Maybe I’ve simply seen “Hamlet” too many times, but while enjoying lunch at the Pizza Schmizza near the office this afternoon I looked up at the TV screen and saw a news crawl about the poisoned spy and the first thought that flashed through my mind went something like this:

“Polonium? What, is that the chemical element that gives trite advice, entices lesser elements to spy on its isotopes, and ends the last of its half-lives in a misadventure while eavesdropping on the Danish royal family?”

(For the record: No, Polonium was so named by M. Curie as a political statement. Those wacky scientists!)