My nephew Asher has had his extra toe removed now. It all went very well, by all accounts. That’s a pretty awesome bandage though. Kerryn sent this photo through, and I thought it right that I should let you in on how that particular story ended.
Farewell to the toe
My nephew Asher was born with an extra toe. It’s not unusual in my family, actually. Other members of my family, including Asher’s mum – my sister Kerryn – had extra digits. And apparently, it’s not all that uncommon in the great scheme of things.
But they always chop them off. The extras are never wired up to work like the others, so it’s not like it’d be a great way to become an amazing pianist if you had 12 fingers. Having a bone that joins it with everything else is really rare, for instance.
Anyway, Asher’s spare toe comes off tomorrow (it’s okay – proper surgeons do it), so it was nice to get a photo of his foot with it still on tonight. He’ll have a lump there till he’s about 16 and his foot stops growing, and then they’ll take that bit off too. That’s what they normally do. The only downside is that shoes wide enough to accommodate the lump are a little harder to find. Converse are going to be pretty well useless to him until after highschool.
So this evening, since we happened to be in London anyway, we said goodbye to the toe. “Bye Asher’s toe.”
I'm the Director of MTF Labs, a Senior Researcher at the Industry Commons Foundation, advisor to ArtEO and founder of New Music Strategies.
I'm an author of books about technology, culture, music and radio. I'm also an award-winning broadcaster and filmmaker, a public speaker and lecturer, record producer and festival director. I am closely following developments in emerging technologies and the cultures and ethics surrounding them, and my projects typically focus on issues of justice, inclusion, and sustainability.
Most of my work involves surrounding myself with incredibly smart and talented people who would have no other reason to ever be in the same room as each other. That's when amazing things happen.
I tend to talk a lot about music (often jazz-adjacent and particularly on vinyl, but also playlists and mixtapes). I'm enthusiastic about food and cooking, the intersection of art and science, new technologies, vintage technologies, education, social progress, silence, innovation, narrative, data commons, culture, sound art and the spoken word. This blog will continue to reflect those diverse and shifting enthusiasms. I may also digress.
I'm from Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand, I have Scottish ancestry, I've spent a decade in the south of Birmingham UK, and another in a forest in the north of Sweden.
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