As Herr Direktor Funranium, I have a great deal of fun being a semi-inebriated raconteur expounding upon things scientific and being a general ass online.
But as Phil Broughton, I have had far more pleasure with all the questions and conversation that have come my way in the last year since the Steins of Science and Black Blood of the Earth really came into being. A bizarre stein in my hand has opened so many conversations in bars around the country, and in Australia and New Zealand, that I never would have otherwise had and led to new friends. Deep down, I’m a teacher and it’s hard not to share and teach what I know with everyone. I’ve talked to people around the world about their experiences with Coffee Gone Wrong and the most horrific/wonderful cocktails they’ve ever had. In one case, I helped a man design an ideal chilled cocktail storage apparatus for hiking 5 days deep into the Sierras. People have moved beyond mere morning caffeination rituals, to cocktails and gourmet meals using BBotE (like BBotE glazed roast suckling pig which I desperately want to taste) and then ask if I approve of their work. Standing answer for approval of your experiments: as long as you’re all consenting adults, enjoy, but don’t be offended if I laugh sometimes.
But it might never have happened. Both the steins and BBotE grew out of misfortune. While I’d started messing with the initial work on BBotE in August of 2008, I didn’t have a burning need to DO SOMETHING until I got diagnosed with Type II diabetes in June 2009. You’ll have to take my word for it that for this epicure, that diagnosis was just short of the end of the world. The original Stein of Science, der Wissenschaftenstein #1, happened because I had my first day of unpaid leave from UC Berkeley, courtesy of the furlough program, and boredom got the better of me.
In short, I turned squeezed something good out of the two most unpleasant events that happened to me last year. I never could have guessed how good and how much joy sharing them with the world would come back to me.
So, keep hitting me with your questions, comments and emails. I never know what will inspire the next experiment or adventure. Thank you for indulging my foolishness.
Now…where did I put that drink?