I’m adding a quote to our sidebar quotes. You’ve seen those, right? I’ll tell you my favorite after all of this is over.

This one I thought you might be interested in, although I almost added it months ago and then thought better of it.

But the distressing and disturbing calls and emails we’ve received this week, from people living in completely untenable situations, losing hope, truly living in neglect, well, the quote is in.

It’s from Hans Zinsser, the immensely entertaining author of Rats, Lice and History:

But however secure and well-regulated civilized life may become, bacteria, Protozoa, viruses, infected fleas, lice, ticks, mosquitoes, and bedbugs will always lurk in the shadows ready to pounce when neglect, poverty, famine, or war lets down the defenses. And even in normal times they prey on the weak, the very young and the very old, living along with us, in mysterious obscurity waiting their opportunities. About the only genuine sporting proposition that remains unimpaired by the relentless domestication of a once free-living human species is the war against these ferocious little fellow creatures, which lurk in the dark corners and stalk us in the bodies of rats, mice, and all kinds of domestic animals; which fly and crawl with the insects, and waylay us in our food and drink and even in our love.

I think perhaps we should see bed bugs in our society as Zinsser’s genuine adventure, because the lance may be rusty but our intelligence and ingenuity hopefully remain.