Cartocacoethes: Uncontrollable Compulsion to See Maps Everywhere

Posted by Alex in Medicine, Travel & Places on January 13, 2009 at 2:38 pm


The human brain is wired to recognize faces everywhere, but it turns out that there’s also a strange mania called cartocacoethes: the uncontrollable compulsion to see maps everywhere.

Strange Maps blog has a post about these "accidental maps" – for example, the africa in milanesa to the left:

“I was cooking this typical Argentinian food called milanesa, when I found the map of Africa in my saucepan,” writes Manuel Barcia from Argentina. “This typical dish is made out of a cut meat from the back of the cow, called nalga, covered with a mix of mashed bread and eggs and then fried. I always say that each piece of meat looks like an undiscovered island or some unknown place, but this looked just like Africa.”

Link – via BB-Blog


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COMMENT

15 comments to "Cartocacoethes: Uncontrollable Compulsion to See Maps Everywhere"

  1. Miramon
    January 13th, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    Heh. "Milanesa" may be a typical Argentine dish. But "Milanese" is typical everywhere else...

  2. Josh
    January 13th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

    last night i had a slice of chicken that looked like the LP of Michigan

  3. Gail Pink
    January 13th, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    It does look like Africa and it also looks delicious!

  4. Goober
    January 13th, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    What's more annoying than the imbecilic fascination of some people at seeing things that aren't there is the utter inability of others to ever miss an opportunity to talk about it like it matters. Who cares?

  5. Evilbeagle
    January 13th, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    There's a disorder for everything, isn't there?

  6. ted
    January 13th, 2009 at 7:34 pm

    Turn it 90 degrees counterclockwise, and then tell me what you see.

  7. Christophe
    January 13th, 2009 at 8:50 pm

    a gun, Ted...

  8. Nathan Miller
    January 13th, 2009 at 11:33 pm

    In Texas, everything is shaped like Texas. Not because people have this disorder, but because it actually is. I grew up on Texas shaped tortilla chips. They actually are tastier!

    In Israel, everything is shaped like Israel. Not because it actually is, but because Israel has such a boring-yet-not-square shape that oh so many things look enough like Israel that people actually care.

  9. Evilbeagle
    January 14th, 2009 at 3:07 am

    I know what you mean about Texas, Nathan. Usually, it's stuff you that in other states, would be sold to tourists only.

  10. JohnP
    January 14th, 2009 at 7:26 am

    Oh God, ALL boots are shaped like Italy!

  11. Paulina
    January 14th, 2009 at 7:29 am

    i guess this plugs in to the mapmania phenomenon, eh?

  12. brian
    January 14th, 2009 at 9:13 am

    i see a wienerschnitzel

  13. Andrej3000
    January 14th, 2009 at 11:08 am

    I found a map of france in my bed this morning.

    ... look it up

  14. lookas
    January 16th, 2009 at 3:27 pm

    "Milanese meat" it's an tyipycal Italian dish since last time i checked Milan was in italy not in Argentina

    (How it's called the strange mania that make you be picky when somebody talks about Italian food? I guess it's called being italian, sorry :)

  15. Gorf
    January 18th, 2009 at 9:26 pm

    @lookas:
    You are right, "milanese meat" is a typical Milanese (duh!) dish, but it's also extremely popular in Argentina. They are not stealing your dishes, you know :P .


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