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If you’re a chemistry enthusiast and/or huge nerd, you’re in for a treat! Mole Day, which is an integral part of National Chemistry Week, is the celebration of Avogadro’s Number. You may be asking yourself, “What in the world is Avogadro’s Number?!” As I am no chemistry devotee, I took the time to look this information up for you, dear reader. Avogadro’s Number (or Avogadro’s Constant, if ya fancy), named for famed Italian scientist, Amedeo Avogadro, is the number of molecules in one mole. I understand that you may be shouting “Now, what the heck is a mole?!” at your computer screen.  Fear not, dear reader, a mole is but the unit of measurement for amount of substance. Simply put, moles give chemists more accuracy when it comes to determining amounts of substances produced in a given reaction. Okay, maybe that wasn’t so simple, but the mole is a very useful unit of measurement. The measurement is approximately 6.022140857(74)×10²³ mol⁻¹   (and yes, I copied and pasted that formula). And so on this October twenty-third in the year two thousand and eighteen, and every October 23rd hereafter, between the hours of 6:02 A.M. and 6:02 P.M.,  we celebrate the mole. I recommend a visit to the American Chemical Society for more Mole Day activities and crafts to get you in the spirit to celebrate your favorite unit of measurement.

For those of us that are still confused; here’s a handy chart!:

Run in

• Meaning: Arrest
• Example: The guys who robbed the bank last week have finally been run in.

Run in

• Meaning: Use new machinery at less than full speed, preventing damage
• Example: I have to drive slowly for the first 1,000 miles to run the engine in.

Run into

• Meaning: Enter by running
• Example: He ran into the building.

Run into

• Meaning: Collide with
• Example: He lost control of the vehicle and ran into a tree.

Run into

• Meaning: Encounter or meet unexpectedly
• Example: I ran into your cousin the other day.

Run into

• Meaning: Cause to blend into
• Example: You can use the paintbrush this way to run the colors into each other.

Run into

• Meaning: Reach a large figure
• Example: By the end, the cost of the project ran into the millions of dollars.

Run low

• Meaning: Near the end of a supply of something; to be nearly running out
• Example: Our stocks of meat are running low.

RUN OFF meaning – Phrasal verbs with RUN

Run off

• Meaning: Flee or depart quickly
• Example: Don’t run off before the end of the event.

Run off

• Meaning: Make photocopies, or print
• Example: Please run off a couple dozen more flyers to pass out.

Run off

• Meaning: Write something quickly
• Example: Shakespeare could run off a play in just a couple of days.

Run off

• Meaning: Pour or spill off or over
• Example: They kept a barrel to store rainwater that has run off the roof.

Run off

• Meaning: Chase someone away
• Example: If anyone comes into this field, the bull will soon run them off.

Run off

• Meaning: Operate by a particular energy source
• Example: This radio runs off batteries.

Run off with

• Meaning: Leave with someone with the intention of living with them or marrying them
• Example: The chief accountant has run off with his secretary!

Run off with

• Meaning: Steal or abscond
• Example: He ran off with my wallet.

Run on

• Meaning: Continue without interruption
• Example: We can’t afford for the performance to run on for more than the specified time.

Run on

• Meaning: Using a certain time zone
• Example: I was still running on daylight savings time.

Run on

• Meaning: Continue talking for a long time
• Example: She ran on and wouldn’t let anyone get a word in edgeways.

It has been a really long time since I last watched a good horror movie. Now that Halloween is approaching, it might be the best time to get back into it. When I was just a wee little girl I remember the thrill I got from watching Jaws, Arachnophobia, and The Gremlins. I miss the adrenaline rush, getting goosebumps, jumping out of my skin, curling up and hiding under a blanket, and covering my eyes or ears because it’s too scary to watch or listen to. You know it’s a good horror movie when you’re too scared to go to the toilet on your own!

To name a few, my favorites would have to be The Exorcist, The Ring, Shutter, Thirteen Ghosts, The Grudge, Shutter Island, and Silence of the Lambs.

A student recommended I watch a more recent one titled A Quiet Place. What do you recommend I watch?

One of my favorite sports stories comes from the 1974 National Hockey League player draft. 

Back then, the player selection process was painfully slow and done via telephone. As a tongue-in-cheek protest to this, Buffalo Sabres general manager Punch Imlach and PR director Paul Wieland decided to use their 11th round pick on an entirely fictitious player.

That “player” was Taro Tsujimoto, so-named for a Tsujimoto grocery store just outside Buffalo. According to the Sabres, Tsujimoto was the star of the Japanese Hockey League’s Tokyo Katanas. While the JHL was a real league, there was no team in Tokyo at that time, with katanas being a subtle-sword nod to sabres. With no way to confirm his actual existence, the mystery pick was made official and Taro’s name appeared in newspapers and league publications.

When training camp rolled around that fall, Imlach finally revealed that the pick was a hoax. The official record now shows that the Sabres made an ‘invalid claim’ or no selection at all with their pick.

Even still, Taro continues to live on today: a local sports column goes by the name ‘Taro says…’, fans sometimes chant ‘We Want Taro’ when the Sabres are winning big, and occasionally you can see a Tsujimoto jersey in the stands at the KeyBank Center. 

Trying to learn Japanese when you’re an English teacher can be a challenge. When you teach English all day, the opportunity to speak Japanese is close to impossible. Luckily, with a little help from Netflix, I can hone my Japanese listening skills. I especially like the Netflix anime series Aggretsuko for it’s honest (if not exaggerated) portrayal of the Japanese workplace.

Aggretsuko, a combination of “aggressive” and “Retsuko”, follows the mishaps of a young red panda named Retsuko. By day, she silently suffers at her boring office job where she is overworked and under-appreciated. But by night, she releases her workday stress by singing death metal. Her musical ire humorously covers nearly every topic from her horrible boss to uncomfortable shoes to meddling shop clerks.

What I enjoy the most about Aggretsuko is the juxtaposition of the cute animals with the decidedly un-cute world of office work. The characters were created by Sanrio, which is world-renowned for Hello Kitty, Purin, and other adorable characters. But Kitty-chan and Purin-kun don’t work terrible office jobs; their biggest problems are what birthday present to get their friends or getting a stomachache from eating too many apples. Aggretsuko has the nostalgia factor and brand-power for young adults who love cute Sanrio characters, but are forced to grow up and start their own, possibly awful, careers. Plus, with an episode run time of 15 minutes, I can watch two or three episodes in Japanese before I go to bed. Who says learning a new language can’t be fun?!

Retsuko by day–calm, polite, and hard-working.

Retsuko ready to unleash her grievances.

And here’s a 15 minute compilation of all of Retsuko’s rage breakdowns.