Projo Offbeat Blog

Don't look now, but there's bacteria in the forecast this weekend.

It doesn't look like it will be anywhere near as bad as the eight inches of bacteria that brought the state to a halt in December, but you never know.

Like a snowball to the face, snow's pristine image has taken a blow from a study reporting that bacteria are common in snow. In fact, bacteria can help snow form under certain conditions.

Pure as the driven snow? Yeah, sure.

I don't know if I'll ever again get the same warm glow from the snowy Christmas scenes in those beer commercials.

You want to make a snowman? Why not just play in mud?

An Associated Press story questions whether this revelation means parents will have to step in and "banish snow-eating along with dodgeball, unchaperoned trick-or-treating and riding a bike without a helmet."

No, says Dr. Penelope Dennehy, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on infectious diseases.

''Basically, none of the food we eat is sterile," she tells the Associated Press. "We eat bacteria all the time."

Knowing that we eat bacteria "all the time" doesn't make me feel a whole lot better, but it's good to know that the kids can still eat snow.

As long as they stick to the old rule on the yellow stuff.

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