Comments on: What is snot? And why do some people eat it?

By: Adam Wise

Adam Wise — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Never Kiss Your Honey When Your Nose Is Runny. You May Think It’s Funny But It’s Snot!

By: gastronomican

gastronomican — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:54:00 +0000

My 7th grade speech teacher offered to give me an automatic A if I did my final speech on mucus. A fascinating subject, I brought samples.

By: mtnmedic

mtnmedic — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:53:00 +0000

When we were little kids, Mom always used to say to my sister “STOP that! Do you want me to get you a box of boogers for Christmas?”. I wonder how many parents have said this. Hmmm….I probably should buy some stock in boogers as they’re always plentiful and always in demand for one reason or another. Screw Apple stock.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:46:00 +0000

Yebbut it’s not normally expelled from the body. In the normal run of things, cilia waft it up the nasal passages and down the back of the throat, into the digestive system.

Not true. You even see cats and dogs honking it out.

By: CountZero

CountZero — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:33:00 +0000

Eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww!

By: Mitch_M

Mitch_M — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:43:00 +0000

Booger is picked because it causes itching. Booger is eaten because that is the most handy way to remove the very sticky booger from the finger.

Booger management is one of the reasons why I’m uncomfortable with having a camera on me at work.

By: thermidorthelobster

thermidorthelobster — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:27:00 +0000

Yebbut it’s not normally expelled from the body. In the normal run of things, cilia waft it up the nasal passages and down the back of the throat, into the digestive system. Why worry about people delving around and putting it in their mouths, when it would have ended up in the same place anyway?

By: anderalert

anderalert — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:14:00 +0000

I knew this thread would have me crying with laughter. Thanks everybody!

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:40:00 +0000

I happened to write the first comment in this thread. I’m not judging anyone, seriously. But, seeing the whole subject brought up for scientific scrutiny just somehow creeps me out. But also somehow, I was driven to check back here 8 hours later to see the comments. AFIC, my first comment stands. :)

By: Rainey

Rainey — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 06:31:00 +0000

I was a pre-school teacher. In a couple decades I never saw a kid who didn’t do it. Meanwhile, it takes a lot of teaching to get kids to desist and for many it highly possible what we actually accomplish as parents and teachers is getting them to be more discrete about where and how they do it.
Personally, I think this persistent instinct is related in some way to the whole concept of homeopathy.

By: MarcVader

MarcVader — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:15:00 +0000

Maybe being in a car is like the enhanced and modern version of being in the safety and warmth of a prehistoric cave. Makes the cultural inhibitions go away.

By: MarcVader

MarcVader — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:04:00 +0000

Uhm, dude. With the amount of bacteria living in our oral cavity the saved up saliva in your glass will gradually evolve into something else. I did experiments on the subject in my formative years, so I know… The smell is a dead giveaway.

By: toshtoego

toshtoego — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 04:30:00 +0000

That’s why the sonota is so popular

By: Angry Chief

Angry Chief — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:44:00 +0000

I still eat my boogers in secret.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 03:35:00 +0000

Microplanes are excellent for removing/thinning the thick hard dead skin so that you can restore flexibility and help stop the cracking.

It took me a while to realize that callouses would cause cracking. I use one of those Dr. Scholl’s pumice sticks. It’s made for your feet, but I end up using it on my fingertips, as well. In this weather, daily.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:49:00 +0000

I share your pain..:
Avoid hot showers, use skin cleansers with lots of lanolin. I find urea lotion helps. Alternately, you can put gobs of wound-healing antibiotic ointment all over the cracks and cover this with gauze and tape it up – it’s give your skin a change to heal; moist wounds heal much better.

Microplanes are excellent for removing/thinning the thick hard dead skin so that you can restore flexibility and help stop the cracking.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:49:00 +0000

Soak them in vodka, and sell ‘em as gummi bears rejects!

By: TacoChuck

TacoChuck — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:11:00 +0000

Urine (human and other animal) drinking and using it for bathing and/or medicine is not uncommon in the world.

By: TacoChuck

TacoChuck — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:07:00 +0000

I think once you are sick the anti microbial functionality is basically over. At that point I was always under the impression that a runny nose and mucus production were sort of the body trying to flush out physically as much of the infection as it could. Thats why I usually blow my nose a lot and use nasal lavage to help get mass quantities of virus out of my body wholesale. I try not to over do it with the nasal lavage though.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:15:00 +0000

I wear wool socks even in the summer. Toe cracks hurt like hell. It’s particularly bad now; the dew point was -12°F yesterday.

By: iseethefnords

iseethefnords — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:55:00 +0000

You’re welcome.

By: Godfree

Godfree — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:47:00 +0000

The other downside to calling them out on it is that they’ll use it against you. “Hey Amphigorey! I picked you a fresh one!” :P

By: sockdoll

sockdoll — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:40:00 +0000

“One thing she points out, nasal mucus is about 95% water, so there’s a possibility that you might expect more mucus eating in arid places.”

And pee drinking? It’s pretty high in water content, too.

By: Owen Thaxton

Owen Thaxton — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:38:00 +0000

amazing

By: Gordon McMillan

Gordon McMillan — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:55:00 +0000

People do eat okra, so evidently the revulsion to mucus isn’t universal.

By: neworion

neworion — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:50:00 +0000

Research has shown that children raised in sterile environments (linoleum floors cleaned regularly) have a higher rate of asthma as adults. Babies and young children seem to put everything they come across into their mouths. What doesn’t fit in, they lick. The guess is that this primes their immune systems. So, boogers, traps for more environmental threats, could serve as mega-immune boosters. Adults, with less active immune systems, would suffer rather than benefit from this exposure. Encourage your kids to eat their boogers, then switch them to a snot substitute (tapioca?) when they get older.

By: Commodore Crush

Commodore Crush — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:27:00 +0000

I played in a band with a guy who constantly picked his nose and ate them in public and did not care who saw him. What I find weird, is how many people pick their nose in their car in public and think that they’re being blocked from view by a one-way mirror or something.

By: Gordon McMillan

Gordon McMillan — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:19:00 +0000

Don’t think the local Ag Dept would like that. But cow boogers might work. Oh, pork boogers!! BWHAHAHA!! I’m rich!!!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:40:00 +0000

…pitty we don’t do lice anymore, bad for social cohesion.

Don’t have any school-age children, eh?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:39:00 +0000

Drying them to boogers might make them more digestible.

Sweeten them, dye them hot pink and sell them as snacks.