All articles filed in CC Hart

I am a natural redhead, part of the less than 2% of the global population that is inherently ginger. Genetic testing has confirmed I carry the melanocortin 1 genetic variant, otherwise known as MC1R. This means I lack the receptors to pick up a biochemical signal to create eumelanin, the brown form of skin and…

I love the word quiescent, meaning “being at rest; inactive or motionless”. I fell in love with the word the first time I read it on a box of Popsicles, the treat that is quiescently frozen. I imagined the brightly colored twinpops, dormant as winter flowers, resting peacefully in their box under the spell of…

On Saturday evening, I made a Creole gumbo for supper, loaded with andouille, okra, and shrimp. It takes several hours to make this traditional Louisiana stew, starting with a classic roux that bubbles and squeaks in the pot as it morphs from off-white to brown over the course of an hour. The hissing and popping…

Please join me on Wednesday, September 20th at 15:30 GMT for Art in Conversation, a multidisciplinary seminar. The University of St. Andrews is hosting this online event in collaboration with The IASAS, the International Association of Synaesthetes, Artists, and Scientists. The link to join is here: Art in Conversation.

I feel so fortunate to be featured in Aurore Dupont-Sagorin’s mini-documentary about mirror pain. Aurore is a fellow mirror-sensory synesthete and filmmaker. Her BBC Reel Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia: feeling other people’s pain is a beautifully crafted short film about the joys and struggles of living with the conflated sensations of MTS. I am glad to know…

Which to take? The blue pill? The white pill?

For the first time in my 30-year manual therapy career, I’ve given a client a code name: Italian Beauty. She is indeed gorgeous and has ties to Calabria, on the “heel” of Italy’s boot. But, my reasons are not about her visage or heritage. My neurocognitive differences have long fostered problems for me at work,…

May 6th 2023 marked the coronation of King Charles III in London, and across the pond, the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby. I didn’t watch either, but I did take Monday’s New York Times quiz on headwear to see if I could accurately pick which hats were worn at Westminster Abbey, and which at…