Wild flowers

I have lived mostly in urban areas save for some time before I turned 5 and some summers I spent with my grandparents as a teenager. My sense of smell is quite developed and I recall the smell of flowers (especially roses and lilacs) and perfumes from my childhood, but I would say my sense of taste left even stronger memories: grapes, walnuts, cherry plums (corcoduşe), pears, watermelon, tomatoes, cucumbers, carob, chestnuts, mulberries, quince, oranges, bubble gum, etc.

When we lived in Bronte, I distinctly remember two aromas: one Amur maple and one basswood tree in flower. I have not encountered anything like it before. Unforgettable.

Since we moved to the country side, the smell of wild weed flowers hits me like a train every once in a while: while walking down the track between the trees and the mostly wild pasture, while walking by the wild grapes or the sumacs, or just tonight, walking nowhere near any recognizable wild flowers. The aromas are amazing and indelible. I wish all people could experience something like this at least three times in their lives.

1960s shift in life expectancy in socialist countries

In the 1960s, male mortality began rising in all socialist countries, while female mortality, if it increased at all, rose at a much lower rate. The mortality gap widened, and this trend has persisted ever since. According to a British study from 1996, the difference between mortality rates in Eastern Europe and those in Western Europe was primarily a result of differing behavioral patterns: neglecting one’s personal health, as well as alcohol and tobacco addiction, were particularly common among men in socialist bloc countries.

Analysts from the think tank To Be Precise have identified several factors that they say likely contributed to the higher levels of destructive behaviors in these countries. These include:

* Ideological norms that prioritized societal interests over individual well-being and promoted the idea that “life should include an element of heroism”;
* A higher share of the population doing hazardous jobs or working in facilities with unhealthy conditions;
* The media’s promotion of the ideal man as someone strong who never complains.

Source: meduzo.io

The above rabbit hole dive was prompted by this image: