The idea for "Boris Eats His Snot" came from two news stories. I am a journalist and follow news closely.

The first news story was about an Austrian physician who claims (really) that eating snot is good for you because it makes you ingest more germs caught in the nose that then force you to produce antibodies or some such.

The second was about a rogue chimpanzee on medication that attacked a woman in Northeast America. I felt sorry for the chimp, not the owner.

Combining the two - and knowing how children laugh and laugh at the things they are not supposed to do, or the just-plain ridiculous - like picking their nose and putting the 'treasure' in their mouths - I wrote about Boris and Amos his friend who told Boris that eating snot would allow one to live forever. The question of course - What if you didn't have a nose? - JMK