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Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
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How Did You get Started in Chemistry?
In my case I caught the bug early. Gilbert set at about 10. The real epiphany was when I was maybe 12. A great-uncle of mine was a professor at LSU
Medical School (I'm originally from New Orleans), he died and left me a pair of 1940s organic chemistry texts. You might have thought that was a bit
heavy for a pre-adolescent. But I was fascinated. They were clearly written and I was enthralled by the scope and complexity of carbon chemistry. I
read them cover to cover. Re-read them. Outlined them. An aunt who was a med tech gave me a lab manual. So by the time I was 13 I had a rudimentary
lab in my dad's garage. More books acquired and absorbed. Experimentation! I did some preps that looking back were not necessarily so wise.
Nitrobenzene from benzene and mixed acids. A few drops of glycerin on finely powdered glycerin. I obtained some phthalic anhydride and resorcinol
from a schoolmaye whose dad has been a pharmacist. Tried to make fluorscein. But didn't know what the book meant by "condensing" the two solids, so
this did not get very far. (I had conc sulfuric acid but didn't know a drop or two would have catalyzed that reaction.)
H2S no problem (no one told me it was toxic.) Chlorine from Chlorox and Sani-Flush. I had simple glassware, an alcohol burner, a couple ringstands.
Test tubes.
I was hooked.
So high school chemistry was a snap and by the time I entered college and took my first organic class I'd been studying the subject for about 7 years.
While physica put me to sleep and biology bored me, chemistry was a cakewalk. I had a friend on the faculty and became his research assistant. So
there I was an an undergraduate rubbing shoulders with Ph.D. candidates and postdoctoral fellows, using a NMR, a GC, and a IR, and with my own bench
space.
Not quite 19 yet. Within a couple years had a peper published in J.Org.Chem. and did a presentation on it to the local ACS chapter. Ah, immortality!
There I was in Chemical Abstracts. The paper concerned a partially stereoselective pinacol reaction with acetophenone using McMurray's reagent
(LAH/TiCl4) in THF rather than the much more usual Al-Hg in ethanol. The reagent generates Ti(0) in situ, which is black. I'd spotted the chante in
enantiomeric ratio in the NMR and showed it to my boss.
So how did you get started?
[Edited on 5-1-2007 by Sauron]
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Ozone
International Hazard
Posts: 1269
Registered: 28-7-2005
Location: Good Olde USA
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Sauron,
From new Orleans? Ever shop at Dorignac's?
I drew a benzene ring on my etch-a-sketch (or so my father says, in that parking lot across from the Fun Arcade).
School generally was lacking, so my parents (Dad is a zoologist-cum-chemist and my Godfather is a PhD. Chemical Engineer) saw fit to help with lessons
in Biology, Botany and Chemistry (with a tad of the Physics).
They brought home great Chemicals to play with including AgNO3 (and copper wire), K2CrO7, and later Cd metal sticks. In the meanwhile I was gifted for
Christmas with a *fabulous* Gilbert/Chemcraft set (the big one) with which a proceeded to: eat the paint off of the walls and the carpet off of the
floor, etc. I could also get KNO3, S8, NH4Cl, I2 and cans of diethyl ether at the *pharmacy* (Ah, the good-old-days).
Dad taught me how to make gunpowder (and did not go totally berserk when it was noted that there was a 4 foot hole in the backyard-with neighbors
maybe 4 meters away...).
I hated high-school where (on the basis of performance in non-relevant classes) it was determined that I could not have possibly done my Science fair
project (I was not-counted abd the winner had a crappy electromagnet). I went to another school and was awarded a trip to nationals in Tokyo (Too bad
I already had tickets to Mexico City...).
Farted around in college long enough to have to work--started as a "glassware maintanence engineer" and went forward from there. ICP, AA then
extractions and pesticides then semivolatiles by GC/MS-Oh my (somewhere in here I was hired as an "Organic Lab Director" which seemed to entail the
preparation of "drug of abuse"--I left that day and never returned. Then it was on to method develoment and, finally, research with minimal funding.
I decided it might not be a bad idea to take 5 years getting into graduate school (affirmative action, bureaucracy, and all that). This is where I
wake up and find myself today.
Love the Chemistry, always have.
Livin' Lovin'..She's just a woman!
