The Feral Irishman (WARNING: site not always safe for work) today put up a fun video about some teenage pranksters feeding laxatives to a flock of seagulls at the beach. The resulting rain of detritus had people scurrying for cover.
It made me smile, but it also reminded me of an incident that reportedly happened in Britain during the so-called 'Winter of Discontent' of industrial unrest during 1978-79. The truck drivers strike (part of the unrest) shut down many factories, forcing their employees to be idled whether they wanted to work or not, because the factories couldn't get raw materials in or ship their finished products out.
I was told that at one factory, producing bars of chocolate for Nestlé, the disgruntled workers took matters into their own hands. They allegedly organized a 'solidarity demonstration of support' for the drivers who were picketing the entrance to the factory, preventing trucks from entering or leaving. As part of the 'demonstration', they presented the pickets with extra-large bars of Nestlé chocolate, free of charge. Needless to say, the delighted drivers ate most of the bars at once.
Unfortunately for the drivers, the workers had laced those particular bars with concentrated phenolphthalein - an extremely strong laxative . . . Apparently the pickets were squatting and groaning for days! The factory henceforth got deliveries and made shipments on schedule, with no further trouble at all.
Peter
I'm usually quite accepting of pranks but I view this as being dangerous to the birds. I'd really be annoyed if someone did something like this to my dog. The phrase "hell to pay" comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteWell... for human consumption pranks, I'd prefer Methylene Blue and/or Potassium Permanganate. (The former makes you pee green or blue depending on dosage, the latter pink or red depending on dosage, combined they'd make you pee purple).
ReplyDeleteBoth are mostly harmless(they've got medical uses, primarily as antiseptics, methylene blue can also be used as malaria treatment, among other things, and potassium permanganate is used for water purification, etc).
A side-effect of high/sustained consumption of methylene blue is that your body fluids become blue, which also colours your eyeballs.
"The Spice! They who control the Spice control the Empire!!". Dune.
DeleteExLax bars were used by many wrestlers to lose the last bit of wieght before meet.
ReplyDeleteOne small piece was the recommended dose and worked well. Our 120 pounder ate a whole bar to lose the last 2 pounds and ended up in the hospital. By the time he quit "going", he was down to 115 pounds.
Gerry