{"id":7375,"date":"2018-01-22T14:13:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T19:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=7375"},"modified":"2018-01-22T14:17:30","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T19:17:30","slug":"the-newest-controlled-substance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=7375","title":{"rendered":"The newest controlled substance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is a statistical fact that, in a country of 320-million people, some of those people are going to be really stupid.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not talking about gullible and short-sighted, like the average Trump voter.  No.  I&#8217;m talking about &#8230; <i>stupid<\/i>, as in possessing a dysfunctional mind that, going all out, fully revved, thinks it might be a good idea to eat &#8212; Oh, I don&#8217;t know &#8212; a <i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/01\/20\/us\/tide-pod-challenge.html\" target=\"_blank\">Tide Pod<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It seems every few weeks another challenge takes social media by storm.<\/p>\n<p>Some, like the \u201cIce Bucket Challenge,\u201d promote a cause. Others, like the bottle-flipping craze, are benign. But then there are those fads that are ill-informed or, worse, dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>The latest, the \u201cTide pod challenge,\u201d belongs in that category. It involves biting down on a brightly colored laundry detergent packet of any brand and spitting out or ingesting its contents, an act that poses serious health risks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I have to admit to mixed feelings about this.  I have sympathy for parents whose toddler picks-up a pod and chows down; parenting is hard work and, like it or not, you can&#8217;t have eyes everywhere and anticipate everything.  Really, they have my sympathy and don&#8217;t deserve the guilt they&#8217;re going to feel while they&#8217;re sitting in the emergency room.<\/p>\n<p>But if a grown-up takes the challenge, well &#8230; Happy Trails, Moron.<\/p>\n<p>What do you know?  Your local supermarket is probably taking steps to interrupt your participation in the challenge.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/lifestyle\/social\/stores-lock-up-detergent-pods-after-challenge-goes-viral?utm_source=facebook&#038;utm_medium=social&#038;utm_campaign=snd&#038;utm_content=wxjt4\" target=\"_blank\">Stores lock up detergent pods after &#8216;challenge&#8217; goes viral<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tide warns consumers not to dine on laundry pods<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I love that subhead: &#8220;Tide warns consumers not to dine on laundry pods&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yes.  DO NOT DINE ON LAUNDRY PODS!<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the story doesn&#8217;t make clear what is going on in these stores.  Are they just not selling pods any more?  Do I have to seek a staffer who will scrutinize me to determine whether I might be a soap-head?  Would my odds of getting my fix improve if I show up wearing dirty, smelly clothes?  Can I earn some quick change by smuggling a load of contraband laundry soap to Florida and selling it from the back of my car in a vacant lot?<\/p>\n<p>America: Where everyone is free to abuse the drug of his or her choice.  And I hereby publicly promise not to complain again about having to show my driver&#8217;s license to purchase cough medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is a statistical fact that, in a country of 320-million people, some of those people are going to be really stupid. I&#8217;m not talking about gullible and short-sighted, like the average Trump voter. No. I&#8217;m talking about &#8230; stupid, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=7375\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7375"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7375"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7378,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7375\/revisions\/7378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}