My fascination for toilets began when I read "In Praise of Shadows," by Tanizaki. His poetic descriptions of restrooms, places of "spritual repose" as he puts it, made me acknowledge the poetry of pooping. Now, thanks to Foster Wallace's description of vacuum toilets, that poetry has evolved into a kind of metaphysics... I will say, though, that airplane vacuum toilets more accurately illustrate one's waste being "hurled" into a place of existential abstraction since the sky is more limitless that the ocean.

His fascination toward Petra's secret cleaning powers, and his attempts of "catching her" in the act of cleaning, adds a layer of mystery which resembles a detective investigation. And the exaggeration with which he renders Petra's abilities and her omniscient presence only make it more mysterious and engaging – he makes it impossible for us not to root for him and to wonder what is behind her super powers.

We all know this smile. Foster Wallace has the talent of accurately pin pointing, and of questioning, universal experiences which, in my view, people never stop to think about. I have been on the receiving end of numerous professional smiles, and all I have ever done was to professionally smile in return, without thinking twice about what I was doing. It's just one of those things that are so engrained in human behavior that stopping to think about it may seem like a pointless task for most people. But it's not!