Instead of reading my textbooks on subject classification and information retrieval algorithms like I should be doing, I've been reading this fascinating book called The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr. It's about this scientist, Luca Turin, who came up with a new theory of what is going on in our noses when we smell. The common belief was that we smelled things based on the shape of the molecule, but he found out smell is derived from the vibration of the molecule. (I'm only half way through the book, so I'm not sure how it turns out) One of the interesting things about this Turin guy is that he has an amazing ability to identify and finely describe smells. So, for instance he can smell a synthetically produced molecule and identify that it smells like a combination of styrofoam and metal. He wrote a perfume guide and describes the various "notes" of the fragrances. It's opening up a whole new world to me: the world of stank.

I've decided for my first assignment in my storytelling class to read Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece Meets the Big O. Paul gave it to me when I was 12 and he wrote in it "Mun-Sorry about the sensitized metal strip in the front. Don't ever work in a library, or you will discover their true meaning. I think this book is even better than The Missing Piece, and maybe is even his best book of all.Love, Paul, Christmas 1981." I agree it is even better than The Missing Piece. I remember I gave Master Wilkinson a copy of it about ten years ago, but he just joked and pretended I had given him The Story of 'O'. I hope this book isn't too psychoanalytic for kids. I volunteered to read stories to children at the Festival of Books. Eek. Maybe I'll break down and read them The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss instead.