don't know scat

Graduation
I thought that I wouldn't graduate for another two or three years. But I'll actually be done in just three semesters. Dec. 2009!

Change of Major
I was out of my own loop because I had just changed my major, and so I hadn't mapped which classes I had left. I switched to avoid taking calculus. My major changed from Food Science: Technical, to Food Science: Management. Instead of calc., I'll take a couple business classes.

Poo
Today in food microbiology, I learned that when microbes break down meat, they produce skatole, cadaverine, and putresine, three compounds that make rotting dead things smell gross. The root skat, or scat, from skatole, is a word I just barely learned when one of Kathy's learn-ed master of English friends described a book as scatological. I asked her what that means. She said scat means poop. Scatological means the book is full of fart and poop jokes. Apparently you can get a degree in that. I need to tell my 14 year old brother about this.

Fun Activity
So I thought that spook houses should get some cadaverine (which smells like cadavers) and sprinkle it around. Wouldn't the smell enhance the fear, especially when it mingled with their patrons' vomit? Sounds spooky to me.

Or if you throw a halloween party, you could have those mystery boxes that people have to stick their hands in. The spaghetti "is the witches hair," the boiled eggs "are the witches eyes." Just add a couple drops of putresine and the kids may think you actually have a dead witch cut up in little pieces in your kitchen. For a better effect, have your wife absent from the party for the first thirty minutes.

What you'll need
I haven't found a company that sells these compounds. To make your own: leave raw meat on the counter for a couple weeks.