It was only a matter of time before the RadioShack sales rep asked me. I’d just brought $40 worth of electronic components to his checkout counter. Eleven small plastic bags filled with resistors, transistors, diodes, etc.

“Whoa. Are you making a bomb?” he asked.

“No. I think I’d need more parts than this.”

“Seriously. What are you making?”

“I’m doing the projects in this electronics book I’m reading. Besides, I think I’d need, like, some fertilizer.”

“Oh, you making a ghetto bomb.” he responded. “See. Just the fact that you know that…”

“Really? I thought that was common knowledge.”

“Naw.”

“Well, it was something I heard in chemistry class.”

“Everybody slept right through that shit.”