By ROBERT KAHN
Courthouse News
The coolest Christmas present my brothers and I got when we were kids was a giant chemistry set.
It had stuff you\’d be arrested for trying to buy now.
All I remember about it is making ink, and of course, making stuff to blow things up.
All the kids knew the recipe for black powder: charcoal, sulphur and potassium nitrate.
We went through that potassium nitrate like it was going out of style. Then we had to go to the drug store to buy more. I remember it like it was yesterday.
The pharmacist, in his long white coat, cast a wary eye upon the three of us and said, \”You boys aren\’t buying this to make black powder, are you?\”
\”What?\” we said.
\”No!\” we said.
\”Can you make black powder with this?\” we said, gazing at one another in alarm.
\”Gosh!\” we said. \”No!\”
What a bunch of liars.
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