My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places 1st edition

From acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach comes the complete collection of her ?My Planet? articles published in Reader?s Digest. She was a hit columnist in the magazine, and this book features the articles she wrote in that time. Insightful and hilarious, Mary explores the ins and outs of the modern world: marriage, friends, family, food, technology, customer service, dental floss, and ants?she leaves no element of the American experience unchecked for its inherent paradoxes, pleasures, and foibles.

On Cleanliness:
Ed has crud vision, and I don?t. I don?t notice filth. Ed sees it everywhere. I am reasonably convinced that Ed can actually see bacteria. . . . He confessed he didn?t like me using his bathrobe because I?d wear it while sitting on the toilet.
?It?s not like it goes in the water,? I protested, though if you counted the sash as part of the robe, this wasn?t strictly true.

On the Internet:
The Internet is a boon for hypochondriacs like me. Right now, for instance, I?m feeling a shooting pain on the side of my neck. A Web search produces five matches, the first three for a condition called Arnold-Chiari Malformation.
While my husband, Ed, reads over my shoulder, I recite symptoms from the list. ??General clumsiness? and ?general imbalance,?? I say, as though announcing arrivals at the Marine Corps Ball. ??Difficulty driving,? ?lack of taste,? ?difficulty feeling feet on ground.??
?Those aren?t symptoms,? says Ed. ?Those are your character flaws.?
On Fashion:
My husband recently made me try on a bikini. A bikini is not so much a garment as a cloth-based reminder that your parts have been migrating all these years. My waist, I realized that day in the dressing room, has completely disappeared beneath my rib cage, which now rests directly on my hips. I?m exhibiting continental drift in reverse.

On Eating Healthy:
So Ed and I were eating a lot of vegetables. Vegetables on pasta, vegetables on rice. This was extremely healthy, until you got to the part where Ed and I are found in the kitchen at 10 p.m., feeding on Froot Loops and tubes of cookie dough.