Who really wants to follow a post by Ted?

Anyways… I know I’m not the only one who gets sucked into research sometimes to exclusion of writing. My standard M.O. is to do a lot of research on a subject that interests me for a story but then not use any of it. All the extra tidbits stay locked up in my skull until the next alcohol influenced discussion in a bar or at a con. A few weeks ago, an inversion kept the Twin Cities covered in smog for about a week. At one point it stretched all the way to Columbus, I guess. There were air quality warnings that began warning anyone with lung disease or immune problems to avoid any outdoor activity and finally stretched to cover everyone else. In addition to a general haze hovering in the sky, driving home after work a few nights our neighborhood had an eerie fog covering it that smelled like burnt rubber. I thought it was a good reminder to everyone up here that what goes out has to go somewhere and most of the time we’ve been lucky it hasn’t stuck around. At one point during the week, I found myself explaining what an inversion was to a co-worker. I went on to explain how deadly the fogs could be, telling her about the killer fogs of London and Donora, Pennsylvania. The look on her face led me to explain that I’d ended up looking into the subject as story research after watching a special on the crater lake/carbon dioxide disasters in Africa. I think because I have asthma, these fogs had a horrible fascination for me.