LMNOP

Umm, did you happen to feel a strong breeze yesterday?  Maybe it was the crap weather--OR MAYBE IT WAS THE SECRET ASTEROID WHIZZING BY EARTH AT 12 MILES PER SECOND.

I try not to be an alarmist, which is hard when you watch as much TV as I do and therefore are trained to believe that every phone is tapped, every person is a potential murderer and every little cough or ache is a sign of cancer.  But, with effort, I am generally able to remain convinced that everything is going to be relatively OK. 

And then I see headlines like this:

SURPRISE ASTEROID???  Um, How surprise-y are we talking about?

 Discovered only days ago, asteroid 2009 DD45 zipped between our planet and the moon at 13:44 universal time (8:44 a.m. ET). The asteroid was moving at about 12 miles (20 kilometers) a second when it was closest to Earth.

Now, it's not like we are talking about the Texas-sized asteroid that threatened to put an early end to Ben Affleck's relationship with Liv Tyler (as well as the rest of the Earth) in Armageddon.  According to National Geographic, this is a small asteroid:

At just 65 to 164 feet (20 to 50 meters) wide, the asteroid "was much fainter than anything visible to the naked eye" even during close approach, Spahr said.