A Fascinating Moment of Self-Discovery

I had a watershed moment of personal revelation last night. I realized that I had reached an entirely new level of uber nerditude when I started reading a book about the history of dust - just for the fun of it! Furthermore, I'm finding it FASCINATING! Now bear with me for a moment, kids...

How can dust not inspire a certain amount of whimsey? After all, common house dust is a mixture of dead insect parts, flakes of human skin, shreds of fabric, pollen, molds, and (my personal favorite) excrement. And I know that at this very moment you're probably thinking, "Dawn, shouldn't you be studying Hebrew instead?" Of course I should. But dust is so much more understandable! Unlike Hebrew, excrement is a concept that I actually GET! And just think of the theological component; every year on Ash Wednesday we usher in Lent by proclaiming, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return." What could squelch your nasty pride more than having your minister tell you that you're just a massive pile of poo and that's all you'll ever be? (And a note to every minister I've ever had: you can wipe that smirk off your face because I've been told by tons people other than you that I'm full of doodie. You are NOT original.)

So be prepared - until I'm finished with this little leisure read, I'm going to be polluting you with endless factoids about dust. If any of them help you win a trivia contest, I expect a Christmas card. And if any of you want to read along/get neridified with me, you can order the book on Amazon (Joseph A. Amato is the author). Come on over to the dark side - it's nice in here.

One final morsel for you smokers in the peanut gallery: a single puff of a cigarette produces 4 billion particles of dust. So just say no, kids.