Thursday, June 23, 2005

Word has it that millions
of ants are currently making
their way there from Jersey


The streets were sticky that night, my friends.

OK, so Snapple was left with kiwi-strawberry on its face when its attempts to erect the world's largest ice pop fell victim to hot temps, resulting in 35,000 pounds of Snapple slush stickifying the streets of New York City. While admittedly that's enough Snapple to feed starving villages in Africa for weeks (and I have it on good authority that small African children spend many a night staring into the night sky, hoping against hope for a Snapple drop), it could have been worse.

Yes, it could have been molasses, which any resident of Boston knows can be deadly, in addition to being chock full of sticky goodness. I refer of course to the Boston Molasses Disaster (also known as the Great Molasses Flood), which occurred on Jan. 15, 1919 in the North End of Boston. A large molasses tank burst and a wave of molasses ran through the streets, killing 21 and injuring 150 others. As one local commentator said at the time, "Oh, the horror! The ho... Mmm, is that cinnamon?"

Anyway, according to Wikipedia, the event has entered local folklore, and residents claim that the area still sometimes smells of molasses. Although I've been to the North End, and mostly it just smells like old vegetables.
(Thanks to Lori.)

11 comments:

Blacklist said...

I am a newcomer to blogger.com, and when i saw ur page on the front of the main site, i clicked on it to browse, and it made me laugh, so much that i think i might come back...

Kuroaki said...

whoa. really?!?! I never heard of such a sweet flood. bleh. gotta stop living in a shell.

Anonymous said...

Hehe... I am one of those African children.

wasssa said...

It would have been even more awful if everyone who was there would have been given the caps off of the Snapple bottles. Then everyone would have started clicking them (because that's what you do with the snapple caps)and then people would have started screaming "aaaaaaaa! The noise! It's like a thousand mutated grasshoppers clicking and chirping in my head!!!" It's a good thing they didn't give people the caps.

~Deuce

Anonymous said...

It's official. Deuce cracks me up.

wasssa said...

Hooray! Do I win a prize now?? (As long as its not a Snapple cap, we're ok) ;)
~Deuce

The Dating Doctor said...

Thanks for your blog! It is a great outlet from a long day at work!

Keep spreading the good word!!!

-- Kara

The Jerz said...

Snapple honchos must put booze in their snapple iced teas. Let's make a giant frozen popsicle in NYC in the summer. Couldn't wait for winter I guess.

URBNsafari said...

I'm an East Coast Girl as well. And, I sound so bad to say this, but I've never been to the North End. I mean, never. It's bad because it makes me look like a bad Italian, but what can I do? Hey, it's like anyone who isn't Italian wants to be Italian.

Re: biggest ice pop? Heard about it.
I wonder if anyone tried to eat it.

Underachiever said...

how come nobody reported the chia pet fiasco of hoboken of 82? Or was that just a dream.

By the by, Why do the subways smell like rancid urine?

Oh, yeah Urine Popsicle incident of 1901.

UNdr.

P.S. Hilarious blog my friend.

High Power Rocketry said...

:O)