So...I Found This Lovely Bookshop And Now I’m Obsessed!!!!!

Thrifting because why not?

Decisions decisions...

Picture credits: yours truly

Tchaikovsky is playing whilst the fire burns in the stone fireplace, red embers resemble the sun, rain tapping furiously on the window, thunder, the smell of wet earth and musk, messy handwriting, bromothymol blue ink stains on my fingers, empty glass bottles, a warm emerald green and deep blue tartan shawl,wrinkled white chemise, cold Irish breakfast tea, daydreaming into the night, warm socks, writing ceaselessly, finishing my chemistry lab report, simultaneously yearning for an archenemy to fall in love with, might light a cigarette and let the rain caress my face...

ALBERT EINSTEIN AND ACADEMIA

The Liberty of Doctrine—Á Propos of the Gumbel Case

ACADEMIC CHAIRS ARE MANY, but wise and noble teachers are few; lecture-rooms are numerous and large, but the number of young people who genuinely thirst after truth and justice is small. Nature scatters her common wares with a lavish hand, but the choice sort she produces but seldom.

We all know that, so why complain? Was it not ever thus and will it not ever thus remain? Certainly, and one must take what Nature gives as one finds it. But there is also such a thing as a spirit of the times, an attitude of mind characteristic of a particular generation, which is passed on from individual to individual and gives a society its particular tone. Each of us has to do his little bit towards transforming this spirit of the times.

Compare the spirit which animated the youth in our universities a hundred years ago with that prevailing to-day. They had faith in the amelioration of human society, respect for every honest opinion, the tolerance for which our classics had lived and fought. In those days men strove for a larger political unity, which at that time was called Germany. It was the students and the teachers at the universities who kept these ideals alive.

To-day also there is an urge towards social progress, towards tolerance and freedom of thought, towards a larger political unity, which we to-day call Europe. But the students at our universities have ceased as completely as their teachers to enshrine the hopes and ideals of the nation. Anyone who looks at our times coolly and dispassionately must admit this.

We are assembled to-day to take stock of ourselves. The external reason for this meeting is the Gumbel case. This apostle of justice has written about unexpiated political crimes with devoted industry, high courage, and exemplary fairness, and has done the community a signal service by his books. And this is the man whom the students, and a good many of the staff, of his university are to-day doing their best to expel.

Political passion cannot be allowed to go to such lengths. I am convinced that every man who reads Herr Gumbel’s books with an open mind will get the same impression from them as I have. Men like him are needed if we are ever to build up a healthy political society. Let every man judge according to his own standards, by what he has himself read, not by what others tell him. If that happens, this Gumbel case, after an unedifying beginning, may still do good.

This gave me “Midnight in Paris” vibes. Imagine just casually talking and having tea with Uncle Willy Shakes, Marlowe, Jane Austen, Nietzsche, Hemingway, Lord Byron, and your other favorite writers. Ahhhh that’s simply perfection.

Yesssss

the chemistry students

safety goggles and pristine white lab coats

the low flame of a bunsen burner

memorizing polyatomic ions, knowing the periodic table by heart

data tables filled with neat strings of numbers

the satisfying clink of glassware on the lab table

precision and steady hands

strings of calculations and conversions

balancing reactions in your head on the first try

deep focus, working through the procedure step by step

cold coffee abandoned on the windowsill

the light pink of a perfect titration

performing flashy demonstrations to impress your friends, delighting in their surprise

finding real world examples of complicated topics

graph paper and messy handwriting only you can understand

chemical formulas scrawled across the blackboard at the front of the classroom

neatly formatted lab reports

periodic table hung on your wall, atomic models on your bookshelf

hair pulled back, not a strand out of place

studying alchemy, fascination with the early pioneers in your field

lewis dot structures doodled in the margins of your lab notebook

working in the lab late at night, performing trial after trial until you know your data is accurate

formulas scribbled on your hands

being unfazed by vials of deadly chemicals

the vibrant colors of pH indicator solution

the gratification of a hypothesis proven correct

This is such a beautiful definition

Science is simply the word we use to describe a method of organising our curiosity.

- Tim Minchin

Is there anything better than reading a book and having a cuppa?

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Maya Angelou

Colette, tr. by Matthew Ward, from The Collected Stories; “The Accompanist, //Charles Bukowski