van Gogh's ear sorted out.

Hi, hotshots

A recent conversation with a friend went like this:

"Hey, what artists do you like?" (friend)

"Ah... Van Gogh." (me)

"Isn't that the guy who chopped off his own ear?"

"I... Not...why does everyone ask that?"

Look, people. The guy was a great painter. Can we get over his ear? 

Or lack of it?

I thought I may as well impart what really happened so that his art will be remembered more than his body parts. That sounded better in my head.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

(dramatic space)

It wasn't his whole ear, for starters. It was the lobe of his left ear. Not all of it. Okay? Okay. His family had a history of mental illness, and he suffered from acute mania and epilepsy. After an argument with his artist-friend Paul Gauguin, he was in a fit of rage and cute off part of his ear to symbolize the end of their friendship. The reasoning behind that was something like Gauguin being "deaf" to his needs.

Get it? Ear, deaf...

And then just to really make a point, van Gogh put his ear-bit in an envelope and handed it over to some chick called Rachel, a brothel wench.

Okay?

Okay.

Glad we sorted that out.