Congirl vs Cavegirl

I am a fan of Saturday Night Live . Two of my favorite characters are “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer” and “Grumpy Old Man.” Phil Hartman is masterful as a formally frozen caveman who fains confusion living in our modern world, charms each jury he faces by saying “I’m just a caveman,” and wins every case. Dana Carvey is delightful as a grumpy old man who doesn’t “like things now compared to the way the used to be.” Here’s what I think he would say about being a modern-day fan:                      “In my day,  you had to make time for shows, movies, and bands you liked. Only fans who camped out for two weeks in the snow got good concert tickets. Going to a movie was the only way you got to see your favorite actor. And if you missed your T.V. show, tough! There were only 5 channels and everyone watched an episode of a show at the same time. We talked about it later with other people, in real life, like we were ...

Have you ever met a famous person?  I have met perhaps the most famous—Stephen Hawking. I was working at a physics institute where he was a guest speaker, and it was my job to tell him about the facilities there. The other staff members had been abuzz about his a rrival for weeks—and why not? He was arguably the smartest person on the planet! He even spoke to me through his voice modulator!! But the craziest part about my meeting him was that I did not feel nervous. I was certainly excited and honored, but I retained my composure because I had a job to do. Then recently, I met a few actors from a TV show that I love, and I lost my ability to speak. I could not formulate complete sentences, my heart was thumping in my ears, and I felt a little light headed. I knew these were just people who happened to act for a living, and yet somehow I could barely function in their presence. So how the bleep does a TV actor make me more nervous than Stephen Hawking? Because my logical brai...

I am a member of a fandom. It’s not the first fandom, and it’s not the biggest, but it is the best. I know this, not only because I am a fan of  Supernatural , but because I am a bit of a science nerd. Like many SPN fans, I feel blindsided by the feelings I have for this show. But with a little bit of help from my favorite scientific theory, I think I can explain why the SPN fandom has fallen so hard.           I dig Evolutionary Psychology. It’s relatively new to the scientific scene and it’s still…well…evolving. It’s based on the idea that some of the things modern-day humans do come from behaviors that helped us back in our cave-dwelling days. These behaviors, or instincts, are sort of like software that runs in the background of our minds; we don’t normally pay attention to them, but they pop up when we need direction. Some of the unconscious behaviors we employ that helped us survive thousands of years ago don’t translate ve...

Each of us has a cave-dweller inside of us. I have decided to call mine Claire. Most of the time she's pretty quiet—I can go about my daily life making conscious choices about what to wear, in what order I need to get things done, and who I want to spend time with. But fairly predictably, Claire takes over. Most of the time she is backing me up. She helps me defend myself if something comes flying in my direction, makes me yawn when I am getting tired, and causes me to crave certain foods when I need nourishment. But once in a while, she motivates me to do things I don't understand. That is because she thinks it is still thousands of years ago and I am part of a tribe that is not only hunting and gathering, but also is seen as prey—and Claire wants to survive to see the next day. The world is not safe in her eyes, and there are certain instincts she feels I should be employing. And in most cases, she is right.         But there is one area of my life where Claire...