A young adult female wearing a green jacket with fur-lined hood stands outdoors in an urban residential area during winter, surrounded by snow-covered trees and parked cars. 1:24
Julie Nolke channel icon Julie NolkeOriginal creator 381K views Save

Julie Nolke chases a dust line down the sidewalk

There's always one more line. Julie Nolke sweeps the dirt into her dustpan, and a thin strip of dust stays right where it was. more

Anyone without wall-to-wall carpet knows that strip. No one has built a dustpan that gets it all, so you back the pan up a little and sweep again. That's her plan too, head tilted, eyes fixed on the floor.

A woman with brown hair tied up tilts her head and looks down at something below her. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
The first sweep leaves a strip of dust behind, and she stares it down.

It works, sort of. The line goes in, but there seems to be more dirt behind it. She backs up and sweeps that in, and then there's more again.

A woman with brown and blonde hair, wearing a white top, bows her head and looks at something below her. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Each line she sweeps in seems to leave another one behind it.

So she keeps going, one small step back and one more sweep at a time. Nolke is best known for sketches where she visits her past self to explain world events. This one is much smaller. It's about a broom and one strip of dust that won't quit.

The chase goes right out the front door. She keeps backing up and sweeping until she's out of the house and halfway down the sidewalk.

A young adult female wearing a green jacket with fur-lined hood stands outdoors in an urban residential area during winter, surrounded by snow-covered trees and parked cars. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
There's always one more line.

By then she's in a green winter coat, with snow on the ground and a garage door behind her. There, at last, she gives up and grinds the last of the dirt into the sidewalk. A neighbor does not look impressed.

A woman in a green coat holds tools while standing in front of a garage door, with snow on the ground. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Outside in the snow, the chase ends with the last of the dirt ground into the sidewalk.

Plenty of people joked about the neighbors, who must sigh every time she steps outside with that broom. Many more said they fight the same strip of dust at home, and one admitted to thinking they were the only one. Another had a name for it, frust, which seems about right.