Please post any comments about The 40th Noël here.

A scientific Christmas story! Very creative (and enjoyable)! And Dr. Klein's reaction to the diamond cufflinks was priceless. Coal, indeed!

Very enjoyable, even though the science went straight over my head. You kept Dr. Klein perfectly in characters. Loved his reaction to the gift! Priceless.

LOL. Nerd/geek/science alert. I loved it. You did really great with all the science terms too.

Fantastic work, thanks.

A lump of coal, and a heatable pressure chamber?

Michael

What a fun vignette. I love the voice you used for Bernie.

Joy,
Lynn

Thanks everyone who left comments!!

Annie:

Thanks! I'll admit, after the bio-babbling imp in my head got her hands on this story, I was a little worried!

VirginiaR:

Thanks! Actually, the gift (and Dr. Klein's reaction to it) was the initial genesis of the story!

KatherineKent:

Yup!

Thanks!

Michael:

Spot on with the lump of coal part (at least in Dr. Klein's head)! I think that a good bomb calorimeter might have cost even more than the diamonds, though. Maybe it wasn't in the budget?

Hmm....this sounds familiar <g> Yes, what evil supervillain *doesn't* want a red kryptonite laser? But if Luthor thinks I'm going to share it, he's got another thing coming! Only a scientist. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">:D Well, we all have our little foibles.

Lynn:

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Great story--you had such a great handle on all the scientific information! You were really 'in' Dr. Klein's world here

Nothing gets you in the Christmas spirit like hearing about olfactory receptor neutrons

GREAT ending! Loved it....

What a fun story--really creative how accurately you portrayed Dr. Klein! Great job

Laura

Bomb calorimeter? I was just thinking about a make-your-own-diamond set

Michael

Laura: Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you had fun with the story!

Hee hee. Well, they do say that smell is the sense most closely tied to memory!

Yes, I'll admit that this particular part of the story just might have been based on real life experience... <g>

Thanks! My inner geek had huge amounts of fun writing from his point of view. Now, I just have to get her to go back into the little box where she belongs...

/surreptitiously wipes copious amounts of sweat from forehead/

Aha! I get it now! Sorry, my mind immediately jumped to calorimeters. But come to think of it, I suppose that the enthalpy of combustion for most types of coal has probably already been determined with some accuracy...

Anyway, surprisingly enough, it's relatively easy (apparently; I haven't personally tried it) to make synthetic diamonds . All it takes is a microwave!

This was so much fun...until the end. Now we need a sequel with an attractive scientist in love with Dr. Klein and his reaction to her increasingly less subtle hints. Your inner geek would love to write her voice too! I always did want to see Dr. Klein matched up and no longer lonely.

That was just hilarious. I was laughing all the way through. You have Dr. Klein's POV just right.

Great last line, too!

You did read the part of the comments where the author admits it's a practical joke, right? I kept thinking 'microwaving two mugs for 99.99 minutes isn't going to make them explode?' I was fooled, but being that my B.S. is in Classics (i.e. Ancient Greek Language and history), it doesn't take much in the science department to fool me.

Aha! I *did* think that it sounded rather bizarre (and unlikely). That's what I get for not checking my sources! My thesis advisor would be spinning around her grave like a top if she knew! I just thought it sounded weird and funny, so....

And yes, my first response to the whole 'You know, the word gullible isn't in the dictionary' joke was to take out a dictionary and look...

Thanks for your comments!

Katie123:

Sorry...The whole diamonds/coal thing was just too good to pass up!

I'm afraid that I'm not very good at WAFF... It would be fun to read it, though!

Although didn't he have that love interest in "Voices from the Past" (the particle physicist from MIT)?

IolantheAlias:

Thanks! I'm so glad it was funny!

I sent the link to this story to my dad (a retired science teacher). He enjoyed it--and he passed the link on to several of his friends.

Here's a another vote! Michael

Annie:

Thanks for letting me know! I'm really glad he enjoyed it!