Sometimes, learning the medical root of a word is informative. Dr. Nuland taught me about the four humors first described by the ancient Greeks, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood. They've integrated themselves so seamlessly into our vocabularies that I never thought to think that phlegmatic describes a sluggish state resulting from an imbalance of phlegm and melancholic from too much black (melanic) bile.

Sometimes, though, I wish I'd never learned the damn concept. Why do I sit here ruminating over this?

Well, it's because of this, particularly unpleasant, definition of rumination:

Rumination refers to repeated, involuntary postprandial regurigitation of recently ingested food. The food is expectorated or chewed and reswallowed. This cycle can recur repeatedly for up to an hour after a meal. It typically ceases when food begins to take on an acid taste.

Thank you Lippincott's Gastrointestinal Pathophysiology. Clearly it is going to be a long month.

I'm listening to:
M83: Before the Dawn Heals Us