Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 135
 A little trepidation at first March 30, 2006
viktor_57 (Fairview, Your Favorite State, USA)
35 out of 112 found this review helpful
I am a brain fitness fanatic, performing daily strengthening, stretching, focusing, and cleaning rituals to keep the old noodle in top shape. I saw this title "Mental Floss" while browsing the magazine section of Amazon.com and immediately panicked, because here was a brain-improvement technique I was unfamiliar with that seemed to be well-reviewed by the cognoscenti.
The more I thought about mental floss, the more I realized it just made sense. Sure, polishing and buffing helps keep the convolutions shiny and smooth, but what about all the fissures and sulci? And what better way is there to get into all those folds and ridges than to use floss? Thus I was determined that the next time I cleaned out my head I would floss my brain.
After carefully removing my skull-cap and peeling back the arachnoid membrane, I stared at the gleaming beige-grey mass of my exposed brain, pulled out about two feet of floss, and got to work on the great longitudinal fissure that divides the hemispheres of my brain. I figured this was the best place to start since it was relatively straight and would therefore more easily accommodate the floss. I gently scraped the internal surface of first my left, and then my right cerebral hemisphere, being careful not to scrape too deeply, lest I sever my corpus callosum and give myself an inadvertent hemispherectomy! Unlike tooth flossing, where sensitive gums serve as a warning from flossing too deeply, the brain, having no sensory apparatus, feels nothing, so a light touch is a must. Next I tackled the right superior frontal sulcus above my right eye and carefully worked the floss into the curved groove. I must have used a little too much pressure because the left side of my face became slack and I began cursing uncontrollably. I shifted the floss to better accommodate the curves and the swearing stopped, but I must have pinched a long-term memory engram because I suddenly started screaming "Mary had a little lamb", something I haven't recited since preschool.
I finished off the rest of my brain using strategically positioned mirrors to get clear views of my parietal and occipital lobes, although adjusting to the reversed mirror images required some practice; I lost my vision more than once cleaning out the occipital gyri--not a good thing to happen when cleaning out ones brain.
My brain felt refreshed after that thorough cleaning, but the difficulty in flossing such a convoluted and delicate surface would make everyday flossing impractical. At most, I would only be able to floss once every few days. Imagine my surprise, then, when I received my first issue of "Mental Floss" and found nothing in it whatsoever about flossing ones brain. Instead, I found articles and informational tidbits ranging from the very topical to the curious to the "haven't you always wondered" variety. Though chagrined at my own misunderstanding, I came to enjoy and anticipate each eclectic and oddly informative issue. I also came to realize that my brain cleaning was probably not needed and potentially harmful. I can therefore give my fullest recommendations to "Mind Floss" and at the same time caution against actual brain flossing.
just great December 3, 2005
Ava Carmichael (Phoenix, AZ)
33 out of 36 found this review helpful
I love Mental Floss. The magazine is funny, entertaining, and educational. Its not boring by any means, the articles are often short, but to the point. A reviewer wrote in that one does not come away with wisdom. Education is power and by getting you to think, you can walk away with so much more. And its not boring and I commend the writers and the staff at Mental Floss for making learning fun again.
It doesn't go in too deep in an academic way, just gives you an overall knowledge of certain things. Just give the magazine a try, it may or may not be for you, but thank goodness it doesn't dumb down its audience. I've really had it with those books "the idiots guide..." and "the dummies guide..." All of us are intelligent human beings, maybe not geniuses, but we certainly don't deserve to be called dummies. I've had it with the "stupid" label that corporations try to give the masses. I just wish that Mental Floss was published more often.
 Entertaining, but superficial May 23, 2006
David F. Nolan (Tucson, AZ United States)
33 out of 39 found this review helpful
Mental Floss is a grab-bag of a magazine, filled with short articles on a wide variety of subjects. Its style is consciously wanna-be-hip, with wordplays sprinkled throughout; the name alone is fair warning. It comes across like a hybrid of Wired and Parade Magazine -- light fare for a doctor's waiting room. You'll probably find at least one fascinating fact or connection in any given issue, but there's not much depth.
 Straight from the mailbox to the recycling bin January 4, 2007
G. Bruce (Seattle, WA United States)
33 out of 53 found this review helpful
This is NOT a good magazine. I repeat...NOT!!! I actually ordered a subscription of this, sight unseen, based on the great reviews-- it sounded very much like something I would enjoy (I simply love information and eclectic ideas). It was absolutely unreadable. In fact, I have no idea how anyone could actually "read" this magazine-- it's just an annoyingly cute collection of little snippets of information arranged about each page a la collage. It reminded me of those annoying pop up videos on MTV-- lots of useless information no one really needs.
I thumbed through the first issue and tossed it under the couch (I was actually embarrassed that my boyfriend might pick it up and think I was an idiot for subscribing to it-- it is REALLY bad and he would immediately see that too). I never picked up that issue again. The remaining 11 issues got immediately tossed in the recycling bin on the way from the mail box. It is THAT bad. I get assaulted with enough slap dash, quick flash bubble gum information in every other form of media everyday-- I don't need to volutarily waste my time ingesting even more of it, and actually pay for that privilege.
Smart and entertaining March 27, 2006
Nickole Caspersen (Minnesota)
30 out of 41 found this review helpful
Mental Floss is a very entertaining magazine. It's full of interesting little facts and good articles presented in a way that's fun to read. I felt it took little jabs at conservatives now and then, but it wasn't enough to make me stop reading (I read the whole thing in one sitting).
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