Today Is ...

Posted from and by husband Bill, February 7, 2026, at home

Today is National Periodic Table Day.

I have enjoyed chemistry since I was a kid, and I even studied it in high school and at university. I retain an interest in it to this day.

While I ultimately became a journalist, I was quite fortunate in the 1990s to land a job in New York City where I could indulge my love of a topic that has interested me since I was a young kid in the 1960s playing with my chemistry set. From 1992 to 1996, I was a Reporter, Writer, Editor, and Researcher for an international weekly magazine on the financial and technical aspects of the chemical industry. This included oils, fats, and waxes; flavors and fragrances; heavy and agricultural chemicals; petrochemicals; plastics and coatings; pharmaceuticals; and more.

Yes, I'm a nerd ... and proud of it.

I am honored to have worked for one of the oldest publications in the United States. The magazine, initially titled "Oil, Paint, and Drug Reporter" and titled "Chemical Marketing Reporter" ("CMR") when I worked there, was first published in 1871. Shortly after I moved on, it was renamed "Chemical Market Report."

I still laugh at the title of my first position there: Oils, Fats, and Waxes Editor. It was my job to cover such products as castor oil, grease (both yellow AND white), and carnauba wax from an industrial standpoint. I was later promoted to more complex coverage areas: Flavors and Fragrances Editor, then Heavy and Agriculture Chemicals Editor, and then Market Research Editor.

I rank this job as my most favorite job since I became a journalist in 1982 and ended my career in 2017, partly because, as I still sometimes jokingly say, it made me appear smarter than I actually was. 

Also, my groundbreaking (lol 😁) story on tung oil as a natural industrial lubricant in its infancy was cited in USDA and EPA governmental reports. My writings were also cited in a university student's doctoral thesis.

Posted from and by husband Bill, February 7, 2026, at home

I sometimes like Fettuccine Alfredo, but, technically, it isn't Italian.