eLemental ePistle

Famous First Words: Crows are the color of anarchy... Ursula LeGuin Crows

It is National Chemistry Week (October 16-22) –If the queen farts, isn't that a noble gas? / Is the formula for seawater CH₂O?

..........Play the song with the funky break..........Manford Mann …..Blinded By The Light

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it. --Albert Schweitzer

It is a foggy Friday morning. The sky is absolutely clear of everything except the near quarter moon. The brilliant red maple across the street is clear and beautiful but the little wood behind it is wrapped in invisible gauze. Two flocks of birds (easily a hundred and fifty strong) have arrived in the large, nearly bald cottonwood down the street. Together they sing a anthem, perhaps to the fog or perhaps to the rising sun it hides. And then, as one, they rise in a great black cloud and fly – still singing – to the east; this leaves only distant motors and the splashing fountain for our ears. My breath escapes in billowing clouds and joins the humidity hanging in the air; it becomes one with the fog. Traffic picks up as residents make their way to work but Puck is quiet – perhaps the squirrels are all still abed. For a few minutes I try to make little clouds but they will not keep their structure and the cold (36°F) begins to bite my nose and ears so we return to the warm, wonderful smell of brewing coffee. Puck makes himself comfortable on the unmade bed while I doctor my decaf with artificial sweetener and half/n/half. Ahhhhhhhhhh. I put on Arlo singing City of New Orleans and sit down to write to you.

Good Morning, America, how are you?

Hope your weekend is filled with Florine (F), Uranium (U), and Nitrogen (N), ePistliers.

Study organic chemistry, they said. It'll be fun, they said. / What is the MOST IMPORTANT rule in chemistry? Never lick the spoon.

..........Free, on my own is the way I used to be.........Elvin Bishop …..Fooled Around And Fell In Love

Trivia Questions: Congratulations to Bob Dylan. What else do you know about the Nobels?

^ In what year were the first prizes awarded?

^^ Which categories were awarded that first year?

^^^ Any idea who won the very first Nobel Literature Prize?

^^^^ In what year was the Nobel Prize in Economics first awarded?

^^^^^ Who is the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize winner?

Fake Library Statistic of the Week: The greatest mystery of library science is why it takes a minimum of three tries to get anything into a USB. ~~Proving that library experience is truly human experience. https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts

Moonbeam: When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow. --Ursula K. Le Guin

The professor told me not to feel bad after I blew up my chemistry experiment; “oxidants happen”, he said. / Mary made a hula hoop out of iron; she called it the ferrous wheel.

..........Come all without, come all within.........Manford Mann …..The Mighty Quinn

Something to Think About of the Week: You didn't come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here. --Alan Watts

Big Hello: Shalom - Hebrew

Week of the Week: Teen Read Week (October 16-22) –I heard Gatsby is a Russian Count. Well, I heard he's some kind of harsh metaphor. / Mom made us read Lord of the Flies to prepare for summer camp.

Science Fiction Convention of the Week: Paraween UFO Fest 2016 (Salem MA, October 22). More Info

 

Do these protons make my mass look big? / Yo' mama so ugly not even Fluorine would bond with her.

..........Take off your shoes and let yourself go..........Elvin Bishop …..Party Till The Cows Come Home

^ The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1901.

Almanac: It is Friday, October 21, 2016. The moon will be last quarter tomorrow and is in Cancer. It is Celebration of The Mind Day, Global Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD) Prevention Day, and Reptile Awareness Day. In England it is Trafalgar Day (1805) and in Hong Kong this is the Kite Flying Festival. Somali and Sudan both commemorate Revolution Day (1964) although it seems like of lost in Somali. Because it is the third Friday it is also Mammography Day and since it is Friday of third full week it is National Pharmacy Buyer Day.

Among those born on this day were Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772), Alfred B. Nobel (1833), Martin Gardner (1914), Malcolm Arnold (1921), Ursula LeGuin (1929), Manfred Mann (1940), Elvin Bishop (1942), and Carrie Fisher (1956).

On October twenty-first the first total solar eclipse was recorded (2137 BCE), Edison prefected the cotton filament light bulb (1879), women in France were "allowed" to vote (1945), the Guggenheim Museum opened (1959), and Venera 9 launched (first craft to orbit Venus , 1975).

