I'm not ashamed to admit that I made a mistake doing the laundry the other day. I forgot that I left a tissue in one of my pant's pockets and sent it through the wash like that. What can I say? It happens. Very rarely, but it happens. So, my bad, washer. My bad, dryer. But, at this point, my punishment for said folly borderlines an 8th Amendment violation. It was bad enough when I opened the dryer and found a bunch of (what I can only attempt to describe as) "strings" of tissue mixed in with the rest of the clothes. It was annoying, but due. What's completely unjust about this whole mishap is that the "strings" have continued to recur in various pieces of laundry. I find them tucked inside (yes, inside -- how they got there is beyond me) my shirts or sweatshirts. They're hidden between socks. They're inside shirts. I really can't stress this enough. Bottom line: don't fuck around with tissues. Make sure you check your pant pockets before doing the laundry, OR ELSE.

Let's play Good Idea/Bad Idea. Good idea: This year, I'm going to read at least one non-fiction science book every two months. For January/February, I read Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True. I really wish I were the type of person who could read something and retain all the facts and arguments in the book forever. Because Coyne does a kick ass job of showing (spoiler alert!) why evolution is true. If you'd like a taste of this guy's writing style, check out the New Republic article I read that pointed me in Coyne's direction.

So that's the good idea. Now time for the bad idea. I wanted to get a head-start on my March/April book, Carl Sagan's Cosmos, but, unfortunately, I started reading it while I was sick after coming back from New Orleans. I say "unfortunately" only because, when you are in a feverish state, it's not exactly easy to focus on and/or follow Sagan's esoteric writing. Here's an example from page 2: "From an intergalactic vantage point we would see, strewn like sea froth on the waves of space, innumerable faint, wispy tendrils of light." A nice image, to be sure. But when I was cooped up in bed with a box of tissues next to me and an upper-respiratory nightmare, it didn't exactly have the same impact.

Still, I'm determined to finish it by the end of April. Any suggestions for future reading?