The Vine: January 23, 2009
Hi Sars,
My husband just bought new water bottles for us, because the plastic used in our current bottles is apparently the kind that’s leaching some terrible chemical into the water inside. BPH, BPA, BP…something.
Anyway, this reminded me of a short story I’d read in high school or college (so I’d have read it anywhere from 13-17 years ago but it could have been older). Problem is, I can’t remember the title or author or a whole lot of detail.
What I remember: it’s a story about a woman (could be told by a teenager about her grandma?) who is terrified of all things plastic and was in a store finally and wigged out and either suffocated in plastic or was like crushed when a tower of Tupperware fell on her or just plain heart-attacked or something — basically the woman ends up killed by plastic just as she feared.
I’ve Googled various combinations of plastic, fear, afraid, etc. — and gotten TONS of results along the lines of “My cats are so cute when they’re scared by plastic bags!” Sigh. I’m hoping either you can help me out or you can throw this out for the readers.
Thanks so much,
The ol’ grey memory, she ain’t what she used to be…
Dear Did I Ever Tell You About This One Time When Hobey Etc. Etc. Blah Hilarious,
That doesn’t sound familiar to me, but I’ll bet the readers can find it.Readers?
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
I remember this story, if it’s the one where (SPOILERS!) the narrator/POV character sort of indirectly murders the afraid-of-plastic character (mother? mother-in-law?) by arranging to meet her at the POV-character’s workplace, in a department store–but “forgot” to tell her they had moved her department to another floor, and in its place put Housewares, chock-full of plastic.
If that’s the one, then I believe it appeared in one of the “Sisters In Crime” short-story anthologies, somewhere in volumes 1-5 (which were the only ones I had). I can’t track down the title right now, as I don’t have the books to hand, but if someone else hasn’t come up with it over the weekend I should be able to do so.
That sounds like something I’d love to read … *heh*
Bored reference librarian here. The table of contents for Sisters in Crime vols. 2-5 can be found on this website: http://tinyurl.com/c2s79u if you scroll down to the S’s. No summaries, but maybe a title or author will jog your memory?
I’m the letter writer — and Donita, that’s it! That’s the one, exactly!
I looked through the TOCs linked by LJK (librarians rock! my hubby is one although he failed to help me) but, alas, don’t recognize any titles. I guess that means I’ll have to read each of the anthologies, which can’t be all that bad. But maybe someone out there can narrow it down since I’m lazy?
I have Sisters In Crime 1-3 and 5, and I flipped through them, but I did not see a story that looked like a match. There is one in #5 Called “Felis Domestica” by Dorothy Sucher that has a similar theme (woman is terrified by/avoids something, someone else arranges for it to kill her) but it’s about a cat allergy, not plastic of any sort. So I’d guess it’s either in volume 4 or possibly you’re conflating a couple of stories. #5 came out in 1992, if that helps at all.
I couldn’t actually figure out which title it might be, either. I should be able to get ahold of the books and give them a skim sometime this weekend–and if it isn’t in those books, chances are it’s in another anthology I have someplace, edited by Ellery Queen, which I will also dig up. We’ll find it!
SUCCESS! Turns out it was in the other anthology after all (though I still recommend the Sisters in Crime anthologies–they include some other stories much like this one).
The story is called “The Plastic Jungle,” by Joyce Harrington. The main character is a teenage girl named Mimi, and the character with the fear of plastic is her mother.
I read the story in a really enjoyable book, which I’ve seen called online either “Ellery Queen: the Best of Suspense,” or “The Best of Suspense, by Ellery Queen”. It’s a 640-page short story anthology by a lot of different authors. ISBN-10: 0-88365-642-6.
A couple of URLs:
http://www.valorebooks.com/Search/ISBN/0883656426
http://powells.com/biblio/1-9780883656426-2
It looks like the story was originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (makes sense), and has been reprinted in some other Ellery Queen anthologies as well.
Whew! I feel much better now.
Heh. Sorry I tried to do some creative Googling and wound up getting sucked into the ‘cat afraid of plastic bag vortex’ myself.
I hate big roadblocks like that. Unless, of course, I’m actually LOOKING for the roadblock. If someone comes up with the title, please post, I’m interested in reading it myself.
Thanks!
