Let’s Talk About Poop

Specifically: bookstore poop

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I have heard people say they can only defecate at home, some go so far as to say that it must only be when they are ALONE at home. Surprisingly to me, there is research that tells me they are being truthful.

Here's Why Your Body Only Wants to Poop at Home, According to a Doctor

The gist of the research has to do with two sphincters (hang on! I’ll get to the bookstore poop!), an inner sphincter that we can’t control, and the outer one that (in most cases) we can. The inner sphincter does a ‘test turd’ and nerves outside the sphincter alerts the brain that you need to ‘go’ and let’s you subconscious check to see if it is a good time. If it isn’t, the ‘test’ retreats/waits until it is a good time. For many people, that time is at home.

For a LOT of people that time is at a bookstore. In fact, it happens so often it actually has a name: the Mariko Aoki Phenomenon.

The Mariko Aoki Phenomenon’s First Appearance

In 1985 the Japanese magazine Hon no Zasshi (Book Magazine in English) published a letter from Mariko Aoki asking why she has a…