Take care all,
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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Aqua_Fortis_100%
Hazard to Others
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Registered: 24-12-2006
Location: Brazil
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i still need of a lot of chem. infos... i just joined in this forum because is really a democratic thing to discussion of ALL of chemistry, including
some things which are often forbiden by law as explosives,etc..
" how did you get started?"
well, i'm still a tennager... i'm tempted to chemistry world because some extraordinary and weirds reactions,mainly from "energetic materials"
starting with 8 years old..
now i have 17 and still in polytechnique ensine(minning course) ,but still wait hopefully for my chemical engineering or industrial chemistry
diploma..then much after,some more education (and PhD !!), i wish will work with researches of explosives, or similar..
unfortunately my country does not stimulate the education of peoples(as you can see from my primitive language  ), so the major part of people is keep in ignorance ... i think which maybe the war still comes here... (amazonia,
"biotreasure" ,large area, WATER, etc..)...
"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant."
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Ozone
International Hazard
Posts: 1269
Registered: 28-7-2005
Location: Good Olde USA
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Mood: Integrated
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Vivir en Amazonia? (Espanol) Es tudo bem! I have been trying to learn both languages for some time; this is all good until you try it in Italy
(Italian is very different, molto bene). I love trying to integrate into other cultures. I think that this is quite relevant when considering how one
got started in Chemistry.
For example, some cultures push one toward science and others push one towards *cough* the new US regime--painting, drawing and dancing (these are
great, but I am too busy in the lab to persue them).
Gracias, Gracie, Obrigado, Thanks,
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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The_Davster
A pnictogen
Posts: 2861
Registered: 18-11-2003
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When very young(grade3?), I got obsessed with caps(the things for capguns) I would love just sitting there popping one at a time listening for the
bang. Tried to build a rocket out of caps, the ducttape just smoldered and the caps popped one by one. Got model rocket engines, putting them in
anything with wheels.
I remember is reading a kids book on nitrogen, around grade 5 or so. This book gave the ratios for gunpowder, and after that I reread that book at
least a dozen times. I was hooked. No idea why I read that book in the first place though. From there I proceeded to read every chemistry book in
the public library over the next year. Only a few shelves of them, and most were intended for kids except a few uni level texts which I absolutly
loved. I even stole one from the library. Now my parents were kind of supportive at the time, but they would push me towards the novels instead of
textbooks when at the library. They let me purchase a chemistry set at some point in grade 6, I got the biggest, most expensive one possible. It was
a chemcraft or skillcraft brand set. Once I got it and read the experiments and looked at the chemicals, I cried, seriously. I remember the
adrenaline going through me while reading each label, hoping each time for KNO3, KNO3 which never came. It was all slime, colour changes, and a bunch
of white precipitates. I did a few experiments to please my parents, and promply forgot about the horrid set.
My father at some point hereafter told me of his exploits of making gunpowder as a child, and how he could buy everything needed at the drugstore,
but now they no longer carried such things. I believe I cursed the government for the first time at the tender age of 12.
And again a few years later I was majorly setback when I recieved a scientific supply catalog, but they would not sell to me. I read the chemistry
section many a time as bedtime reading, which in a way ws depressing as they would not sell to me.
I got my parents to take me to every antique store in town, and I scoured each one looking for a can of saltpeter and sulfur. I eventualy found a
antique store with both(and another very old chemistry set, which to this day I regret not buying) I paid around 20$ for~50g of KNO3 and ~10g of
sulfur.
Around grade 7 or 8 I finally got around to making some horrible gunpowder, by volume, and with very coarse chemicals. It just smouldered a little.
I stopped experimenting for a while, but kept reading. Around grade 9 or 10 I was linked to a website by a friend, which I am too ashamed of to
disclose, that discussed OTC sources, however only for making explosives. I tried a few explosive compounds, finally made good gunpowder, and wanted
more than bangs, so I used the meagre OTC chemicals I had collected to do what little I could in the textbooks. I enjoyed the electrolysis of water
and the 'pop test' to no end. I played around with general chemistry experiments for a while, most which did not work as the reactions in texts
rarely give conditions. So I turned to energetics once again as there was so much info on the internet(on the god-awful TO...er...website), and this
way my experiments would work! Usually made and then destroyed without detonation though, as I liked the chemistry procedure more than the end
product's uses.
