[FRIAM] Spandrel

[Steve Smith]

Nick -

Not to beat a dead Spandrel, but the nose example doesn't wash with me.  

In many familiar animals, the nose is perched on the end of a snout, and
it was the snout that was deprecated in us to the point that the
nostril-holes with various adaptive properties (downward facing to keep
rain out, hair-lined and snotty to trap dust and pollen, (mildly)
turbinated to support humidity/temperature regulation, sensitive to
support "feeling" things with one's proboscis before we smash the whole
face into it,  loaded with chemically sensitive cells for "smell", etc)
are highly diminished compared to various creatures like a daschund or
an elephant or an anteater.   Our nose still has significant affordances
similar/familiar to those listed above (serviceable smeller, filter,
heat/humidity exchanger, etc ) even if it is not at all prehensile or
particularly discriminating and if humans have a snout at all, it is a
highly diminished one.  

I suspect references to "being nosy" and "sticking our noses in other's
business" is borrowed from watching our snoutful familiars like horses
or camels or racoons or dogs "nosing around".  The proboscis of our nose
*points* where our eyes are looking (somewhat) so that conflation may be
mildly meaningful?

Does "butting out" connote backing out butt-first when one recognizes
their nosing around isn't welcome?

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 - Sneeze