In our regular walking haunts of Eugene, I do notice (and shoot) things other than old cars. Enjoying the lateness of daylight last night, we were making our back via the Park Blocks fountain, which seems to have turned into a bubble bath. I didn’t see any takers, although there were a few folks around who looked like they could benefit.
Must have been a late April Fools prank(:D
We used to get that at U of Illinois in Urbana. A Diana-the-topless-huntress fountain would get occasional bubble bath doses, and occasionally a Frightening Illini t-shirt. Ah, the good days.
Y’all surely have clean water out there in the PNW. 🙂
Don’t forget, “Animal House” was filmed in Eugene for a good reason.
Oh crap! I forgot to come back with my loofa and bath towel.
Just before I began teaching I had a job as a HVAC technician for a large resort in the woodlands tx. We had some humungous evaporator coils that were filthy. We took a midnight shift to avoid fumes in the public area and cleaned with a detergent coil cleaner.
The hotel was backed up to a small “lake” and when we left we noticed that the lake looked just like your fountain. It took several hours for the suds to clear and so far as I know nobody asked the right questions, thankfully. That stuff probably didn’t make any fish grow two heads but who needs the EPA breathing down their necks. Live and learn.
On a small, flood-control dam in a picturesque area of upstate New York…my older brother acted on an evil inspiration and poured a bottle of Palmolive into the spillway. Now this was 45 years ago…soaps foamed better in those pre-EPA days.
There was quite a bit of foam at the bottom and along the banks of the creek…we didn’t stick around long enough for the Sheriff or town cops to start questioning.
Since then…I’m told Palmolive and some other dish soaps are non-toxic, and aside from unsightly sudsing (and an off-taste for anyone whose well aquifer fed off that creek) there wouldn’t have been any permanent harm.
Although if you’d put those street people in the fountain…with that grime…THAT would have created a bio-hazard.
In the early 1950s my father was an exhibitor on behalf of his employer, Socony Mobil at a trade show. Also exhibiting was Esso, promoting a “foaming agent”, replete with a fountain and pool. Dad was pushing Socony’s anti-foaming agent (I think these elixirs were known as “surfactants”). Guess whose display failed to foam on day two?
Nice!
Reminds me of a book recommendation (I suspect many of the other readers here will also enjoy it) Iain Banks’ first (and now – sadly – only) non fiction work Raw Spirit.
Ostensibly it’s about Whisky (Scotch, single malts, and a search for “the perfect dram”) but actually it’s more of a rambling collection of engaging observations on the joys of driving, a bit like a paperback CC only set in the Scottish Highlands… anecdotes on a varied and colourful past, and fond musings on cars interspersed with occasional brief visits to distilleries.
It has a brilliant bit about attempting exactly this kind of thing in Elgin years ago.
My photography teacher in high school told a story where he dumped Photoflo (a mega-surfactant used to dry film negatives) into a pond to see what would happen. Some ducks arrived shortly afterward and, upon losing the feather oils that would normally allow them to remain buoyant, promptly sank like stones.