What it means is the more reading you do, the more likely you'll need glasses. You're killing your long distance sight.

Found your blog tonight and am absolutely loving it! Not sure on the whole nose thing, but I'm glad I have one to hold my glasses up!

Kinda curious as to the context surrounding this sentence.....

Arn't psych books great?

I was reading an overview of evolutionary psychology. The phrase went on to say something like just because we can use a nose to hold up eyeglasses does not mean that it evolved for that purpose. And therefore we cannot say that just because certain characteristics of the human brain evolved a certain way, we cannot say that behavioral or personality traits necessarily evolved were a result of natural selection. Something like that.

I just liked the idea that something that evolved for one purpose could have a surprising and unexpected, totally unrelated function. I think I need to ponder that to see if there is something more to it than the brain ramblings of someone bored with reading an Intro to Psych textbook!

My take on it is that it's a testament to how we have changed from our more primal state (indicated by the nose serving a very natural function) to a city-dwelling state (indicated by the nose holding up eyeglasses). I look at this a bit further and am reminded that as humans, we are extremely dependent on our sense of sight, to the point of our other senses (olfactory chief among them) having suffered. Another addition to this take on the matter is the recent development of implants whereby eyeglasses are held up strictly by the nose, so that they no longer have to be hooked over the ears.

Overall, I guess the sentence can be like an ink-blot test.