High school I went through a bit of a pure pyrotechnics phase for a year or two, as there was so much info on the internet. I still read chemistry
though, and aced all my science courses without much work(english was another matter ). My highschool never had a science fair, despite being one of the largest around. That annoyed me to no end. Won a couple of chemistry
test-contests. Grade 12 they let me play in the lab. Never did let me use chlorine gas as I very much wanted to make SnCl4. Chemistry labs bored
me, despite the fact that I looked forward to them very very much. Lots of Calorimetry and titrations. I had my own desiganted fume hood and could
come and go as I pleased. Got a weird reputation, something between uber-nerd, and the energetics stuff just scared them. The chem teachers came to
me for info in such areas. I once wrote a poem on nitroglycerin. I am sure higher ups heard about that...
Oh and most importantly....grade 10 or 11...I discovered this site! Dropped pyrotechnics, and lurked for quite some time, because everyone was so
advanced and was afraid my lack of knowledge would make me look stupid. (I also had issuses with social skills). Finally joined and just played
sponge on all the info here. Slowly put together a proper lab, by the end of grade 12 I was decently well setup. University came, and now I am
pursuing an honours chemistry degree, going pretty well so far. I do research in the summer in professor's labs, and during the year in my own . Really I don't think my interest in chemistry would have progressed much if it
hadent have been for this site.
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Aqua_Fortis_100%
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Registered: 24-12-2006
Location: Brazil
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| Quote: | | Vivir en Amazonia? (Espanol) Es tudo bem! |
Está tudo Ótimo , bem mesmo. (something as "is all OK, even good." )
eheheh  i'm not live in Amazonia,but the most part of these pass through of
Brazil north. i live in Brazil inland. (also most of portuguese and spanish words are very alike..)and i also trying speak other languages as dead
latim, new esperanto, germany (some chem. documents in germany are also really good!),etc, but only spell horribly some words and i still have
problems with english...
| Quote: |
For example, some cultures push one toward science and others push one towards *cough* the new US regime--painting, drawing and dancing (these are
great, but I am too busy in the lab to persue them).
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i also love trying to integrate into other cultures because fill my mind with valuables knowledges which i hardly or even NEVER get here...
i have worry about some things: e.g. when i search some chemicals in portuguese on google or yahoo, showns almost always tons of really useless
things..(even made accurate searches)..i think which it's maybe can be deliberate by part of government which showns as "democratic"(but this isn't
the "absolute" true... many times the authorities are binded with criminals, corruption, among others sad facts), but maybe i wrong about this...
"Libertas quae sera tamen!"
(motto in latinus of mine state where i live)
Obrigado amigo O<sub>3</sub> , thau! (thanks O<sub>3</sub> friend, bye!)
[Editado em 5-1-2007 por Aqua_Fortis_100%]
"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant."
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guy
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Location: California, USA
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I got started with vinegar and baking soda..oh yeah
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Aqua_Fortis_100%
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| Quote: |
I got started with vinegar and baking soda..oh yeah
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is a very good start... knowleding this acid base foaming reaction i many years ago "sabotaged" the soda lemon which my brother finishes made..ehehe
[Editado em 5-1-2007 por Aqua_Fortis_100%]
"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant."
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UnintentionalChaos
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Location: Mars
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Ahahahah! I must admit, that is exactly where I started. Making good old sodium acetate solution! At the young age of 10 or so, I also made copper
acetate solution without realizing it...was trying to clean pennies in vinegar and NaCl solution and in a week it turned blue I then worked my interest up in a backwards sort of way. I am a "craft" addict. I
love to know how to do everything to some degree. I learned about dyeing yarn (good old mordants like potassium alum, copper sulfate, iron sulfate,
stannous chloride, tannic acid, oxalic acid, and others to make the colors string, bright, and in some cases form at all) i had a small fixation with
what is essentially iron-gall ink. Add a tiny amount of tannic acid to a very dilute iron sulfate solution (I was using improvised iron acetate and
tannic acid from boiled oak bark and acorns) and the entire mix turns intensely black as ferric tannate ppts and stays fairly well in suspension. Can
throw on the potters wheel and learned some crude glaze chemistry. I know wild edible plants and medicinal wild plants and their active compounds
backwards and fowards. Then came soapmaking which is much more chemical than anything I'd done before and into which I could blend knowledge from
dyeing and "herbalism (I wont say homeopathy because it wasn't that)" Then I met this pyro kid in college (but hes not too chemically inclined) and
started by disassembling batteries for MnO2 which I thought at the time would be an interesting experiment to turn it into permanganate. Aside from
reading how hard it would be, I found this site and chem became an addiction.
