Wednesday Medley

Joining in with the Wednesday Medley. You can do that here.

1.On this date in 2001, Apple introduced the iPod, a pocket-sized media player. Are you old school with Sony Walkman and CDs? Has your iPhone or smartphone eclipsed those functions? Hop in the car and listen to the radio? Or you don't require a soundtrack to your life?  That picture over there on the left should tell you that my life does indeed need a soundtrack. How I play that soundtrack varies. In the car I am old school, strictly radio and CD's. At work I use my smartphone. At home I generally use Alexa, but sometimes CD's or radio.

2. Today we celebrate Mole Day. Not the burrowing subterranean rats. Not angel kisses. Nor the Mexican sauce which is pronounced to rhyme with olé as if we are cheering a matador at a bullfight and is great with chicken and rice.

This mole is a relationship between mass and weight and is a basic unit of measurement in chemistry.

H₂O has a molar mass of 18; a mole of water weighs eighteen grams.

It is expressed as 6.02214076 × 10²³. Ten to the twenty-third meaning October 23rd and 6.02214076 translating to 6:02 in the morning. Or I suppose if you don't keep military time you could celebrate in the evening, too.
So. Are you a science or math nerd? Which begs the eternal question: Why are we cool and guy nerds are dorks?  Umm....mostly I'm sitting here wondering what you are talking about. I'm a word nerd, not a science or math one. Are girl nerds cool? Or at least more cool that guy nerds? I thought all nerds were cool these days.

3. Because Mole Day is all sciencey, it kicks off National Chemistry Week.
Did you take a chemistry class? Yes. What were your first impressions on being in a laboratory classroom? It was 40 years ago. I barely remember it. Do you recall your early experiments? Not at all. Did you have a lab partner? I think there were 3 or 4 of us in a group. Did you want to strangle her? Pretty sure they were guys. Was the prospect of capital punishment or twenty⁠—to⁠—life in the slammer and getting a poor grade on your report card a deterrent? N/A Or was her enthusiasm infectious and she was a sheer joy to be around? Again, it was a he, actually a couple of he's, and I don't know that they were a joy, but we were always in all the advanced classes together so we knew each other pretty well and probably had fun.

ALTERNATE QUESTION: Ever been on a date and the chemistry was just all wrong?  Yes.

4. National Boston Cream Pie Day. Not a pie. Two yellow butter cakes baked in pie tins. A vanilla custard cream filling with luscious slathering of chocolate ganache over the top. Mmmmm. Custard cream. Luscious slathering of chocolate ganache.

Have you ever spontaneously without forethought gone out to the frozen custard stand or ice cream parlor or soda fountain to treat yourself? I've probably stopped there spontaneously while I was already out. I don't think I've ever been at home and thought "Hey let's go get ice cream!" I'm just not that big of an ice cream eater. Met up with friends for coffee and dessert? Yes, but no coffee. I hate coffee.

ALTERNATE QUESTION: When reading about something delicious, do you do a mental checklist of ingredients and think about heading to the kitchen to whip up whatever strikes your fancy? Like right when I read it? No. I'll file a recipe away for later, though. I do that all the time.

5. Heeeeeeeere's Johnny! Happy Birthday, Johnny Carson! And Happy National TV Talk Show Hostess / Host Day! Have a favorite talk show you regularly watch? Not really. I'm not usually home to watch or up late enough to watch the late shows. I do like Ellen when I am home to see her.

BONUS QUESTION: Do you miss Johnny Carson? Do you think he was a great host who set the standard for current talk show hostesses and hosts? I think Johnny Carson was the best of all the late night hosts. I used to like Letterman and think he was a close second, but he changed somewhere along the way. I didn't really care for Jay Leno, but Jimmy Fallon is pretty funny when I get to see him...which is pretty much never these days.

6. Please share with us something interesting about your week.  Let's see...got my flu shot on Monday and worked until 8pm. I was back at work today at 8am. Exactly 12 hours between shifts. Tim got home early (thank you rain!) so I got to go to bible study tonight. I'm working 12pm-8pm the next two days, training a new hire for the afternoon shift. Friday, I'm off. Oh, and the Board of Directors is meeting today and tomorrow at the nursing home so all the supervisors are on high alert and freaking out and putting pressure on us to be perfect. Fun stuff. Definitely lifestyles of the rich and famous around here. Ha!