Happy WHAT?

Yesterday Mr. Schrock announced that he was providing doughnuts and milk before school today for anyone who wanted them. He also offered coffee, provided someone prepared it. So it was that the kitchen was full of cheerful students when I arrived this morning 15 minutes before school was to begin at 8:30. The coffee pot was already half empty.

"Do you know what that is?" someone asked me, gesturing toward the cover of the white doughnut box. In Mr. Schrock's handwriting a message on the cover said "Happy (C2 H5)2O!" He had told everyone that they could start eating the doughnuts as soon as they figured out the message. He obviously wasn't very serious since everyone had already been enjoying the doughnuts and no one had figured it out, and no one was in trouble.

"Isn't that sugar?" I said, revealing the dearth of chemistry classes in my academic career. (Oh yeah. I think there are numbers like 6 or 10 or 11 or 12 in the sugar formula.)

"It's not sugar," someone reported back almost instantly after checking with Mr. Schrock. Bummer. No brownie points for me there.

Meanwhile Sheila wandered in for her share of the goodies. "Now, Sheila, don't be pigging out. Some of us haven't had our 18th yet," Jared admonished promptly. Unperturbed, she helped herself to a single doughnut.

The commentary continued.

"Maybe we could mix it up in the lab and see how it turns out."

"Steven'll probably show up early today--maybe even by 8:28," someone said. (I heard him arrive at 8:31).

Unabridged dictionary in hand, Mr. Schrock entered the kitchen and laid the book on the counter, open to the "e"s." Several of the boys crowded around, looking down the columns for clues. "Here it is. Ether? Oh. I get it. Happy Ether. Hahaha."

"We guessed it all by ourselves. All it took was for Mr. Schrock to open the dictionary to the right page." This from Jared.

"I knew it. I just didn't say it because I wanted to see if anyone else knew it," Jacob added unconvincingly.

The doughnuts were delicious and the camaraderie around the doughnut box was a delightful beginning to the day.

Everyone feels more than the usual pressure this week to get lessons done since it's a short school week because of Good Friday. Oral and written reports on the current issue of the month (Changing Demographics) are both due this week for everyone, sending people scrambling for information and a vacant computer on which to hammer out the essay due today. But thanks to Mr. Schrock, for a few minutes this morning, all the frenzy was suspended in favor of a jovial and contemplative session around a box of doughnuts.

Happy Ether everyone!