I had gone into school as a Chem engineer and joined the Chem-E car club which long story short involved me helping with building a wet cell battey
with CuS04 electrolyte and a CuSO4/NaOH titration control system for the vehicle.
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Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
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Mood: metastable
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I remember Dorignac's by name. Can't place it geographically, I left NOLA in '82. Went to No.Va./DC then to Thailand in '89 so my memories of Nawlins
are 25 years old at best. My last residence was in the 900 block of Washington Ave. a block from Magazine Street on the river side. Just down a few
blocks from Commander's Palace and the cemetaries. I attended Jesuit then DeLaSalle then UNO - it was LSUNO when I started there in 68. I still have
family there in Jefferson mostly. Things are not good in New Orleans since Katrina but hell, you know that. My late brother in law ran for governor a
few years ago on the NORML ticket as an independent. You might remember him, he was a real character. Charlie Bellone.
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woelen
Super Administrator
Posts: 7977
Registered: 20-8-2005
Location: Netherlands
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Mood: interested
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As a young child I was fascinated by science in general. I went to the library and read books about many scientific subjects, mostly astronomy, but
also physics, mathematics and chemistry. At one time, I had a book (aimed at kids of 11, 12 years), called "Hoe en Waarom - Scheikunde" (meaning "How
and Why - Chemistry") and this book also contained simple experiments, one being electrolysis of salted water with pencil leads, making real chlorine
and hydrogen, and other experiments, making CO2 from carbonates and acid. I really loved this book and its explanations were so clear, that even 12
year old kids could grasp the concept of ions (which are explained by means of electrolysis), the concept of acids and redox reactions. Later on I
have tried to find this book again, but I never managed to get it again. I think it is regarded a bad book to current safety and environmental concern
standards.
With this book, I had started my first chemistry and that expanded. I did electrolysis, using 220 V AC and one time had a real explosion (under water
shortcuircuit). When I was 14 I made mixes of KNO3 and sugar. At those times I just could go to the shop and buy sulphur, KNO3 and many other chems.
During those years, things expanded more and more and when I was 17 I already had more chems, like K2Cr2O7, KMnO4, CuSO4.5H2O, Na2SO3 and the common
acids, including HNO3. In those years I learned a lot about chemistry, and high-school chemistry was nothing new for me at all. At the same time, I
also was a real electronics hobbyist and I had my first software experience with a home computer (ZX81+16kB pack). Chemistry and electronics were
competing at those times for my career. I decided to study electronics when I went to university in 1984.
At my 18th the chemistry hobby stopped. I put all materials in my parent's house on the attic and I myself left to university, studying electrical
engineering, and software engineering. After that I did a PhD in mechatronics and control engineering. During all those years, my interest in
chemistry existed, but it was latent, I had no access to the chems, because I had no room for that in my small student's accomodation. I did a lot of
reading about chemistry, but I did not do any experiments.
12 years ago, I finished my PhD and moved to a real house and at that time I picked up my hobby again. Having more room and more financial resources,
the hobby has extended a lot since those times. And also, I can obtain more chems than I ever could before. The local shops do not exist anymore, but
after some time you learn to know your online sources.
Currently, chemistry is one of my greatest hobbies, and I do this besides my work as a software engineer/ICT consultant.
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Tsjerk
International Hazard
Posts: 3022
Registered: 20-4-2005
Location: Netherlands
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I always wanted to make "bombs" and after finding how to on the internet I made some, I was 16 then. Making them made my interest for other chemistry
grow, so I started doing some experiments like making acetamide and things like that. When I was going to some guy to buy some glass, he asked me if I
wanted to buy most of his chemicals for a very resonable price I was hooked. My dad and I build a fume hood, and because my dad has it's own company I
can by chemicals from large company's. Now at the ages of 18 I'm doing grignards
And I have been guest on the organic-lab of the group "Biosyn" from the university of Leiden for about 40 hours now.
