On July 30, Adri and I celebrated our 50^th Anniversary. We agreed all those years ago to a trial marriage of 50 years and this year, we agreed to extend the trial another 25 years. Without her encouragement, help in solving computer problems and proofreading, I would have submitted very few articles to Micscape so, if you’re looking for someone to blame for my frequent, often long, and rambling articles, now you know who to excoriate. I am the one who is always selecting images for the articles and so I thought this occasion might be an appropriate one to invite her to select 25 of her favorite images of mine and I will only comment to the extent of providing a brief description of the content of each image.

Adri’s support for my eccentric ventures in microscopy and natural history has been unflagging and enthusiastic. She is very modest about her own achievements even though she has a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Occidental College and an A.B.D. from Claremont College which was supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation. She taught English and Comparative Literature at the University of Wyoming, then later gave lessons in Classical Guitar before returning to study Russian, Classical Greek, and Latin. She got a B.A. in Russian and was hired to teach introductory Russian at the university. When she retired she became a self-taught computer whiz and I would be helpless without her expertise. So, here are 25 of her favorite images.

All of the crystal images, of which she is especially fond, I photographed using polarized light.

Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C).

Ascorbic Acid mixed with Water Glass (Sodium silicate)

An Atlas Moth

This is Dichronorhina derbyana oberthueri, one of the rhinoceros beetles, from Usambarae, Tanzania and he is, to my mind, quite an impressive chap.

This is a Lamprina adolphinae from Indonesia

Cephalexin (an antibiotic) mixed with Orange G

Citric Acid mixed with Metformin (a diabetes medication)

Codeine sulfate mixed with Metformin

Cream of Tartar

Copper acetate mixed with Tetracycline (an antibiotic)

A crystalline elephant consisting of Ferric ammonium sulfate

The sea urchin Heterocentrotus mammillatus

A mixture of Lisinopril (a blood pressure medication) and Metformin

Menthol

Metformin looking a bit like a Cheshire cat

A mixture of Magnesium chloride and DAPI a biological stain used for fluorescence microscopy

Magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salts]

A mixture of Potassium sodium tartrate (Rochelle Salt) and Orange G

Rochelle Salt

Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda)

The test (or shell) of the sea urchin Coelopleurus exquisitus

Crystals of Veetids (a Penicillin antibiotic)

A mixture of Volmax (a medication for bronchospasm) and Metformin

A mixture of Ascorbic Acid, Acridine Orange (a biological stain used in fluorescence microscopy) and Methylene Blue (a polychrome biological stain)

A mixture of Ascorbic Acid and Chloral hydrate (a painkiller sometimes used in the treatment of migraine)

I hope that you enjoyed this gallery of some of my wife’s favorites and I hope that I will be able to continue providing images for Micscape for many years to come with Adri’s continuing encouragement, tolerance, and loving enthusiasm.

All comments to the author Richard Howey are welcomed.

Editor's note: Visit Richard Howey's new website at http://rhowey.googlepages.com/home where he plans to share aspects of his wide interests.

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