Chemistry
I dashed in to the local mall this weekend to see about picking up a children’s chemistry set for my niece’s 7th birthday coming up at a new store with old (1950-1960’s) toys in it. Then I found out how much science has been dumbed down for children since I was a kid. So I gave up on the store. I went online and downloaded a 1960’s pdf file of the “Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments: How to set up a home laboratory” http://xenon.arcticus.com/retro-science-books-golden-book-chemistry-experiments-and-mr-wizards-400-experiments-science and purchased a CM2000 chemistry set also on line. I did that at work up in Chico. So I had the photo copied book and I wanted it bound. I took it to the Kinko’s in Chico for that, and my medical assistant wanted a copy as well. So I made two sets. The guy at Kinko’s mistook me for a terrorist. Which is really strange in Chico. I would have thought his first thought was a stay-at-home meth dealer. So he asked me directly if the book he was binding talked about making bombs. “Of course. It’s a chemistry book.” I said. “I promise to do a good job on this.” He said, starting to sweat. So I clarified-”It’s an out of print elementary school chemistry book from the 1960’s for my niece’s 7th birthday in addition to the chemistry set I’m giving her.” Hopefully that averted the phone call to Homeland Security. But just in case, I alerted the hotel where I was staying and my husband who would probably know about that kind of thing before I would. So far no one has paid me a visit to see how I’m subverting this youth. This is the same chemistry book my kid brother and I had when we were growing up and he did make an attempt to blow stuff up at home. But he got more of a charge (excuse the pun) out of his “experiments” with electricity and setting stuff on fire, leading to his career in construction and electronic repair. But he still maintained an interest in chemistry and is a licensed pharmacist. Cliff suggested we put in his field manual on “How to make two ingredient explosives out of household chemicals” but I thought he should supervise that part. He did put her on the PlayStation3 and let her crash her car into things in one of the driving games. She had so much fun that she decided to start her mother’s car when they were leaving. Prompting her mother to cut her goodbyes short with a “What the hell are you doing?” shreek. So we considered one of those gasoline/electrical cars for her, but thought her driving on video left much to be desired, and went with the chemistry set instead. If you should see a small mushroom cloud coming up from Burbank in the next few weeks you’ll know she got to working on setting up her lab without reading the precautions.
