By Carina Magyar in Herbs — Feb 19, 2023

I: Coltsfoot

How not to overreact to something new.

The sunny face of coltsfoot. Photo by Olli Kilpi / Unsplash

Good morning. Today is primidi, the 1st of Ventôse (the fresh maker), Year CCXXXI. We are now in the month of wind. We celebrate le tussilage, a dandelion-like herb that should be taken for asthma and coughs with caution.

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This plant, with its hoof-shaped leaves, isn't a household name in North America, but there's a confectioner in the UK who actually makes a candy out of coltsfoot. Well, "candy" might be a stretch. Originally a sort of Ricola-like treat for people with lung problems, Stockley's is now the only manufacturer in the world of these sticks, which are hard and crunchy and taste mainly of black licorice. As one review put it: "Somewhat of an acquired taste, but we're confident that if you like liquorice and aniseed sweets, this will go down well." A whinnying endorsement.

One of the most fascinating psychological tricks our minds play on us is called the Baader-Meinhof illusion. What happens is we learn something new – a word, a concept, a label for people – and immediately after learning it, we seemingly encounter that thing everywhere.

It's part of our complex attention attrition, the same thing magicians and pickpockets exploit. Our brains are wired to recognize patterns, which is a marvelous thing, but anything that's completely unknown gets discarded during that pattern recognition, and unless we're trying to figure out what the unknown thing is, it completely vanishes.

This is cute with vocabulary, but it becomes something else when it's a general label for describing people.

I: Coltsfoot

X: Sled

II: Dogwood

X: Sled

II: Dogwood

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