Mindframe

Lance Armstrong is a cheater. For some, it was a shocking revelation. For the French cycling world, it was a classic I-told-you-so moment. (Or rather, a " Je te l'avais dit " moment--thank you, Yahoo! Answers.) Armstrong said in his quest for victory he really didn't think about what he was putting into his body. What's interesting is how well blood doping (replacing your existing blood with super oxygenated blood)  and the other drugs worked. For that matter the same can be said of steroid use by professional baseball players like Mark McQuire and Sammy Sosa. Good players already, the steroids made them home run gods in a sport had never seen records fall like matchsticks before. In a very real sense, our fallen sports heroes have shown us that you are what you eat. Alter the chemicals in the body and brain and you win the Tour de France seven times, or set new home run records. But even if you're never discovered and humiliated before a scandal-hung...

One day, back when my son was in the crawling phase, he honed in my wife's grandmother's antique comb and brush set. I found him delightedly motoring around the living room floor clutching the fragile comb in one hand and brush in the other. Recognizing that taking these away would launch him into tears, I devised a plan.  I picked up his favorite ball, got down on my hands and knees and presented him with the new option. I figured he'd undoubtedly chose the ball and surrender one item of his current booty. Then I simply had to find one more toy, repeat the process and I would come away with both heirlooms, tear-free, allowing general happiness and world peace to ensue. Clever, right? However. My son, when confronted with this third choice, looked at his left hand holding the comb, glanced down at his right hand, which held the antique brush, and then leaned forward and opened his mouth, making it clear where I should deposit his favorite ball. Like...

So somehow you find yourself stuck in the Mall of America, mannequins staring vacantly at you from all sides, dressed in the latest fashions, which like fruit flies, reach their full life cycle in less than 30 days. Quick, what do you do? Of course: you duck into a Cinnabon, enticed by the sweet nectar of cinnamon and sugar wafting through the air, seductively calling your name. (Your first name in this case; Cinnabon marketers are that clever.) Normally, you resist temptation, but not this time--no, this time you find the buttery warm pastry gliding over your lips and hitting your taste buds faster then a Nolan Ryan fast ball. You see, Cinnabon knows how your brain works. In particular, they know that all outside information is delivered to your  brain through your five senses. And they know that smell is the only sense that doesn't go through any kind of filtering process. It is our most primitive and powerful sense. And so it is no surprise the marketing geniuses at Ci...