No hints, no autocheck. That's definitely my record for a Friday puzzle.

Does anyone in Canada have a good suggestion for a flammable storage fridge vendor?

TIL there's a medicine for increasing a cat's appetite that can go in their ear!

I know there's a lot to unpack here, and probably a pretty sad backstory, but this made me chuckle. Could have ended a lot worse, like my namesake movie. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Writing problem set answers in chemdraw, and the typing got glacially, frustratingly slow.... I was at a loss why, until I realized I had the "analysis" window on, and it was recalculating the masses of the atomic symbols in my written answers, and updating each time I wrote a letter!

I'm curious, given the huge contemporary importance of photoredox chemistry, and radical chemistry, when people cover it in organic chemistry courses they teach? I don't cover it in my third year course. I think back to when I was a student, and olefin metathesis was really emerging (1/n)

If you don't have clouds, look up!

Nov 11th always makes me think of a few things. The only one that's really my story to tell: 20 years ago today, I took advantage of no school to write the GREs, which sent me on the path to doing my PhD in the USA. Times are very different nowadays, and I would not (could not) follow the same path.

Funny, PAVLOVA is a word, but PAVLOVIAN is not.... would have been a Panagram! Though now I have a craving for a certain food item... might even be drooling.

Not the greatest day, so I'm going to read a story about psychic vampires who steal people's souls so they don't age to cheer me up:

So I seem to recall hearing once that certain monofluorinated PAH compounds (ie 1-anthracene or 1-naphthalene positions) were carcinogenic (more-so than either the parent compounds or the chloro-derivatives). However I can seem to find a literature source for this. Does anyone know about this?

I had to laugh at this streetview scene I found: www.google.com/maps/@44.316...

reflecting that I just transferred 3 NMR spectra in a few seconds from our file-server, that would have been about 10% of my first computer's hard drive capacity, without a second thought. I complain a lot about computers, but they are empowering too.

It may not impress some, but I got my first sub-7 minute time solving a Monday NYT crossword!

Why is it so dark and I am so hungry, it's only just past 5:00..... oh yeah.....

At this critical moment Canada is making poor decisions when it comes to funding for science and higher education. Austerity in this sector at this point in time will decimate the knowledge economy in all of North America. Funding a couple of high profile chairs is not going to solve the problem.

It may not mean much to some, but I'm 1 citation away from getting 1000 citations! I didn't have a lot of publications from my PhD, so it's nice to eventually hit this milestone! (TBH I already have over 1000, but google scholar stubbornly undercounts one of my papers).

Uh-oh:

Randomly some songs from NIN "Ghosts" album came on my playlist, and I forgot what bangers they were. I guess I used to listen to them in not very happy days of grad school, so there's always a bit of a negative association. But anyway: I'm in a 34 Ghosts IV type of mood tonight.

Not that I'm going to do it, because there is a substantial price difference, but I wonder what I would get if I bought the compound on the right, rather than the compound on the left?

Reminiscing by going through some photos from over a decade ago. This was certainly not the largest medical bill I got during my time in the USA, but the number is striking. I had good insurance through my job at the time, but it was dependent on me having a job, and paying quite a bit for it.

If you were going to teach a class involving photoredox chemistry, and metallophotoredox chemistry, to grad students, what would your must-have reviews be?

Had a nice end of October camping trip. Though it was moody and foggy and cloudy, there was a fortuitous overlap of me being awake and the clouds cooperating. The greenish glow in the sky is likely light pollution from Jeremy's Bay, and not an aurora.

Wow, I feel really special and seen:

Thanks for the opportunity to weigh in on the stirring debate! It's certainly crucial for a lot of reactions we do 🤣

My NYT Spelling Bee streak is messed up (ie it claims I did not do yesterday's puzzle). I assume that's related to the web outage?

Should I order sushi from this place? Wonder what I will get?

I've been aware of this for quite a while (enantiomeric life used to be a thought experiment we would discuss in grad school), and given my field I was aware of the current concerns. Still, it's nifty to see an article connected with chirality on the front page of CNN. www.cnn.com/2025/10/17/s...

So I got the panagram(s) on my first 2 guesses, but I am irritated this was not one:

As some of you may know, I research SF6 chemistry. Outside of the electrical industry, one of the largest uses of SF6 is in eye surgery, so I get a lot of paper alerts regarding that. This is a neat example of the effect of pressure changes: www.canadianjournalofophthalmology.ca/action/showP...

Let's see if this works.

2 epic sunrises in a row

Nice sunrise this morning:

I had planned to go home for thanksgiving, but am too sick. So I present to you: salmon trimmings, and potato salad!

Exciting news from the Charron Lab — their first manuscript has just been published in Chemical Science! We’re thrilled to share this milestone and grateful to everyone who contributed to this work. pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Being home sick, the change in routine has made me forget my medication a couple of days, which is not good..... so here's my strategy. Brilliant or bonkers.... you decide?

Surprising finding looking at my stats for trips: The two provinces I have travelled to the most outside of Nova Scotia are Alberta and Ontario, with 7 trips apiece. Despite Quebec occupying such an outsized place in my heart, I've only travelled there as a destination 5 times. I've transited (1/2)

Come to think of it, this might not be the best time to ask about lanthanum prices:

What is the corollary to "game recognize game"?

If you wanted to buy lanthanum powder or lanthanum turnings, what would your preferred vendor be? Doesn't need to be super pure, don't want to pay > $1000 for 25 gram, when the salts are way less than that.

Just contributed to my FHSA a couple of days ago, so you can thank me all for today's stock market dip. I always have impeccable timing.

In having a conversation with somebody about history, it occurred to me that in the year I was born, the Russo-Japanese war was a more recent conflict than WW2 would now be for somebody born today. When I was a child, the youngest WW2 veterans were still common in the workforce.

I've felt pretty terrible for the past week, including an awful sore throat, coughing, and congestion. Thanks to a student I was finally able to get my hands on a COVID test, and was very surprised to find it was not positive! Stay safe out there. I will be signing up for flu and covid shots soon!

Does anyone else look at this and see The Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Got an "urgent" e-mail from an admin after hours, regarding the correction of some grant amounts from a past year, that involves logging onto an obscure website. Very tempted to reply "not my circus, not my monkeys"......

I'm sorry, what is up with the deluge (no pun intended) of ancient history conspiracy theory and upcoming pole-shift worrier accounts I am suddenly seeing on the other social media site. Absolute garbage.

Note to self: next time I pull up a gladiolus corm that's growing next to nettles, wear hand protection!

Not the most fantastic start to my morning. Little tiny shards of glass over my kitchen floor, including one in my foot, which I did not feel.

Autocorrect gaslighting me again.

My biggest ethical struggle. Pigs are the most efficient mammal at converting anything into meat, but they are also charismatic, individuals, and adorable. If you know me personally, you will know I have many pig decorations around my office and home.