Rocking and Rolling

September 16, 2008 - Do you remember when making dinner was as easy as opening a can, pressing the contents in to a shape, and peeling it out? How about when baking a cake was as easy as mixing a few cans together to come up with that perfect cake of the perfect colour? Remember when becoming a sculptor too was as easy as opening a can?

I remember most when those cans only came in a few colours. Red, blue, yellow.... and if you blended them together, you could come up with purple, green, orange.... Ah Play Doh. Those were the days. There was the Play Doh hamburgers that were sometimes a little bit green. The Play Doh hotdogs which had a funny way of looking like lips, but rarely like a hot dog. I was a master of making people out of Play Doh... if the stick person model works. Actually, looking at some of the models in magazines now, I think I was merely ahead of my time. I have recently seen a few models who have a greenish hue about them. That's what happens when you mix carbs with water.

And Play Doh is what happens when you mix flour, food colouring, and some other chemicals with water. There is a little discrepancy between the patent office and the Hasbro website. It's seems the patent for Play-doh was issued in 1955 to a guy from Ohio who wanted a safe toy for his kids. Hasbro says it was a newfound use for a soap and cleaning compound in 1956 and called it PLAY-DOH. Regardless of where it originated, or those three fabulous colours it started as, you can now get a 50th Anniversary Pack of 50 colours. I bet those hamburgers will look much more appetizing today than they did back then. So for National Play Doh Day, go ahead and sculpt your dinner, then smoosh it all back up again and make rocks.

I missed a ton of great days to write about in the past few weeks, including Chocolate Milk Shake Day (September 12), Fortune Cookie Day (September 13), Be Late for Something Day (September 5 - though I can guarantee I inadvertently celebrated this one), Frankenstein Day (August 30) and International Literacy Day (September 8), but I'll be damned if I will miss this one. Today is Collect Rocks Day. Not just Play Doh rocks, but rock rocks. Rocks make up the foundation of so much... gravel, sand, concrete... hiking trails... Where ever your travels take you today, be sure to stop and admire the rocks. They come in a great range of colours, sizes, shapes... so much to collect. How about a scoop of Rocky Road Ice Cream? Rent Rocky? Rocky 2? 3? Watch a little Flintstones? Listen to a little Rock n' Roll? So many options, such a short 24 hours. I may have to settle for making a rock out of my hot pint Play Doh and calling it "Pebbles."