A nickname has emerged for these new members of the human race: blomers. The pundits had whittled down this sobriquet over several weeks from two previous and unworkable options. Someone had suggested they be called boomers, since their appearance in the wake of the New York accident had been like a bomb going off in the world’s population. But then another pundit pointed out that there had been a whole generation of people, from years ago, called boomers, and so we all eschewed the term to avoid confusion. Then it was suggested they be labelled bloomers, since their presence seemed to bloom through society with such potent abruptness. But then the British kicked up a stink because, of course, over there bloomers meant something else entirely. So a compromise was struck, and the word blome
