Meat Meets Memoir, Science Stacks The Deck

Abstract

Craig A. Perman has literally seen sausage being made. From 1971 to 1975, Perman worked as a quality-control chemist at a meat-packing plant in his hometown of Waterloo, Iowa. It was hard work, made even harder by the fact that while Perman worked a full-time job during the plant’s graveyard shift, he was also pursuing a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the nearby University of Northern Iowa. Now, Perman has documented this hectic time in his life by writing his own chemistry-themed memoir, “Shenanigans: The Curious and Romantic Experiences of a Young Chemist, A True Story.” The book, released earlier this year for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, recounts Perman’s collegiate life with a sense of humor and nostalgia. Perman remembers the late nights he spent using hydrochloric acid and dimethyl sulfoxide to carry out fat analysis testing on hot dogs and bologna. He recollects the body-aching fatigue he felt as he ...