Wednesday, 23 November 2022

Nine Wonky Log Cabins

 

When I was a music student, apples were a big part of my rehearsal schedule. I’d work ninety minutes daily alone in a practice room. The first thirty or so would be mindless (and mind-numbing) scales and arpeggios. I’d bring an apple and work with one hand while eating half the apple with the other. Then I’d switch hands. I ate the whole apple, except for the stem and the seeds, which I’d toss in a bin as I left. I’d read apple seeds contain cyanide, and didn’t fancy the idea of killing myself for my art. I needn’t have bothered. It turns out there’s so little cyanide in apple seeds, you’d have to eat bags of them to do any damage. Even then, the seed’s exocarp usually prevents it from being digested. All that time, I could have polished off the seeds as well. I wouldn’t have munched the stems, though. There’s such a thing as overkill.

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