Tonight's Sky: The Orionid meteors peak at about 7-8 per hour. The moon may obscure them. Evening Planets (after sunset): Venus (SW), Saturn (SW), Mars (S), Neptune (SE), and Uranus (E). Morning Planets (before sunrise): Neptune (W), Uranus (W), Jupiter (E), and Mercury (E).

Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Don't Forget, tonight the moon will be visible from Earth. The last time this happened was last night. --submitted by pt of ks

This Week: Saturday, October 22 – Make a Difference Day & Smart Is Cool Day

Night Sky, October 22: The moon is last quarter.

Sunday, October 23 – National Mole Day & TV Talk Show Host Day

Night Sky, October 23: Dwarf planet Ceres is in opposition; it is visible all night in binoculars and telescopes.

Monday, October 24 – United Nations Day & Food Day

Tuesday, October 25 – International Artists Day & Sourest Day

Night Sky, October 25: The moon is near Regulus pre-dawn

Wednesday, October 26 – Mule Day & Howl At The Moon Night

Thursday, October 27 – Navy Day & Cranky Co-Workers Day

Night Sky, October 27: Mercury at superior conjunction (noon) Mercury is on the far side of the sun.

..........You who gave us the air and life we breathe.........Manford Mann …..Earth The Circle (Part 1)

^^ In 1901 prizes were awarded in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, and Peace.

Next Funniest thing I read of the Week: If history repeats itself, I'm so getting a dodo.

I refuse to vote early. If I have to listen to those horrible political ads on television I don't what to have already finished the process.

Moonbeam: It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end. --Ursula K. Le Guin

Late Night Snacks: Every four years Scholastic News Magazine sponsors a mock election where kids from all over the country cast a vote for president. The results have been correct in every election since 1964 and this year Hillary Clinton won in a landslide; she beat Trump 52-35. The other 13 percent voted for SpongeBob. --Jimmy Kimmel / New data from the Hubble Space Telescope shows that the universe has two trillion galaxies, which is 10 times more than previously thought. The good news is, none of those galaxies are made by Samsung. --Jimmy Fallon / This week Ringling Brothers Circus is launching a new campaign title “The circus wants the circus back,” because they're tired of people referring to the election as a “circus”, saying it casts a negative light on their profession. You know the election is bad when the bearded lady and lizard-man are like, “I can't be associated with this freak show. --James Corden / The airlines have had enough and they only want trained service animals to be allowed on the planes. I don’t blame them. I don’t want to sit next to a fish tank on the plane. Have you been on an airplane recently? It’s like a Noah’s Ark of Chihuahuas and Maltipoos. If you’re so emotionally unstable that you need to hold a poodle to get on a plane, maybe you shouldn’t get on a plane. --Jimmy Kimmel / Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature today. Dylan was like, “This is the greatest honor I’ve ever received.” Or he might have said, “Misses gravy’s on her ivory steed.” It’s impossible to tell. --Seth Meyers / Every day we get another revelation about Clinton from WikiLeaks. Any more, and we're going to need WikiDepends. --Stephen Colbert

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate. --Albert Schweitzer

Helium walks into a bar. The bartender yells, “We don't serve noble gases here!”. Helium does not react. / Sugar cubed – C₁₂ H₂₂ O₁₁ (C₁₂ H₂₂ O₁₁)³

..........Just in case we both were wrong..........Elvin Bishop …..Think

^^^ Sully Prudhomme (France) won the Literature prize in 1901 “...in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism...” http://www.poemhunter.com/rene-francois-armand-prudhomme/

Worthless Fact of the Week: Yangjiangkite dates from over 1,400 year ago. The legend goes that the magistrate of Yangjiang invited celebrities from all walks of life to fly kites on DoubleNinth Festival, and the common people put up their tents in the open air to appreciate the spectacular scene.

