Bugsy:
How are things?
Rhomos:
Not good.
Bugsy:
What’s wrong?
Rhomos:
You.
Bugsy:
Why me?
Rhomos:
You’re bugging me.
Bugsy:
How?
Rhomos:
You’re now in books, and
not just beds!
Bugsy:
Hey, I have to make a
living, too.
Rhomos:
Yeah, but it’s killing me,
my family, and friends.
Bugsy:
What do you suggest I do?
Rhomos:
Stay out of books. Just do your business in beds.
Bugsy:
O.K. I’ll bring this up at
our next Bedbug meeting.
Rhomos:
Thanks!
UNTIL
September, Kuang-Pei Tu, a manager in the circulation department of the Los
Angeles Central Library, had not given much thought to bedbugs. Then Nicole
Gustas, a regular who borrows three or four books a week, returned several in
Ziploc bags, explaining that a bedbug had crawled out of a copy of “True Blood”
while she was reading it. After Ms. Gustas complained to L.A. Weekly about the
incident, Ms. Tu said she began doing cursory inspections for signs of bedbugs.
As for Ms. Gustas, she is reluctant to return to the
library. “It makes me sad,” she said.
“It’s kind of like going to the beach and
seeing a shark next to you.”
Then again, she could just stick to low-traffic books, if
she wants to be a cautious library-goer. After all, some books are more likely
to harbor bedbugs than others, said Philip Koehler, a professor of entomology
at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.
Best-sellers that have rested on many night tables are
high-risk, he explained, as are hardcovers with spines where a female can lay
eggs. “You probably don’t want to check
out a popular book,” he said. “Maybe
try old history books.”
From “A Dark and Itchy Night”
Published:
December 5, 2012
O.E. bedd "bed, couch, resting
place, garden plot," from P.Gmc. *badjam "sleeping place dug
in the ground" (cf. O.Fris., O.S. bed, M.Du. bedde, O.N. beðr,
O.H.G. betti, Ger. Bett, Goth. badi "bed"), from
PIE root *bhedh- "to dig, pierce" (cf. Hittite beda-
"to pierce, prick," Gk. bothyros "pit," L. fossa
"ditch," Lith. bedre "to dig," Breton bez
"grave"). Both "sleeping" and "gardening" senses
are in Old English. Meaning "bottom of a lake, sea, watercourse" is
from 1580s
"insect," 1620s (earliest reference
is to bedbugs), probably from M.E. bugge "something frightening,
scarecrow" (late 14c.), a meaning obsolete except in bugbear (1570s) and bugaboo (q.v.); probably connected with Scot. bogill
"goblin, bugbear," or obsolete Welsh bwg "ghost,
goblin" (cf. Welsh bwgwl "threat," earlier
"fear"). Cf. also bogey (n.1) and Ger. bögge, böggel-mann
"goblin." Perhaps influenced in meaning by O.E. -budda used in
compounds for "beetle" (cf. Low Ger. budde "louse,
grub," M.L.G. buddech "thick, swollen"). Meaning
"defect in a machine" (1889) may have been coined c.1878 by Thomas
Edison (perhaps with the notion of an insect getting into the works). Meaning
"person obsessed by an idea" (e.g. firebug) is from 1841.
Sense of "microbe, germ" is from 1919. Bugs "crazy"
is from c.1900.
1590s (of people), 1855 of insects or
maggots; there is no single species known by this name, which is applied to the
anolium beetle, silverfishes, and book lice. See book (n.) + worm (n.).
IT'S RENEWABLE RESOURCES STUPID!
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