It happens to me often, and perhaps it does to you as well. I start on one topic, and it leads directly or indirectly to another topic closely or loosely related. It happened last night as I was preparing to post a picture of our ramen and sashimi dinner.
Susan and I are both aficionados (aficionadas or perhaps aficionadox?) of dystopian fiction be it Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Apocalypse fiction. Think Hunger Games, the Divergent trilogy, 2012, Independence Day, and yes, Mad Max. The latest in the Mad Max storyline was Mad Max: Fury Road. In that story, A nasty, ugly hegemon sequesters all the lovely, nubile, females for his sexual pleasure, and makes war boys of their would-be adolescent partners.
The war boys are indoctrinated into a religion that worships diesel engines, trucks and war vehicles. They are promised an entry into Valhalla if they fall in battle. Anticipating battle and death, they spray chrome paint on their mouths in preparation for their entry into the hereafter – shiny and beautiful. It’s quite weird, I know, but that’s part of what makes the story dystopic.
As I sat here late yesterday, writing my post about preparing Tuna Tataki and ramen for dinner, I thought about a Fury Road scene in which one of the war boys sprayed chrome paint on his mouth. I wondered whether he was using it as an inhalent like the whippets that I mentioned in a post a few days ago. I looked it up, of course.
It turns out that chroming is much like whippets. Sadly, there are reported deaths among the young who have engaged in this behavior. Whether you call it snorting or huffing or sniffing or anything else, the use of propellants and hydrocarbons for their neurotoxic and mind-altering effects comes with great risks.
I must say that this is not new. When I was an elementary school kid in the 1950s, some of my cool Hispanic male classmates walked around with folded white handkerchiefs held closely to their noses. They were sniffing glue, of course. Benzene, Toluene, acetone, and a host of other solvents and propellants have been abused this way. Sigh.
So, whippets have led me to chroming, and led others to their demise.