A few weeks later, I’m in a fluorescent-lit classroom in Chelsea awaiting the start of the official Mensa test. I’m sitting next to a guy who’s doing a series of elaborate neck stretches, like we’re about to engage in a vigorous rugby match. He’s neatly laid out four types of gum on his Formica desk: Juicy Fruit, Wrigley Spearmint, Big Red, and Eclipse. I hate this guy. I hope to God he’s not a genius.
A. J. JacobsThink of negative speech as verbal pollution. And that's what I've been doing: visualizing insults and gossip as a dark cloud, maybe one with some sulfur dioxide. Once you've belched it out, you can't take it back. As grandma said, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. The interesting this is, the less often I vocalize my negative thoughts, the fewer negative thoughts I cook up in the first place.
A. J. JacobsThe best we can do, to paraphrase Pollan, is to eat whole foods, mostly plants, and not too much.
A. J. JacobsI've never before been so aware of the thousands of little good things, the thousands of things that go right every day.
A. J. JacobsPlus, in one of his e-mails, the guy said he didn't like pancakes. What kind of asshole doesn't like pancakes?
A. J. JacobsIt's hard to be in a bad mood when you're walking around looking like you're about to play the semifinals at Wimbledon.
A. J. JacobsThere's a very passionate pro-chewing movement on the Internet called Chewdiasm. They say that we should be chewing 50 to 100 times per mouthful, which is insane. I tried that. It takes like a day and a half to eat a sandwich. But their basic idea is right. If you chew, you'll eat slower and you will get more nutrients.
A. J. Jacobs