Dorinda — you are beyond awesome! I’m glad it wasn’t listed in those first anthologies because…if I’d managed to not recognize “The Plastic Jungle”? … Yikes.
I’m so grateful to you (all) for tracking this down. NO ONE I’d asked had ever heard of such a story and, though I only remembered it vaguely, I knew I remembered it too much to have made it up!
I just want to read The One Time When Hobey Etc. Etc. Blah Hilarious…
Amy – re: the plastic bottles. I’m going to get geeky here for a sec, so I hope you’ll bear with me – this info is just for anyone who might be interested…
The compound you are referring to is bisphenol A, or BPA. It is one of the chemicals used to make polycarbonate, which is what those hard plastic refillable bottles are made of (as opposed to recyclable water bottles, which are made of polyethylene terephthalate, or PETE).
There are a few problems with the recent “OMG WTF” reactions to polycarbonates:
1) Evidence on whether or not BPA is actually toxic is still somewhat inconclusive
2) Even if it is toxic, the levels at which one would be exposed to from drinking water out of a polycarbonate bottle would be minuscule (and hence the toxicology negligible)
3) It is still uncertain how BPA would even get into your water anyway – the plastic is a polymer (a large molecule made up of many thousands of individual molecular units, called monomers). It’s kind of like having bricks “leach” into your house out of the walls!
4) Even if BPA was leaching out, due to its water solubility, it can be easily removed by simply rinsing the bottle before/after use.
I still use my trusty half litre Nalgene, but if you are still concerned about BPA, then there are other options, such as stainless steel. Just do not re-use recyclable PET bottles – they are not designed to be re-used over and over again. Oh, and for bottled beverages in general, make sure you drink them by the “best before” date – that date does not refer to spoilage of the product, but rather the possible decay of the bottle itself (it’s a highly conservative estimate, but not leaving a case of Coke around for Armageddon is probably a good idea).
Agreed, Ferretrick. Although I think the real story is The One Time When Little Joe Ate All My Plastic Bags, Because He Is Fat. (I seem to recall he was a bag-licker, anyway…)
“The ONE Time”?
I’m not sure if Kathy will come back to this, but I have a question for you..
I am currently drinking water out of an old Poland Spring bottle that had the orange fizzy water once upon a time, but has been refilled for about a week.
Am I going to die? Should I NOT be doing this? It seems like such a gigantic waste to throw away plastic bottles after using them once. I don’t often buy a regular bottle of Desani, but I do love the sparkling fizzy water (lime is the best) and those are always stocked in my house.
How many rinse/reuses are they good for?
kathy — thanks for the info. I told my husband he was a loon, but it didn’t stop him and now we both have new Camelbak water bottles, certified dangerous (shrug) BPA-free.
In other news, I can attest that the best response to “Our water bottles are killing us!!!” is not “You are a fruitcake!”
Karen – no, you won’t die! The problem with PETE isn’t actually the plastic itself, but the catalyst used to make it: it unfortunately contains arsenic oxide, which cannot be absolutely removed from the finished plastic (some traces remain even at the end of processing). The oxide is water soluble, so it (very slowly) leaches out into any liquids contained within PETE bottles – that’s where the shelf life comes in. Again, it is a very conservative estimate, but those dates generally represent the point where it is unadvisable to consume the bottle’s contents.
Now, as for reusing the bottles, I believe that the current concern is that it is not known whether repeated rinsing/reusing of a PETE bottle accelerates the leaching of arsenic oxide, so in general it is not recommended. However, I feel reusing a bottle once or twice for personal use is no big deal – what’s more concerning to me would be the build up of germs on the mouth of the bottle (PETE bottles cannot be sterilized at high temperature – the plastic has a relatively low melting point, which is why it’s so easy to recycle). In any case, it’s probably best just to toss it in the recycle bin.
Amy – Hee! I gotta use “fruitcake” on my sister sometime!
Just wanted to update all you kind folks….my husband brought home the Ellery Queen anthology containing “Plastic Jungle” for me the other day. As I was reading the other stories, I was thinking…hmmm….these all seem so familiar…..that’s so weird….
After further review, it turns out (dun dun duuunnnnn….) I OWN THE ANTHOLOGY MY OWNSELF AND THAT’S WHERE I READ THE STORY IN THE FIRST PLACE.
Holy hannah! I about wet myself, I was laughing so hard when it all dawned on me.