Princess Silly Putty Pants

As a kid, I remember playing with Silly Putty. Usually, I'd first get the Sunday newspaper. The Sunday comics were the only day the local newspaper printed them in color. The other six days of the week, the comics (and in that particular newspaper this is still true) are a single page and in black-and-white. Sunday, on the other hand, brought several pages of colorful comics which I'd look forward to getting my hands on each week.

I'd read every comic, eating my breakfast of pancakes or cereal, or something like that. Then, I'd open up the Silly Putty in its plastic egg shaped container and wonder "Why does this container look like an Easter egg?" I'm sure I asked the question out loud, but I don't think anyone in my family knew why it comes in a plastic egg that looks like the kind you'd fill with candy at Easter time. After opening the egg, I'd pull out the glob of putty and stretch it, bounce it on the table (makes sense because Silly Putty used to be known as "Bouncing Putty"). Finally, I'd start pressing it onto the comics, pealing it off, and marvelling at each picture as it was replicated onto the putty. I'd stretch the faces of the comic characters, smash and fold them, and then do it all again, over and over.

Oddly enough, I've been planning a blog about silly putty for awhile. It's become something of a joke between my boyfriend and I. One day, I thought of Silly Putty, out of the blue while we were out having breakfast. He looked it up on-line, and told me somethings about it. At the time, I didn't even think to ask him about the egg-shaped Silly Putty container. I took some notes from what he read, and then I finally said "Hey, wait! If you read all this yourself, then it might spoil what you'll read later, in my blog." He laughed and stopped reading and has since then decided to call me a ridiculous nickname "Princess Silly Putty Pants". We agreed that it would take a lot of Silly Putty to make me a pair of pants, and it would be quite the strange pair. Of course, if I had a pair, I'd have to sit on some colorful comics and walk around with Garfield or Snoopy on my rear. Can you imagine how big their poor heads would be stretched each time I bent over? I'm sure that would be one use for which Silly Putty was never intended. That's saying a lot for a product that's been around since the 1940s and has been many places including an exposition at The Smithsonian and even to the Moon!

Not surprisingly, Silly Putty has a official website which they call "Silly Putty University Camp". Yes, if you're so inclined they have a test and a degree that you can earn. On the site, there's a must read timeline of the history of Silly Putty under "History 101" which includes some short original T.V. commercials. The "Silly Science" section tells us more about how its made and some experiments that can be done with it. Also, don't skip the section from a contest that they had where they list the "Silliest Use Winners". Be sure to note, that none of them are wearing Silly Putty pants. Maybe, they can only be worn by a true princess.

Here's the link to the Official Silly Putty website: http://www.sillyputty.com/ There's also a lot of neat info. and some other links about Silly Putty to be found in Wikipedia, so here's the link to that as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_Putty

Until I type again,
Kami