Steve!

I was watching this cuddly rodent on a youtube video, and it made me think of Steve. 

I’m referring here to the one and only Steve Mirsky.

Steves can come and Steves can go, but this Steve changed my life. 

In a good way. 

By making fun of me. 

As an aside, I’m reminded of a song by another genius New Yorker, so here it is. If you don’t want to get sidetracked, ignore the track. 

It all started back in 1995. Together with Ilana Eli and other co-workers, we published a scientific article trying to understand why people have so much trouble knowing whether they have bad breath or not. We asked 52 people (most of whom worried about the problem) to try to smell themselves by cupping their hands over their mouths, licking their wrist and smelling their own saliva. 

Ilana is a very clever lady. She suggested that we also ask them how bad they thought their breath would be. The folks in the study were very subjective about how bad their breath was – and this had a major influence on how bad they subsequently scored themselves.

We were very proud of this paper (and still are). But in 1996, Steve Mirsky read it. He writes funny articles on science in Scientific American. He decided to make fun of our article. 

Initially, we were a bit insulted. But after thinking about it for a while, we decided to be happy. After all, any mention by Scientific American, no matter how dishonorable, is something. 

As my dear late Mom used to say (in Yiddish),

“עפעס איז עפעס”

“Something is something”. 

You can judge for yourself. 

http://www.tau.ac.il/public-affairs/news/eng/96fall/smell.html

A few years later, I had the idea of writing a review paper on bad breath for Scientific American. My colleagues tried to dissuade me from trying. “Mel, you don’t stand a chance in hell. The folks at Scientific American commission their own articles. They never take submissions that they haven’t requested. You don’t have one chance in 10,000.”

Once in a while, I take a gamble on something that appears to be ‘out of reach’. Most times, I get rejected or ignored. But if you take the chance, sometimes things do come true. 

So round about 2001, I sent an e-mail to Scientific American. I told them that we were conducting bad breath research, that we had put together an international society of scientists and were holding scientific conferences around the world. I also mentioned that they had reviewed some of our research in the past (I don’t recall whether I admitted that it was in tongue-in-cheek fashion). 

I sent the e-mail. 

It arrived. 

Nothing happened. 

And then, something did happen. 

I got an e-mail from Steve. Steve Mirsky. 

It went something like “Hey, I’m the guy who wrote that funny article about you in 1996. How are things on the smelly side? Maybe your suggestion of a review on bad breath is not a bad idea. Let me check and get back to you.”

Which he did. 

To make a long story short, I ended up writing the first review in Scientific American on bad breath (probably their only one, come to think of it). And guess who my editor was? Steve Mirsky. 

I was in New York around the time the review was published and went to meet Steve and visit the offices of Scientific American. They were very nice to me, gave me a Scientific American watch, and some other memorabilia (none of which I still have, but I do have the memory of the memorabilia). 

The article came out in 2002. The preeminent Israeli scientist Nathan Sharon said it would change my life (it did, but in an unanticipated way). 

I would send you a free copy, but they still charge for it, after all these years. 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-of-bad-breath/

$8 for the digital version? After 13 years? After I’ve written so many books that are free?

Oh, well, you can’t change the whole world. 

I met Steve a few years ago in New York. It was a wonderful reunion. 

Since then, nary a word. I know that he’s out there, writing more of his hilarious articles.

So Steve, I hope you see this book about you. I hope you like it. I hope you continue to write eloquent, pithy articles about the world. 

Take care, friend,

Mel