In today's local news ...

The call went out just after 1 p.m. from the Freshwater Fisheries Institute at the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus. It was not a prank. Or a hoax. And definitely not a thwarted attack by some crazed fiend. The call was answered by Manitoba Conservation's environmental emergency response team, the police bomb squad and Winnipeg Fire and Paramedics. Winnipeg's bomb squad was called out yesterday to cart away pickled specimens from a fisheries lab before they could blow up.The samples in a couple of glass bottles were fish tissue or possibly marine mammal flesh. They were hazardous because they'd been treated with a chemical that had evaporated into a dangerous by-product -- explosive crystals of picric acid. Transport Canada identifies picric acid as one of the more dangerous chemicals in use in laboratories and manufacturing today. It's used to make explosives but it's easily neutralized with water. Once inert, picric acid has extensive uses in dye manufacturing. . They realized they had a real-life emergency.
Whatever happened to responsible journalism? Haven't they just disclosed a recipe for making explosives? Although, I suppose any 20-something male living on his own with a pantry is likely already aware of this phenomenon (beep-BEE, dee-dee-dee). I guess it's true what they say - "It's a thin line between volatile combustibles and a nice argyle."

Back to that "beep-Bee, dee-dee-dee" ... I can't remember what show it was, but there's an episode that takes place in a classroom or courtroom or some other equally officious locale, and someone speaking at the front ends a sentence with "phenomenon", afterwhich an anonymous voice at the back of the room follows with a "beep-BEE, dee-dee-dee". Together, it sounds like that song, although not originally from, but popularized by Sesame Street, that goes "Me-nah, me-nah. Beep-BEE, dee-dee-dee" and then Grover starts into an early form of free-style/Jazz riff. Now, I cannot encounter the word "phenomenon" without thinking the phrase "beep-BEE, dee-dee-dee". It's quite debilitating in the work environment.