I've been riding the bus from time to time. The regular riders know each other by name or, at least, by reputation and will talk to, or about, each other as if it were a preliminary rehearsal for a "Dean Martin Roast". On one recent occasion a particularly lonesome soul was perfectly willing to drag me kicking and screaming into conversation. I went with the flow and was exposed to a lesson in, well, space entomology you might say. Listening courteously, the man across from me told me that, "the fire ants down in Florida are getting worse and worse. Do you know they have fire ants on the space shuttle?" I didn't know that. Now, I suppose, I do.