Re: 4 A.M. Ramble

[danspector@xxxxxxxxx]

Abbi,

(sorry I haven't given you more Resurrection fb; it's coming!)

Kool Aid: Extremely cheap powdered fruit punch drink, sold in a variety
of flavors. Popular at large, tightly budgeted gatherings, such as
picnics or church socials. Elitist Jewish snobs from New York or L.A.
(like myself) envision Southern Baptists subsisting on a diet of Kool
Aid, along with roast beef sandwiches on untoasted white bread, covered
in cheap mayonnaise (the roast beef sandwiches, not the
Baptists--although you never know). Also wearing pastel trousers with
white belts, but that's off the subject.

Kool Aid gained infamy in 1979, when 300+ members of Jim Jones's
People's Temple religious cult died in Jones's compound in Guyana,
after drinking Kool Aid laced with, I believe, cyanide. The mass
suicide was ordered by Jones after his followers had assassinated
California Congressman Leo Ryan at the airport in Georgetown. Ryan and
his staff had come to investigate the People's Temple, which had
originated in San Francisco, before fleeing the authorities on either
tax-evasion or kidnapping charges.

(This is all off of the top of my head; doubtless some of the facts are
wrong.)

Since then, Kool Aid has been, to a degree, associated with slavish
devotion and a lack of indepencent thought. For example, on World
Wrestling Federation programming recently, wrestlers "under the spell"
of evil genius Paul Heyman have been described by an announcer as
"drinking Paul Heyman's Kool Aid." That the wrestlers are not in fact
dead may indicate that people who work as wrestling announcers are not
as adept at coming up with colorful metaphors as they might think.

Actually, I don't even know that it was Kool Aid they drank in
"Jonestown", but when you're the leading brand, people may call an
imitation by your name.

And let's not even get started on the adverts (gratuitous British term),
featuring Kool Aid Man, a giant walking pitcher of the stuff (always the
cherry variety) who would come bursting through walls and such.

God only knows why the Ferret describes himself this way; you'd have to
ask him. Of course, God also only knows why the Ferret describes
himself as a ferret.

(I've said it before: I lack the imagination for screennames)

Sincerely,

Dan  
(who drinks the cool people's soft drink: store-brand diet ginger ale.
Okay, okay--but it is a step up from Kool Aid.)