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Unusual weekend visit to the Huntington Library in San Marino, to see Isaac Newton's books and journals on display. It was definitely well worth the trip just to see Hooke's and Descartes' own drawings. Newton's journals in his own handwriting were in English and Latin, with plenty of diagrams.

In his review of the exhibit when it was in NYC, James Gleick, one of Newton's many present-day biographers, complained that Newton's dark and lonely side was left out, and his interest in alchemy not even alluded to in the exhibit. Well, at the Huntington they made room for some alchemical books and drawings. They were in another room, so either Gleick missed it or they simply added the new texts.

In fact, a fascinating page showing five or six staves of musical notes was displayed, from a book on alchemical music that Newton was known to have read. Irene was with me, she said it was a chant and was kind enough to hum a few bars of this 450-year-old music. Exactly what it was that made the music alchemical remains to be discovered by me. I can tell you this much. In the gift shop they had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

The exhibit was curated by Mordechai Feingold, a professor of history at CalTech, and the exhibit book is available on amazon. A really fun thing to do would be to read a copy of the exhibit book and then hop over to the Huntington Library before the first half of the show is over in June. he Newtonian Moment: Isaac Newton and the Making of Modern Culture [buy at amazon] . by Mordechai Feingold

Recently read three thinking person's mysteries. What did they all have in common? Their authors had their characters think.

What is TInspector Saito's Small Satori [buy at amazon] . by Janwillem van de Wetering The Perfidious Parrot [buy at amazon] . by Janwillem van de Wetering Skinny Dip [buy at amazon] . by Carl Hiaasen

You can find great things roaming through the stacks of your public library. When I found "The Complete guide to Chi-Gung", I had to check it out. Sure enough, it was chock full of diagrams and instructions on exactly how to unlock your inner power and best of all it was in English. Chi-Gung is a huge quasi-religious movement that is sweeping/being suppressed in China. There used to be a Chi-Gung school on Overland Avenue in Los Angeles right next to the freeway, but it turned out to be short-lived.

Still, you can learn Chi-Gung now, from a book. However, a chapter entitled "Signs of success in Chi-gung" indicated to me that it is a course of study you might not want to undertake lightly. For here are some of the signs of success:

• Numbness and Tingling, Trembling, Heat, Cold, Sweating,
• Soreness and Pain, Headache and Eyeache, Insomnia,
• Sexual Excitation, Burps Coughs and Gas, Dizziness,
• Itching, Heaviness and Lightness, Laughing Weeping and Shouting
• Spontaneous movement, Supernatural powers

Special notes on supernatural powers: "Supernatural powers may manifest as luminous visions of deities, energies or cosmic phenomena that appear in 'the minds eye' sounds or voices heard in the 'minds ear', and spontaneous insights into the past, present or future...."

"Intuitive visions of particular events unfolding in the future reflect the acheivement of clairvoyance. All such signs must be handled with the greatest respect and vigilance. It also takes time to learn how to interpret such visions, voices and insights, and how to properly utilize them."

Nonetheless, if you dare: The Complete Guide to Chi-Gung [buy at amazon] . by Daniel Reed.