bubblerisking - v.

(February 26, 2001)

Does anybody know what those things are called? You know, the plastic bubble things, in the vending machines, that snap open and there's a piece of junk inside? You know...the..the...THINGS with the STUFF inside.

And is there, perchance, a name for the uncontrollable impulse, upon seeing a little plexiglas box full of those bubble-things-with-junk-inside, to feverishly dig for quarters with which to feed the plexiglas box and obtain, for fifty cents or less, one's very own bubble-thing-with-junk-inside?

I LOVE those bubble-things-with-junk-inside. I desire them. I look in the display, pick out what I hope comes out the little hole, and then the big moment...what I get what I get what I GET? This weekend I got a fake tattoo of something unintelligible (vestibule at BJ's Wholesale Club in Woburn) and a plastic ring with painted-on "jewels" that fits on my pinky (near the cash register at West Coast Video on Elm Street).

Finding a name for the Bubble Thing Urge reminds me of Sniglets . I haven't come into contact with a Sniglet for years, and was surprised to find an active website still! But in high school, they were the cat's ass. Lola and I used to spend HOURS on Sniglets. If you don't remember, Sniglets are words that aren't in the dictionary but should be�.

We NEED somebody to be thinking of these things. We NEED A NAME for mangling the "open here" spout on a milk carton so badly that one has to resort to using the "illegal" side. What do you call it when you yawn, and then everyone around you yawns? What do you call it when you get stuck in your clothes while trying to get them off? What do you call the tiny rebellious glee you feel from yanking the "Do Not Remove" tag off the pillow?

I'm going to need a name for a drawer full of empty-plastic-bubble-things.