Smorgasbord #47
Microchimerism, Poached, Dirt
Hello friends, this is Smorgasbord, a self-service buffet of ideas—the milk chocolate almonds of newsletters.
Microchimerism
Microchimerism is the presence of a small number of cells in a person that come from a genetically different individual. The most common cause of microchimerism is pregnancy, where the mother and her child exchange cells through the placenta and blood.
A chimera, a monster from Greek mythology, is composed of snippets of various animals. It is depicted as a lion with the head of a goat and a tail that ends in a snake’s head. I feel like whoever named this could’ve spent a little more time coming up with something else, but that’s just me.
Putting the name aside, your mother has some of your and all her children's cells in her body. My wife has cells from all four of our children in her body. Isn’t that amazing? Now I understand why it’s harder for some to “cut the cord,” am I right?
All jokes aside, think about how intimate that relationship between a mother and their children is. Our mothers carried us in their wombs, and we left some of our cells behind. Now think of Mary and Jesus; some of Jesus’ cells stayed with Mary after He ascended into heaven. Mary had cells of the word incarnate in her. How much closer to God can you get?
If we believe that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, would it be too crazy to think that some microchimerism occurs every time we receive Him worthily? Don’t quote me on this half-baked idea, but the gist is that He comes to us under the appearance of a tiny host, yet we receive Him, and He becomes part of our bodies, which fills me with awe, just like microchimerism.
Poached
Diana loves poached eggs; it’s probably her favorite way of having nature’s multivitamin. A few weeks ago, I wanted to surprise her with a breakfast dish with poached eggs. We had refried beans, tortilla chips, cheese, and salsa, which are the building blocks of chilaquiles: tortilla chips drenched in salsa, piled over a bed of refried beans, topped with cheese and crowned with an egg—usually a fried one but this is where I thought a poached egg could shine.
I tried the “vortex” method and successfully failed to poach an egg this way. Like every infomercial ever, I thought there’s gotta be an easier way. Thanks to the internet, I learned that curing eggs in a vinegar and water mixture for thirty minutes so that the albumin builds a membrane is the way to go.
With the help of a slotted spoon, I transferred the cured eggs to a shallow pan with water on a low simmer and left them alone for about three minutes—I would say, depending on the degree of “doneness” you want your poached egg to achieve, leave them longer; at the three-minute mark the yolk was nice and runny but so was a little bit of the white, so next time I would leave them in the water an extra minute.
When the time was up, I scooped them and drained the excess water on a kitchen towel before plating them atop the chilaquiles. This was the final result:
Isn’t that a beauty? I think it makes sense to try my hand at eggs Benedict next.
Dirt
Carter Vail is a musician who also makes funny videos and posts them on social media. Recently, I stumbled upon one of his videos whose caption read, “We’re guys, ya know? #funny #dirt.” The video is a wonderfully chill bossa nova tune with some odd lyrics about keeping dirt under your pillow in case the dirt man comes to town because failing to do so would result in being taken to the dirt man’s lair. It’s a silly song; you would probably scroll past it like I did.
But then, something happened: Carter published a different version of the video with the caption “Your turn in 3, 2, 1,” and the internet did not disappoint. If you want to look at a non-exhaustive list of open-verse versions of “Dirt Man,” check out this playlist. I love seeing this kind of collaboration.
I wish I were creative enough to come up with a few bars, but since I’m not, I hope you can enjoy the ones on the playlist above. It’s not every day that you see a comedy song set to bossa nova, so if this tickles your fancy, by all means, watch and let me know how you like it.
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Sobremesa
If you could build your chimera, which animals would you mix?
What’s your go-to brunch food?
Are you going to keep a little dirt under your pillow for the dirt man?
I remember reading a whimsical yet profound poem back in high school, in which the priest poet gave examples of how we are what we eat. The poem ended with a reminder that just as we are what we eat in, say, a tea party, so too we become what we eat when we receive the Holy Eucharist. I think your microchimerism idea is on to something. We absorb nutrients as our body digests food. Thus, we absorb nutrients from Our Lord Himself. It’s so amazing to think of. Thank you for this reflection!
Microchimerism as (one!) “why” for the Assumption is a personal favorite theory of mine.