A Lyrical Philosophy

The Importance of Living (1937) was written by Lin Yutang (1895 – 1976); a Harvard scholar, Taoist, Teacher, revolutionary Chinese Journalist, and New York Times bestseller.

I often peruse the table of contents of The Importance of Living and sample whatever seems interesting (e.g.: The Monkey Epic, The Chinese Theory of Leisure, The Epigrams of Chang Ch’ao …): the reading experience thereby echoes the ambling philosophy espoused within the book.

Lin Yutang idealizes the scamp; the affable loafer who meanders through life; learning, living, and loving. His gift to humanity (among others) is this classic manuscript with an ineffable, antique quality.

Highly recommended

 

Royal Water

Aqua regia (Latin: ‘royal water’), a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, is able to dissolve gold and platinum.

Apparently, during World War II, George de Hevesy (1885-1966), a Hungarian chemist, dissolved two gold Nobel Prizes (which had been smuggled out of Germany) in aqua regia and stored the solution in his laboratory where they remained undisturbed, even though the Nazis searched diligently for precious metals. After the war, the gold was recovered from the solution, re-cast, and returned to the two Nobel Laureates, James Frick and Max von Laue.

George de Hevesy won his own Nobel Prize in chemistry (1943) for his work with radioactive isotopes.