Bethesda, Maryland. One of the richest and best educated places on earth. UD‘s stomping grounds.

Born in Baltimore, at Johns Hopkins University Hospital (her father was one of Manfred Mayer’s immunology grad students there – if you scan this appreciation, you light upon Herbert Rapp, UD‘s father), UD was whisked to ‘thesda at a young age and taught the ways of that hard-charging, hyper-competitive, hyper-accomplished place. ‘Twas here, in Latin class at Walter Johnson High School, that she collided with David Kosofsky, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s brother.

To understand a phenom like nineteen-year-old Daniel Milzman – co-author of two published researched papers by the age of sixteen, sophomore pre-med Georgetown University student, accomplished hockey player; and fashioner, in his dorm room, through his own iPhone-assisted research, of a biological weapons agent – it helps to have a sense in your head of the ‘thesdan surround, the world from which Milzman (who attended not WJ high school, but its neighbor, Walt Whitman, where David’s mother spent a career as an Honors English teacher) emerged. Restless curiosity, precocious accomplishment…

[P]olice found ricin in [Milzman’s] room on the sixth floor of McCarthy Hall early Tuesday… Federal court documents indicate that Milzman, 19, showed a resident assistant a bag of what he claimed was ricin late Monday. According to the affidavit, the RA reported the matter to Counseling and Psychiatric Services, who in turn contacted the Georgetown University Police Department. … Court documents say Milzman purchased material to make the substance at Home Depot and the American Plant Company.

American Plant Company! Next door to a well-heeled private school, American Plant is where UD goes when she’s feeling all elegant and let’s try out this one unusual expensive new thing in regard to her garden (otherwise she goes to massive sprawling Behnke’s in zero-prestige Beltsville Maryland). She can sort of see Milzman at this gorgeous shop full of eco-succulents and thick, earthy containers… He’s walking slowly, accompanied by one of the crisply dressed garden experts who wander the place deadheading geraniums and asking if you have any questions. The expert is impressed by this kid’s precision about what he wants… She wonders about a nineteen year old male with any interest in gardens, let alone this very specific interest…