melanin may be more than benign

nice to mole you
at last something positive to having many moles (if you play join the dots on ravaj's back you get a wonderful map of the norwegian coastline). the telegraph reports:

"People who seem to stay younger for longer are also likely to have more moles, research released yesterday suggests. A study of twins found a striking correlation between high numbers of moles and a biological marker for slow ageing. As a result, people with a lot of moles might be expected to live longer than those who have very few, despite facing a greater risk of skin cancer."

here is the rest of the article, with some more technical explanation for those who are interested.

novocaine is cool

and the first exciting event of the gregorian new year was a visit to the dermatologist. as the direct progeny of two moley people, i am blessed with markings on my back that if you were to connect the dots you would discover a detailed map of a norwegian fjord. in any case, a mole in a visible and non-embarrassing place went funny the other day. having just watched an episode of 'bad girls' where one of the julies has a lump and doesn't want to deal with it and ends up having a mastectomy, i decided to make a call immediately to my gp for a referral. she took one look at it and told me she would be removing it right away. that's where the novocaine came in. i was a bit surprised, actually, since i have no teeth in my thigh, but after the initial stick, and the strong burning sensation, a lovely calm feeling came over my leg. i wished my whole body could feel like that :-)

the mole is gone, and in a week i shall know more about it. meanwhile, a little bit of austin powers and his need for novocaine when dealing with a mole ...