I get it that most people think microbial food safety is some bizarre niche about bugs and barfing.

But I’ve had enough people tell me their worst barf story that maybe there’s some storytelling interest.

According to Kurt Andersen of The New York Times, Tom Wolfe, author of The Right Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities who died at age 87, made everyone talk about him.

Tom Wolfe made every reader like a friend.

Who hasn’t gone to university with the pretty partner who was too good for you (I Am Charlotte Simmons), who hasn’t tripped out on acid (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) and who hasn’t thought themselves a master of Wall Street (or acamedia or anywhere else; The Bonfire of the Vanities).

I had this job in 1989, smashing rock.

I sat in this tiny, elevated cubicle in the middle of a sparse gravel pit, and any stones that became lodged in the metal sifters, I had to go out with a sledgehammer and dislodge.

I spent my spare time reading Bonfire of the Vanities, great book, terrible movie.

It was at a cottage rental about 1991 that I read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and my best friend decided he didn’t want to hang out with me anymore: Don’t invite close friends to cottages, it doesn’t end well.