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Sauron
International Hazard
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Outstanding, @Tsjerk! The good sense to have a fume hood and the resources to build your own. My hat is off to you.
I cringe whenever I read posts wherein someone here is doing something pretty hazardous and skipping the most fundamental safety precautions.
There are old chemists,
and there are bold chemists,
but there are no old, bld chemists...
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evil_lurker
National Hazard
Posts: 767
Registered: 12-3-2005
Location: United States of Elbonia
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Mood: On the wagon again.
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It was actually the quest to get rich making meth that turned me onto chemistry in the first place.
I didn't know any damn thing about chemistry. Zip, zilch zero. I thought meth came from recipes (mix ingredient A with ingredient B, and presto, your
rich). Hell law enforcement propaganda made it look like a cakewalk.
Boy was I freaking wrong, and nearly 3 years later still haven't made a batch. (Thats mainly due to lack the personal refusal of using pseudoephedrine
as a starting material, lack of $$$$ to get equipment and precursors for P2P production). It always seems like there is always some precursor or bit
of glassware or apparatus you need to get the job done. 
But anyways, if I don't succeed in my quest I will have learned a whole heck of a lot and managed to aquire a very nice chemistry set that would leave
any law enforcement officer's jaw sitting on the floor if they saw it.
It might also lead to me getting a degree in organic chemistry or chemical engineering because of what I've learned. Just on a whim, a month or so ago
I looked at a friends first year college chemistry book and all I could do is laugh to myself thinking, "this stuff is a freaking joke". I bet I've
pulled off reactions in my garage that would give most college professors nightmares.
This year hopefully things will get better... I'm going to try to complete my vacuum source and add an inline reef chiller for working with low
boiling solvents and branch out into some other legit forms of the art such as perfumary, agricultural chemicals, and biofuels.
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Sauron
International Hazard
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Registered: 22-12-2006
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Hi @evil_lurker
Aesthetic reason for being happy you didn't make any: phenyl acetone (phenyl-2-propanone) stinks like ferret piss and phenylacetic acid is a fixative
for fragrances (good or bad) so one who delves into going that route ends up smelling like the proverbial polecat no matter how many times he bathes
and how many times he gets his laundry done. The cops find more clandestine labs by following their noses, or getting tipped by neighbors complaining
about the stench, than they do from suppliers ratting labs out.
[Edited on 5-1-2007 by Sauron]
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Maja
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Mmmm I think trying to fire KMnO4 + Al mixture with friends. I was five or six years old... Then my father teached me how to melt Sugar and then mix
with KNO3. I was really fascinated. Then chemistry set... Then explosives ... Then I forgot explosives...
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Sauron
International Hazard
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Most of us go through that phase, some of us never outgrow it. Some chemists even make their living at it. I know a German Ph.D. organiker who used to
work for Dynamit Nobel.
(BTW some of you may already know this but DN sold off their propellants and explosives business to an Australian company a few years ago and are
completely uninvolved in that sector anymore, or so my friend tells me. Not to say completely out of energetics. He was telling me about
quadricyclane, Anyone here know about it? There's a valence isomerism...reversible catalytically...allowing UV (hence solar energy) to be stored in
this strained cage and then released relatively slowly at will. Interesting?
It's also an advanced aerospace propellant (for which read rocket fuel.) The precursor is facily made by a Diels-Alder rxn.
Anyway I am wandering OT here...
[Edited on 5-1-2007 by Sauron]
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turd
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| Quote: | | phenyl acetone (phenyl-2-propanone) stinks like ferret piss |
IMHO phenylacetone has a very pleasing smell unlike any animal piss. Phenylacetic acid on the other hand I would say has a pissy flavour. But, as
opposed to what the rumors say, it doesn't smell very strongly. If you work on large scale, the smell of the solvents is probably a bigger problem.
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Sauron
International Hazard
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I was speaking from personal experience. I had occasion in the 70s to prepare a Kg of phenylacetyl chloride from phenylacetic acid via thionyl
chloride, Preparation of a series of ring-substituted acetophenones, for bimolecular reduction to acetophenone pinacols. For NMR studies to elucidate
the impact of electron donating or electron withdrawing substituents on the enantiomeric excess of the bimolecular coupling with Ti(0) (McMurry's
reagent) in THF. Also had occasion to prepare phenylacetone by a couple different routes. Not a big deal 30 years ago. You could still buy it then,
too.
