With Sue in Canada - it’s like a whole other country, eh? - it’s been up to me to make a Susie McMuffin for breakfast, if I want one. I call it a Susie McMuffin because I don’t make them, Sue does - Johnny does pancakes and waffles. It’s not that I don’t know how to fry (or scramble or poach) eggs, it’s just that Sue always does it… unless Sue’s not here. And Sue’s not here.
Of course when I fry eggs, I can’t just fry eggs, I have to make something more out of something less… like a lot of my writing… this post, for example. Because when I fry eggs, I crack them open in a small bowl first, then slowly pour the slime into a preheated cast-iron skillet, that way the eggs cook at the same time. Practical. Before I pour, I lift the skillet slightly, then ease it back to level as the eggs hit the pan, thereby reducing “eggspreading.”
And to make a face.
Yes, I’m easily amused.
Of course there really isn’t a face there. It’s called pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon where the mind responds to what isn’t really there. If you know… your… language…. stuff… you know pareidolia has Greek origins - “para” - “instead of” (faulty, in this context), and eidōlon - image, form, or shape.
Seeing things in cloud formations is a common example. So too is hearing hidden messages in recorded music (unless there really are hidden messages - “I… buried… Paulllll….”). Rorschach inkblot tests use pareidolia in an attempt to open a window to a person’s mental state by asking the subject, “What do you see?”
“I see fried eggs… and a face…”
We’ve all seen stories of pareidolia, it’s just seldom referred to it as that - someone “finds” the face of the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich, Jesus in a potato chip, Buddah in a tree knot, those of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, and Lincoln in a South Dakota rock formation… How come no one ever sees Hitler? Or Ed Gein? The “Man in the Moon,” the “Face on Mars,” and Minnesota Viking Super Bowl trophies… more examples of people seeing things that aren’t really there.
And it’s not just people who do this. Computers (programmed by people) also see faces where none exist, facial recognition software having turned up faces in images of inanimate objects, probably faster than people do. Studies have shown that objects people perceive as faces are done so in less that two-tenth’s of a second, actual faces perceived only slightly faster. So when you saw this post, how long did it take you to see that I have face on my egg? If you’re like most people, about the same amount of time it took you to blink your eyes, even though it’s not really there.
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