The Creative Cactus

A freshly prepared Vilsmier-Haack Reagent.

This stuff was originally described by  Anton Vilsmeier and Albrecht Haack in 1927. It is made up by mixing phosphorous oxychloride and a formamide at low temperature. It is a quite practical thing that is widely used for the formylation of various compounds including sensitive compounds e.g.: pyrroles, furanes and various heterocyclic systems. 

The reagent is formed and reacts as the following mechanism illustrates:

“Don’t touch my diagrams of vaginas!”

“There’s your phenolphthalein, don’t put it in anyone’s coffee because it’ll give them the runs…”

“And then I told her, ‘I’m a physics teacher, if you wanted me to know what I’m doing, you should’ve got with a biology teacher’ and now she’s not speaking to me”

My doggo, Ezri, who rarely barks and mostly borks.

She’s a German spitz - in the same family as keeshonds and pomeranians. She might be crossed with something else as her freckled coat, non-pointy nose, and personality are not standard for her breed (they’re usually a lot more high energy and excitable - she’s super laid back and chill). She’s a bit less fluffy than breed-standard too, mostly because she’s grown out from her spring/summer trim (not usually necessary/good for her type of coat but she gets terribly itchy otherwise). It also makes her look like a puppy of a large breed:

Ezri’s best friend is Murder Cat, who is a gentle friend to humans and Ezri, but does things to mice that would make Hannibal Lecter go “Isn’t that a bit much?”

I got Murder Cat as a kitten, and she used to try to nurse on everything when she was small. Eventually, she settled on her favourite thing to nurse on, Ezri, who has never had puppies and a little confused at first but eventually went with it. She grew out of it, but they have stayed snuggly buddies ever since.

New Years here is full of fireworks outside and Ezri gets Vry Scared. I usually set her up somewhere with a snuggly spot right by me, and Murder Cat comes and does this all night: 

She goes everywhere with me in my bakfiets (cargo bike) and lets me warm my hands in her fur on cold days.

And her ears disappear if I say her name to get her attention.

ok so great thanks for coming to my TED talk about my dog, good night, drive safe