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Magpie
lab constructor
Posts: 5939
Registered: 1-11-2003
Location: USA
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Mood: Chemistry: the subtle science.
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My interest in chemistry started when I was 10 or 12 years old. After much pleading my parents bought me a Gilbert chemistry set which I treasured.
It seems the things I liked best were burning powdered magnesium and burning sulfur. My lab was in our unfinished basement, equipped with a laundry
sink and a window I could open.
Later as a teenager I fooled around with making rockets with matchheads, making stink bombs with blackpowder made with home ground charcoal and rich
in sulfur. We could buy gunpowder then so made pipe bombs which we took down to isolated areas by the river even though in the middle of town. They
made a deafening noise!
I originally wanted to be a chemist when I grew up. But when on trips when we drove by an oil refinery I was very interested in all the large
columns. So about age 15 I changed my goal to chemical engineering.
After geting my BS in chemical engineering I spent my worklife employed in synthetic rubber, pulp & paper, and finally nuclear (design & waste
treatment). I also married, raised 2 sons, and did all the regular family stuff. Occaisionally I would dream of having my own home lab.
I was able to retire a few years before normal retirement so that's when I had the time and inclination to build my own lab. I also took a complete
year of organic chemistry at a local college as a refresher. About that time I also joined this forum which has greatly augmented my interest,
capablities, and enjoyment of my hobby.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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Sauron
International Hazard
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Very nice, @magpie. We had abd have a lot of refineries around my home (Nawlins) though I left there in 82. Were you in the same part of the country?
PM me if you don't want to post the answer.
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Magpie
lab constructor
Posts: 5939
Registered: 1-11-2003
Location: USA
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Mood: Chemistry: the subtle science.
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No, nowhere near New Orleans. Actually in my part of the country refineries and chemical plants are relatively rare.
As you are from New Orelans I was wondering if you happened to know C. W. Ammen, author of several hands-on books on metallurgy. He was originally
from NO but lives in Colorado now.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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kaviaari
Hazard to Self
Posts: 80
Registered: 21-12-2005
Location: Finland
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Mood: Going green
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I have been interested in science ever since I was born. When I was about six I told my mother to read science related books for bedtime stories. I
also saw the movie "Back to the future" and that totally blew my mind. I started drawing all kind of mechaincal and electical stuff. Other movie that
has had a great impact on my life was The Nutty Professor. When I saw those colored liquids and mysterous fumes I thought that that is my thing for
good.
The time I was seven I had mixed my first baking soda-vinegar cocatail. I managed to get some test tubes and the whole thing got bigger. The time I
was eight I had bought some very basic chemicals from pharmacy with my parents. Limestone, Citric acid, Cupric sulphate etc. The time I was nine I
started to become more interested in computers. Programming was my thing and I could sit in front of the computer writing simple GWBasic programs for
hours. I forgot chemistry for some time. At the time I also red a lots of math and basic physics.
When my first chemistry lessons started in junior high (grades 7-9 here in Finland) I was very exited. Seeing all those beakers, tripods, ring stands
and fume hoods was something whole new for me. It opened my eyes again for chemistry and after that I really got into it. I started gathering more
chemicals, glassware and hardware. It has been quite a long way but I have managed to gather quite formal lab for different kinds of experiments.
Science has always been and I hope that it will always be close to my heart
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Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
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Sorry @magpie. Don't know the chap. I knew quite a few writers in New Orleas though. Science fiction professionals mostly. Daniell F.Galouye, Rosel
George Brown, George Alec Effinger, Roger Lovin, James Sallis, Norman Spinrad. The vampire novelist Anne Rice lives there but she arrived after I
left. There are a few famous mainstream writers in the area: Shirley Ann Grau, Walker Percy. But I did not know them personally.
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Sauron
International Hazard
Posts: 5351
Registered: 22-12-2006
Location: Barad-Dur, Mordor
Member Is Offline
Mood: metastable
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@kaviaari, look up an old Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedy called "Lover Come Back" They have an ad campaign for a product that does not exist...so
they pay a wacked out chemist to create it. What he comes up with (after a series of smokey funny colored lab explosions) is a chocolate mint with the
wallop of a triple martini.'
Hilarious.
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