phrenology

phrenology phre·nol·o·gy[fri-nol-uh-jee, fre-]

noun

A psychological theory or analytical method based on the belief that certain mental faculties and character traits are indicated by the configurations of the skull.

More about phrenology at Wikipedia.

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Phrenology has always interested me (not quite "fascinated"). Seeing the word as today's Word of the Day reminded me of a friend I once had back when MSN Groups were up-and-running. We shared political views, but couldn't have been more different in religion, she being a Wiccan. We were in a chat room once, just the two of us and were discussing our belief systems and I said I wouldn't belittle how she believed, but there were some tenets to paganism that I would never trust, especially in foretelling the future, things such as palm reading.

Well, that upset her and I had to suffer through indignantly told stories of how her grandmother had read palms and how the palms of people she knew had predicted their future - their love life and life span, etc.   I didn't say anything until she ran out of steam and then remarked that palm reading was to science as phrenology was to psychology.  She was "silent" for a while, nothing being typed and I knew she had opened up another window and was researching the term.  After a minute or so, she exited the chat room and that was the end of our cyber-friendship.

Oh well.  I was getting tired of all that "Blessed Be!" crap, anyway.