Pluggers by Rick McKee for April 14, 2022

I was also gonna make a Sodium joke, but then I was like Na.

For fun, throw a can of sodium into a lake!

That information doesn’t seem all that useful.

Makes me wonder: do fire-, air-, water-, and earth-benders learn about their bendable elements’ elements? Something for Zuko, Aang, Katara, and Toph to keep in mind.

Naaaaa… :-D

Wish I would of Known then what I know now ! A lot of work would of been saved ;-)

Sodium? Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na…Batman!

Sodium’s symbol comes from its Latin name: Natrium.

Pluggers don’t have periodic tables? Mine is less than arm’s length to my left.

I wish I knew what I know now when was young!

The information is still there, It’s just buried under decades of new information.

I don’t worry about Periodic tables as I’ve had the same table for twenty years or so.

I wish I knew then what I know now. The school of hard knocks is hard.

I have come to realize that a lot of what I thought was useless info from high school actually comes in handy when watching Jeopardy or doing crossword puzzles.

More and more frequently, my answers to the Jeopardy clues are, “Oh wait, I know that!”

Happy with what I have learned and retained since youth. It’s the 20 year old BODY that I wish for.

Toby Keith’s lyric version is:

“I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.”

Of course, he’s singing about a cowboy who had a hard, disillusioning life.

Except you forget you knew it! :D

That one I remember and didn’t even have to look it up, one of the few I do recall easily.

Tom Lehrer is on hand for those who need a refresher on the elements https://youtu.be/AcS3NOQnsQM

“I wish I was what I was before I wanted to be who I am!” Scribbled in the men’s bathroom at a national university back in the 1970’s.

♪ i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger… oh, la la, oh, la la…

I’m no science expert, but I do remember some important basics. Like the difference between CO2 – carbon dioxide – what we exhale – and CO – carbon monoxide – deadly if you’re breathing it. My CO detector went off one night due to a faulty wall heater. After the fire department cleared my apartment, I went to the ER just to make sure I hadn’t been affected. My level was only slightly elevated, and I went back home. I was horrified to read the report later where the intake nurse had, every single time, typed “CO2”(carbon dioxide) exposure, detector, etc. instead of CO! Of course this mistake didn’t affect my care, but it was particularly annoying since I had SAID “CO” each time. Maybe I’m nitpicky, but if I had done that in nursing school, I’d have been “flunked” for that day of clinical…

One area where Greek and Latin pay off: Natrium => NA = sodium. Kalium => K =potassium. EASY!

Remember what I learned in school? Heck after being in the house so much the past two years I have trouble remembering where the spare paper for the printer is or where the labels are.* I have stood in the kitchen turning in circles trying to remember where a kitchen tool or other item is kept. I gave up trying to find a ballpoint pen in the office supply closet and bought a new package. (Husband: “I need the square baking pan, where it is?” I run and start opening cabinet doors (and we only have 5 cabinets it can be in) and looking for it as I have no idea, even though I have used it several times during the pandemic).

*Actually there is a reason I forget where these printer items are. We had to switch to a new all in one unit as our old one was printing terrible and a new unit was cheaper than buying a drum and new cartridge for the old one – but the old one has a fax machine in it which is hard to find these days and is better for scanning so we have both. The paper for the printers is under the old unit which is raised up off the surface it is on by being a footed shelf husband made and the started labels are sitting on top of the old unit. So, it all used to be right in front my nose and easily seen when we used the old unit for printing/copying, now I have to remember to go to the old unit for same. This is further confused in my head as the new one sits next to the stacker with the other colors of paper and the other labels which are not the ones I am looking for.