosenhan may have “fudged” some of his data to make his point. Even the man exposing the “God complex” may have had a bit of one himself.
 Here is more to the story of Cahalan’ follow-up on Science History Institute Museum and Library. 

For a visceral look at this era, there’s always Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962). While not about Rosenhan, it captures the exact institutional dread he was exposing. The 1975 film with Jack Nicholson remains the gold standard for seeing the “sane” man trapped in an insane system. 

Sanity is essentially a societal concept just as “normal” is an illusion

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Random Stuff You May Not Know: Sixteen

 

Following number Fifteen last week, here are five new random topics for your illumination. 

 

1. Egyptian Pound Exchange Rates Over The Decades


The Change of Times

The featured image shows the exchange rates in 1956 Egypt taken from a newspaper clipping. 

What was added are the rates from a decade earlier when the British pound sterling (GBP) was closely linked to the Egyptian pound (EGP) — as part of the sterling area — with a fixed rate. Then following the crazy pounding ride the Pound went through up until 2025. It is certainly tough and sobering to see the result of 70 years of military rule in numbers.   

The post started on Facebook in 2013 and I’ve been updating it ever since, for the sake of documenting history. Alright, just remember to breathe. 


• 1945: 

1 USD = 0.24 Piastres (100 Piastres = 1 Pound or L.E/EGP)
1 BGP = 97 Piastres 

• 1956:

1 USD = 35.1020 Piastres 
1 CAD = 35.8426 Piastres
1 GBP = 97.4 Piastres

• 1963:

1 USD = 0.43 EGP

• 1973:

1 USD = 0.38 EGP

• 1979:

1 USD = EGP 0.70

• 1990:

1 USD = 1.5 EGP

• January 1995:

1 USD = 3.399 EGP

• December 2000:

1 USD = 3.890 EGP

• January 2005:

1 USD = 5.850 EGP

• March 2013:

1 USD = 6.7470 EGP
1 CAD = 6.5489 EGP
1 GBP = 10.1811 EGP

• February 2021:

1 USD = 15.672 EGP
1 CAD = 12.404 EGP
1 GBP = 21.996 EGP

• October 2022:

1 USD = 19.672 EGP
1 CAD = 12.404 EGP
1 GBP = 21.996 EGP

• January 2023:

1 USD = 24.715 EGP
1 EUR = 26.390 EGP
1 GBP = 29.815 EGP

• April 2023:

1 USD = 30.900 EGP
1 EUR = 33.861 EGP
1 GBP = 38.623 EGP

• February 2024:

1 USD = 31.121 EGP
1 EUR = 33.501 EGP
1 GBP = 38.04 EGP

• 2025 [rounded]:

1 USD = 50 EGP
1 EUR = 52 EGP
1 GBP = 62 EGP


What a ride! The Arabic caption in the clipping reads: No mention to Riyals (Saudi Arabia), Dinars (Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq), Dirhams (Emirates). 

Here is a head-scratching Historical Fact: 

Before the official Saudi Riyal was fully established, Saudi Arabia used a mix of foreign currencies, primarily the Ottoman silver 20-kuruş coin, the Maria Theresa Thaler (French Riyal), and the Indian rupee [what?!] until roughly 1928–1935. The first unified coins under King Abdulaziz were minted in 1925–1926.

Another fact is that sometimes in the 1950s my maternal grandfather Mohamed Yehia Hassan was sent by Egypt to the Emirates to help them set the basic structure of their first UAE government. He was formerly part of the Ministry of Interior during the King, also the head of the Interpol in Egypt, and later an ambassador. Interestingly, he was working there with a notable local tribal leader named Ahmed al Sweedy — who years later we discovered is none other than the uncle of our friend Switch.

“It was all a desert with basically only one road,” he would reminisce. And in a way you could somewhat envision his words all the way in 2000 when I went for training in Abu Dhabi and Dubai — despite the few skyscrapers. Apparently it developed even more... with higher and bigger buildings. From simple nomadic people to billionaires, good for them for such metamorphosis. Money can indeed do wonder.  


Sometimes you’re the windshield. Sometimes you’re the bug.  يا حلاوتك ياستفندي يابن عم البرتقال



2. Antigone Canstanda: The Egyptian Miss World Beauty 1954

The pageant was held on 18 October 1954 in London, England between 16 contestants. In addition to Arabic, Antigone spoke Greek, English, Italian, French fluently. The delightful Cypriot-Egyptian woman was the first Miss Egypt candidate to win the title for Egypt. And until today she is also the last to secure the crown. She also remains the only African [Egyptian] to win an international beauty pageant. Not that being in pageants is some kind of elemental achievement to be proud of, but we’re talking about representation. The woman was and still is indeed beautiful.   

