Jeepers, are we living in a comic book world?

Two bits of news just caught my attention and made me wonder if I will soon acquire my own superpowers sometime before my next birthday.

A new mineral was discovered in a Serbian mine in 2006. Tests by the Natural History Museum in London and the National Research Council in Canada revealed it to be composed of sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide. That meant nothing to me at first but the story floating around the media is that this is almost identical to certain substance with the power to kill Superman. Yes, that same mineral we know as "Kryptonite!"

(Image from Fleisher Superman cartoons. Public Domain)

"Fictional" Kryptonite also contains fluorine which presumably adds to its super radioactive power that only affects aliens from Krypton. Still, maybe we finally have a weapon against this madman who thinks he is better than we are...

While we're on the subject of alien planets, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory discovered an exoplanet (outside of our solar system) orbiting a red dwarf star that rivals the size of Earth. Is it habitable? Scientists are already talking about its potential for extraterrestrial life in this Science Daily news article.

Wait a minute, didn't Krypton orbit a red star?

The Smart Sisters--Part 1

Ahh. Springtime in New York. My cold disappeared the day it hit 65 degrees. Funny that. I took advantage of the delightful weather and hit the local cafe to work on my freckles. It was probably a bad idea since this is just when all of the pale skinned folks transform from ghosts to sad little lobsters. Will this be my turn to burn?

After twenty sips of my iced coffee, I tried to do some writerly work and ended up inventing some odd characters to hang out with me. So here is some fiction for your entertainment...

The Smart Sisters: Felicia talks about boys

The food delivery truck was dangerously close to the fire hydrant. Felicia kept an eye on the Latino driver as he stepped onto the sidewalk, oblivious to his dreadful parking job. She popped a cigarette out of the pack and into her mouth and nudged her female friend with a little jab of the elbow. Sarah, the friend, was chatting on her cellphone to her idiot boyfriend but managed to produce a lighter nevertheless.

"Thanks babe," Felicia said as she handed back the lighter. She took a few short puffs of the burning cigarette and posed for a few minutes. It was the perfect sunny day for that kind of behavior.

The driver exited the nearby restaurant and leaped into his vehicle. He was gone for just under three minutes. 'Not bad,' Felicia thought. Last week he was fined for parking in that same spot but that was after five minutes. He must have a whole system worked out when he does his city deliveries.

"Achoo!" That was a sneeze. Felicia used her free hand to save the rest of the neighborhood from her cold. She wiped the invisible germs on her jeans and immediately questioned her decision to take up smoking again when she still had that head cold.

"You know, Sarah, you could let me go home early today. I'm in bad shape." Felicia actually worked for Sarah at the cafe but they were close friends from school so it did cause occasional problems in their working relationship. That, and Sarah was a bit of a flaky manager.

Sarah whispered some cute remark to the idiot on the other line and shut the phone. She followed it up with a big annoying sigh. Sarah pretended to make a decision and turned to Felicia with a serious expression. "He's so sweet. We're going to the Hamptons this weekend so I'm definitely done cheating on him."

She had to stifle a laugh. Felicia actually liked her friend and wanted to avoid hurt feelings but she was eager to interject with a few opinions about Vincent, the aforementioned idiot boyfriend. At the very least, she had to allow herself a few biting remarks.

"He's so lucky to have you, Sarah. I'm glad that you decided to go the faithful route because I believe that this could truly last."

"Do you think so?" Sarah asked.

"Oh yeah. I mean, just because you refuse to kiss him on the lips ever since he criticized your technique, and just because he doesn't read, well, that doesn't mean that you can't work it out." Felicia wasn't trying to hurt her friend. In fact, she wanted to see if anything would cause Sarah to think about her choices in men.

They stood quietly for a few minutes as they finished their cigarettes. Another truck pulled up to the same spot in front of the fire hydrant.

Sarah turned to Felicia and said, "Maybe I should just get the free weekend away and then break up with him."