Entry for February 27, 2007

The tension headache. What evolutionary pupose does it serve?
I have a humdinger today, as a result of having too much to do. Work is at the super-busy firefighting stage, I've spent three days of spare time printing flyers for the show and stuffing envelopes, and I'm trying to do the last of the organisation for the Comedy Festival. And I got an e-mail from the publishers.
So, I have a headache. From past experience, this will last about three days. Now, my point for all you Darwinists out there is this: what advantage in natural selection does the tension headache actually have. I picture Tharg the Caveman in a particularly tense situation: the snows have come early, there's hot competition for the last few mammoths on the stepps, Mrs Tharg is off on one because we's been writing love cave paintings to the saucy Neanderthal three doors up and to cap it all he's just had his latest sitcom rejected by the BBC.
Personally, I would have thought that natural selection would have favoured Tharg if he's reacted to all of this by a burst of endorphins and a burst of sleepless happy energy where he bounded from one task to the other with a song in his heart. But no, Tharg and all his descendants through the millenia have to overcome their busiest periods coping with a thumping ache of the brain.