Weird Word of the Week: droogish – of the nature or attitudes of a member of a street gang. ~~Gansta of the mid twentieth century. Coined by Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange (1962). http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-dro1.htm

Wild Commercialism of the Week: Hands up, don't scoop! Ben & Jerry's Black Lives Matter Ice cream. ...Choosing to be silent in the face of such injustice is not an option. ~~I was unable to find a description of what is in this ice cream but I think mint is the tasty ingredient in Empower Mint. http://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/why-black-lives-matter

Wacky Uses for Common Products: Remove makeup. In a pinch a Stayfree Maxi Pad makes an excellent make-up sponge for applying or removing makeup. http://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/stayfree.html

Yo' papa so stupid he thought silicon was a clown in jail. / Chemistry Trivia: The period table as it stands today was a result of a late night Tetris marathon.

...........Holding' my hand just as natural as can be..........Manfred Mann …..Do Wah Diddy

^^^^ The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (Sveriges riksbanks pris I ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne) was established in 1968 by a donation from Sweden's central bank, the Sveriges Riksbank.

Word Shakespeare Made Up of the Week: Circumstantial – pointing indirectly but not conclusively. As You Like It Act V, Scene IV (Touchstone: and so to the Lie Circumstantial and the Lie Direct.)

Funniest Thing I Heard This Week: ...the rise in both temperature and existential misery will be cooled by the nuclear winter... (Hillary ad by Keegan-Michael Key)

Amazing Thing on the Internet of the Week: Danny Elfman wrote an horror movie music score specifically for the footage of Trump looming over Hillary at the second debate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYk9T8i46xA

Puck the Brave Episode of the Week: Here's our fearless Puck after watching the second debate in the case of Millie's Melancholy.

The lab reeked of spoiled eggs. Everybody was sulfuring. / I took Organic Chemistry and all I learned was to draw hexagons.

..........Let me tell you what I'm talkin' about..........Elvin Bishop …..Holler And Shout

^^^^^ The 2016 Nobel Peace Laureate is Juan Manuel Santos, of Columbia, “For his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to and end”

Month of the Week: October is International Starman Month –created by Bowie fans in 1987. __Why did David miss his flight? He was stuck on a broken escalator. / Why did God invent alcohol? So Bowie fans can get laid too.

Famous Kansans: Lowell Lee Andrews was born in Wolcott in 1940. In 1958 while a sophomore at University of Kansas he murdered his parents and sister. http://murderpedia.org/male.A/a/andrews-lowell-lee-photos.htm

Today's Peace of History: Today's Peace of History, October 21, 1967: In Washington, D.C., more than 100,000 demonstrators from all over the country surrounded the reflecting pool between the Washington and Lincoln monuments in a largely peaceful protest to end the Vietnam War.

An angry compound, A mean ole acid. / Covalent yelled at Ionic, “Didn't anybody ever teach you to share?”

..........One that's red and juicy when you pluck it.........Manfred Mann …..Watermelon Man

Masthead of the Week: fRiday ePistle October 21, 2016, eLemental ePistle. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ No news, must be good. Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. 1800 Goodell Ct. Lawrence, KS 66046

Moonbeam: We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains. --Ursula K. Le Guin

Cost of War:

Tax dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 10/20/16: $751,849,154,304.

Tax dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 10/13/16: $751,144,185,097.

Tax dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 10/20/16: $819,905,785,391.

Tax dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 10/13/16: $819,885,182,067.

Tax dollars spent on Daesh conflict as of 10/20/16: $11,934,865,117.

Tax dollars spent on Daesh conflict as of 10/13/16: $11,826,514,174.

Tax dollars spent on the Pentagon Slush Fund as of 10/20/16: $132,602,199,890.

Tax dollars spent on the Pentagon Slush Fund as of 10/13/16: $131,999,311,571.

Tax dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 10/20/16: $1,719,916,205,587.

Tax dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 10/13/16: $1,718,444,037,477.

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/

The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings. --Albert Schweitzer

..........And hand me my walking cane..........Elvin Bishop …..Travelin' Shoes

Gold walked into a bar. The bartender yelled, “Au, get outta here!” / Remember to enjoy the little things in life, you know, like protons.

Famous Last Words: And drunk the milk of Paradise. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan

May Peace haunt your trough

And Joy live on your wave

prairie mama

christine

The Absolute Last Funniest Thing of the Week: The New Republican Party Logo --submitted by bg of ks