mediawest part 9 - a beavis moment

[phosfate]

I'm still not quite sure how we went from a nice wholesome family movie to plotting anarchy - I seem to remember something about Sharon Is Bored - but somehow, a few hours later, Susan, Sharon, and I were prowling the aisles at Meijers, and we were up to no good.

It was Gretchen's fault, really. She'd sent us the link to the Quicktime movie of the experiment a few months earlier, and we had (jokingly I'm sure) discussed attempting to replicate it. In the words of bomb-makers everywhere, "I saw it on the Internet."

Oh, who am I kidding, we knew exactly what we were going to do.

Someone got the roll of Mentos from a check-out lane candy rack. We spent several minutes in the soda aisle pondering which to use. Diet Dr Pepper had been the choice in the original - but would any soda work? Did it have to be diet - was the Aspertame the key? Was there something particular about Dr Pepper? In the end, we decided to go with the known ingredients our first time out, and got a two-litre bottle of Diet Dr Pepper. Susan snagged a disposa-cam (free die-cast Volkeswagon Beetle attached!) in order to document the event.

We checked out, trying not to look guilty, and I'm sure failing spectacularly.

Where to do the deed? Sharon was all for Meijers parking lot, until we reminded her of their multiple high-quality security cameras and our complete lack of bail money. The Holiday Inn parking lot, with its utter lack of security, seemed a better choice - but we didn't want to risk accidentally eating the finish off anybody's car. So we chose the brand-new vacant lot behind the HI, where we were least likely to be noticed or to leave damning trace evidence (yes, we watch way too much CSI), or to disturb the peaceful inhabitants of Lansing at 2:00 a.m.

We parked the car, and moved our operation to the borderline between tarmac and filthy wet mud. Susan held the plastic bag with our stuff. I put my glasses over my head in order to work the disposa-cam ("Wait, the flash doesn't wor-oh, there's a button. We're fine."), and Sharon, clutching the roll of Mentos, did the deed.

The lid of the soda was unscrewed. Flash.

Sharon held a Mento over the lip of the bottle. Flash.

Sharon dropped the Mento into the Diet Dr Pepper and backed away very very quickly. Fla--"Holy shit!"

FWOOOOOSSHH!!!



Diet Dr Pepper geysered everywhere.

It was magnificent.

We gathered up the detritus, tossed it into the garbage, and skulked back into the hotel before the owner of the very upset barking dog called the cops.

Science is fun.

Comments

science is fun

[nitasee.livejournal.com]

Damn! You did this and didn't include me?!?!?

Damn!

Nita
(now I'll just have to try it on my own)

Re: science is fun

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Sorry. It was like 2:00 a.m. Gretchen missed it, too, and it was her idea in the first place.

Psst!

[wgsarah.livejournal.com]

You've inspired a whole new incident. However, my sister wants to know what kind of Mentos you used to ensure the same effect. :)

Re: Psst!

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Ah. Thank you for reminding me - I forgot to say. They were the mint Mentos in the white wrapper.

[kielle.livejournal.com]

Now you KNOW I'm going to try this. *EG*

gambling? in casablanca?!?

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I would never, ever do anything to encourage others to...oh, hell, go ahead. Try using two Mentos and see what happens - we didn't think of that.

[bratbitch.livejournal.com]

Have you ever tried wizz fizz (sherbet) and coke?
Not quite as dramatic as your picture... but still kinda fun to watch ...

and even more fun to run away and leave someone else to do the cleaning up ... :>

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Hm. I've never heard of this - I thought if you put sherbet in Coke you got, y'know, a runny, icy float...

When you say 'sherbet' do you mean the sorta fruity icy not-really-ice-cream? Or is this one of those US/Aussie vocab differences, like 'sloppy joe'?

[bratbitch.livejournal.com]

hehe ... one of those vocab differences methinks, and I tried so hard to not just write WizzFizz and go ...

sherbet = made out of baking soda (?) and flavouring .. white powder that you suck out of straws or eat with little spoons ... or if you went to the 24 hr Sci Fis that I grew up on, you got very sleep depped and snorted it *grins*

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

OH!!!! Okay. The stuff that's inside of Zotz candies. You can also get them as wafers called Fizzies (sort of like Alka-Seltzer, only it makes soda pop instead of tummy meds). They're relatives of that classic candy, Pop Rocks, and vaguely attached to Wonka X-Ploders (milk chocolate bar w/low-charge Pop Rocks - better than it sounds).

[bratbitch.livejournal.com]

I *love* pop rocks, but they are damned difficult to find in Australia these days ...

for a short while we had something which sounds similar to the Wonka Xploders, cept they were little balls of chocolate with pop rocks in the middle

*sigh*

I like fizzy sweets

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

We had the ball things very briefly as well, released in conjunction with the movie 'Armageddon' - Asteroid Balls, I think they were called. They've evolved into the little boxed Disney balls, which as near as I can tell don't fizz but instead contain what are essentially Sweet Tarts in the shape of Disney characters. The fizzy version has been morphed into the non-spherical Wonka X-Ploder (all these are owned by Nestle).

I pay way too much attention to candy.

Oh hell, no I don't.

Hey! While you're here, you can watch for Junior Mints.

[bratbitch.livejournal.com]

LOL

I have been looking vaguely whenever we go into supermarkets and whatever... haven't seen them yet though


I've also been requested to seek down and bring back 'red hots' for the boy ... can't seem to find them anywhere yet either... but I did find jolly rancher hot cinnamon sweets *shrugs* they might have to do unless I get lucky soon

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Cinny Jolly Ranchers taste pretty much the same as Red Hots, though the texture is a bit different (real Red Hots are more...pill-like). Usually you'll find Red Hots down at the bottom of the candy rack with the cheap stuff like Lemonheads and Mike & Ikes. If you don't have any luck, lemme know before you go home and I can visit The Drug Store That Time Forgot out in Meadow Lane. They carry all the old fashioned stuff.

There are also Fireballs, which are either cinny jawbreakers or gumballs - I've never actually eaten them so I'm not sure which. And, for some reason, you can buy cinnamon-flavored toothpicks.

Jolly Rancher cherry is very good. It's fun to see how long you can hold one right on the tip of your tongue without weeping or coughing.

[bratbitch.livejournal.com]

LOL

you need to get out more!

thank you for the offer re: red hots ... I'm going to try walgreens and the fiesta before I start worrying too much...

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

35 years of candy-rack experience, baby!

Walgreen's should have 'em.

[cybertardis.livejournal.com]

Hey, whatever happened to those pictures, anyway?

--sah

SHARON!!!

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

She has them. You know - her.

Since it was only a 37-shot camera, I can think of no excuse for its not being filled, developed, and distributed.

Re: SHARON!!!

[cybertardis.livejournal.com]

I will have to speak to...her...then.

Ann, I mean to ask--c'n'I crop out my face on the SCIENCE! drawing and use it as my picture for this stupid LiveJournal thing? Can I, huh, huh, can I? Pretty please? Can I?

--sah

Re: SHARON!!!

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Golly. Of course. I'm just glad you're not suing me over it. I still don't know what's up with the black hair...

I still have to choose a third icon. Jeez, it's worse than trying to pick out a tattoo...