South Lake Union proudly touts itself as a "biomedical center," and this scares me. What experiments are occurring in these advanced buildings? I certainly hope, and presume, they're looking for the cure for cancer. But I have nightmares about H. P. Lovecraftian demons arising out of vats of electrified soul-ooze hidden beneath Starbucks and Uptown Espresso (because I believe demon creators are equally divided between ultra-corporate and semi-communist types).

Of course, in reality, I simply worry about human error. What potentially dangerous pathogens could be released if some absentminded professor pressed the wrong button and then failed to press the eight or nine emergency backup buttons?

I'm allergic to everything that grows, so I spend a lot of time sneezing. But when I sneeze in South Lake Union, I wonder if I'm the indigenous dude whose sovereign body has just been invaded by biomedical cavalry soldiers.

Maybe those demons are Custerian. recommended