Fun with Sticky

Fun with Sticky

You will need your logbook for these exercises.

Foreword: As you know, there is a legend which goes way back into the twentieth century about a man in ancient Oregon who was the proud owner of a Peanut Plantation. One day this man – we’ll call him Vilhelm – watched as a wild troop of rabid elephants stomped through his fields smashing the peanuts and their successors to smithereens. The peanuts, combined with off brand vegetable oil and a pinch of salt, formed a 227 gallon pool of sticky goo under the ground. Vilhelm, while inspecting the mess, stepped on a weak spot and fell into the slop. He was never seen again. The next day, Vilhelm was seen chasing children down the street, covered head to toe in peanut butter. He was known for the rest of his days as “Sticky Monster Man.”

Let us pay our respects to this legendary man by conducting some experiments.

1. Get some peanut butter.
2. Gather a heaping in the palm of your hand – which hand depends not, neither does it matter.
3. Spread the peanut butter around like you would lotion so that now it covers both hands. Here we see why it doesn’t matter which hand we started with.
4. Really glop it around.
5. Chase your children, your neighbor’s children, or any children you can find with your hands outstretched while announcing “Ugh! I’m the sticky monster!”
6. Log the children’s responses.

Our next experiment will have less to do with peanut butter and more to do with this next story.

Once upon a dinnertime, a woman by the name of Mrs. Dinnermaker was in fact making dinner. She cooked the spaghetti noodles to perfection and delicately poured them into a colander to strain. At precisely this same juncture, the doorbell rang. Mrs. Dinnermaker, with colander full of noodles in hand, went to answer it. The most ferocious sight lay before her on her porch. A man covered entirely with peanut butter waved his arms like an Unidentified Flinging Orangutan. In the background children ran screaming this way and that. Mrs. Dinnermaker threw up her arms in horror. The noodles she’d been holding leapt from the colander and, you’ll never believe this, they stuck to the ceiling. Both Mrs. Dinnermaker and the sticky man stopped screaming to ponder the noodles on the ceiling.

Let us practice the legacy Mrs. Dinnermaker started.

1. Gather anything you think may stick to the ceiling.
2. State aloud, “For Mrs. Dinnermaker!”
3. Throw your gatherings with a forceful upward motion.
4. Move out of the way.
5. Log which items stuck the best.

Our final story comes from the newspaper itself, along with the mouths of generations - much like the game ‘telephone’. Note: generations ago didn’t have telephones, nay – we’re talking the days when folks tied a string between two cups.

There once was a man from Nantucket,
Who stuck his head in a bucket.
He’d been unaware
Of the honey in there,
And the bucket was from then on Stucket.

Such a tragedy. Take note as I just now have that the sticky items we’ve explored are all edible.

1. The folks from Nantucket must not have much funding for their education system.
2. Even I know not to stick my head in a bucket.
Log the following story as a reminder of what not to do