Drinking rum and Coca-Cola

I went to 7-Eleven for a Big Gulp and a snack. When I got back to the office I found they'd slipped into my bag a small clear plastic tube, maybe four inches long and a centimeter wide in the middle (it pinches at the ends), filled with a transparent, faintly green fluid. While there is writing on it, it's in Chinese; there are pictures of green apples at either end, but no identification to what this is -- drink, shampoo, bath lotion, leftover prop from Batman and Robin, liquefied Jolly Rancher, I could not say. On the side there's printed ``20060516'', which strongly suggests an industrial-grade food product, but I'm wary of putting it into my mouth. I imagine if I save it through the weekend I can go back and ask what it is, and what my response should be. For now I just have a plastic tube of consumer product.

I noticed in the news a man in Morris Township, New Jersey, was arrested for drunk driving ... he was driving the William G Mennen Sports Arena's zamboni. Other workers were apparently alarmed when he was ``dodging and weaving'' across the arena, and police said his blood alcohol content was 0.12 percent (the legal limit is 0.08). Inexplicably the news reports don't mention whether the ice resurfacing was successful. I also really want to know if there's a specific law about driving zambonis while drunk, or if it's just covered under a general ``operating any vehicle'' law.

I saw a report that Deep Space Nine recurring actors J G Hertzler (Marok) and Robert O'Reilly (Gowron) recorded an album of hiphop music named ``Kling Bling.'' I can't figure out if that's a mistimed April Fool's joke or just honest fun.

Trivia: Auguste Comte's reform ``Calendrier Positiviste'' dedicated July to the abstract concept of fetishism, and the concrete person of Charlemagne. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, E.G. Richards.

Currently Reading: Charlie Chaplin And His Times, Kenneth S Lynn.