Sitting at my desk on this dark, dreary winter’s evening, I recalled a warm, sunny late Spring afternoon some years ago. While vacationing  at Fair Harbor on Fire Island NY , I stood on the dock and watched a family of swans  swim past, in a straight line.  The family consisted of the mama, the papa and their four cygnets.  Observing the same scene, was a  little boy of no more than 4 or 5  standing next to me with his mother on the other side of him .  As we  watched the swan family make  its way  across the Great South Bay, the little boy turned to me and said very proudly: “I know why some of the babies are grey and the others are white”.  I glanced at his mother, then looked down at him and said: “Why are they different colors?”  He replied with great assurance: “Pollution”.