Up until winning, Antigone was enjoying her life as a young model was in her native Egypt. But it was when she walked away with the glittering Miss World crown in 1954 that her career was catapulted to an international level. Modelling assignments in the Middle East, France, Italy, Greece followed. 

Later, her career moved into interior design as she ran a company designing the interior of business buildings. In recent years Antigone was one of the judges at the Miss Egypt 2006 contests. 

Another clip from Miss World 2011 — that also took also in London — shows a trip down memory lane with Antigone Costanda and Miss World 1953, Denise Perrier. 

A lesser known steamy photograph dug online in celebration of her beauty

3. Clothesline Canopy at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche

How Art Can Help Humanity.

The Clothesline Canopy project featured 5,000 pairs of socks that were to be donated to shelters in Toronto. The installation was seen during the free all-night art event Nuit Blanche in Toronto on Saturday October 5th, 2013.

The artists and designers behind it are: Sherri Newman, Tara Gaskin, Kristiana Schuhmann, Zack Eisenstein, Selen Levi, Megan Carroll, Sam Bruegger & William Vachon; all alumni of the School of Architecture at Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS. 

Another remarkable installation we were lucky to witness at the same event in Nathan Phillips Square was Ai Weiwei’s contemporary art “Forever Bicycles, 2013” — where he used 3144 bikes.

Ai Weiwei’s Forever Bicycles was quite the spectacular scenery

4. Genetic Reason Why Labradors Tend To Always Be Hungry

Eggseptional Lab News! ⠀
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I’ve been around quite a bit of doggos throughout my life, but have never, ever, seen any of them beg for food like Dahab the Labrador. Belonging to my cousin, during trips back to Egypt I would take him on daily walks, often spending the day together like he was mine. I even wrote a poem last year about missing him دوجو دهب. 

But seriously man, if you come close to the kitchen Dahab will follow you with his eyes until you reach a certain place — marked in his brain — then he will join you. If you just pretend you’re chewing something, he will keep focusing on your mouth to see if there is anything for him. That is every single time. Such a voracious appetite accompanying such looks by these forlorn eyes. It seem to be a psychological thing. No wonder some years back during one trip to Cairo I found him significantly overweight. The next year he was somewhat more in shape, but the begging and the appetite were certainly still there. ⠀⠀⠀⠀

A few friends who own Labs had talked about the same thing. Then, one day I came across an article titled Science Explains Why Your Lab Is Always Hungry. Ta-Da! ⠀⠀⠀⠀

Apparently the poor things cannot help their obsession with food due to a gene mutation. True story! 

Based on research primarily led by Dr. Eleanor Raffan at the University of Cambridge, a 14-base pair deletion in the pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) gene has been identified as a major genetic driver of canine obesity. “Previous studies of this POMC variant have shown a relationship with appetite and a feeling of fullness.” This deletion causes a “double-whammy” of increased hunger and reduced energy expenditure — a significant, first-of-its-kind discovery that sheds light on why certain breeds are prone to obesity.⠀⠀ . ⠀⠀

Key findings regarding the study include Prevalence: Roughly 25% of Labrador Retrievers and 66% of Flat-Coated Retrievers carry this specific mutation.

Breed Specificity: The mutation is found in Labrador Retrievers and closely related Flat-Coated Retrievers, but is notably absent in many other breeds screened, including Golden Retrievers in some studies, despite their similar reputation for being obesity-prone.

So if you’re a lab owner and have been wondering what’s up with your doggo, worry not and know they are born like that. Also keep it in mind [NOT] to overfeed them because they may have a hard time saying no due to their inner wirings. Woof. 


With that, Some Animals I Shot is a photo-article here on One Lucky Soul.  
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Look at me not overweight: Probably his first time to be carried like
 this as an adult.

5. Subway Mariachis

“Mariachi” refers to a traditional Mexican style of music and musical group performance dating back to at least the 18th century. Ever since, it has evolved over time in the countryside of various regions on the western parts of the country. Mariachi has a distinctive instrumentation, musical genre, performance and singing styles, and clothing — called charro suit. ⠀

Consisting of an embroidered jacket, pants, and vest, the dapper attire is a style of dress based on the clothing of a type of horseman, the charro. The short coat, however, is worn by men and women alike. The origins of the charro outfit may be traced back to the city of Salamanca in Western Spain; as the Spanish conquistadors brought this type of clothing with them to Mexico.

Usually, the small ensemble strolls from one place to another while playing their music.

The term “Mariachi” is also used to describe the individual performer(s) of mariachi music as well as for the music itself. 


And now we know. 


*The portrait above taken at a Toronto subway station in 2011 came to be part of three other photo-articles Some People I Shot, More People I Shot, and Some More People I Shot.⠀

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