Slime 101

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​Slime 101

       "What should I bring for the girls when I come?" I asked my daughter, referring to my grand daughters and my upcoming trip to Los Angeles to visit them. "What are 'tweens into these days?"
          My daughter answered without hesitation: "Slime."
​         For the uninitiated - as I was until recently - Slime is a soft, malleable, rubbery substance, ​

...that comes in an air-tight plastic container,

...and in as many brands, types, colors, styles, textures, scents and inedible flavors as there are stars in the sky. 

       Slime is beloved by kids of a certain age, and while I can't say exactly what the upper and lower margins of that age demographic is, I have come to learn that my 10-and 12-year-old grand daughters and their friends are crazy about the stuff. 
​        Now, I can't say that I was entirely unaware of the slime phenomenon. When my grand daughters were visiting last summer they requested that we go out to the store and purchase some slime since they'd had to leave their slime at home, this not-quite-solid/not-quite liquid substance being tricky to transport by plane.
        Though the slime selection at our local Meijer's was small, my grand daughters managed to find a couple of options to their liking. 
               "What do you do with slime?" I asked them. 
               "We play with it," they  answered cryptically.
                I subsequently noticed them kneading and twisting it,

...and experimentally mixing and matching the contents of the containers to make new shades. 

​       I also  found a patch of pink slime squashed into my family room carpet, which we were able to remove with the help of my daughter's friend Mayren, a chemical engineer,

...who advised that we first cover the slime spot with corn starch to dry it out, then vacuum it up. This we did.  Next, despite my by that time broken foot (see post from 8/19/2023, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/i-invalid-part-one-four-insults-and-an-injury)

...I managed to clean up the residual stain with Spray 'n Wash, after which  the carpet was perfectly slime- and stain-free.

       This was the sum total of my knowledge of and experience with slime until more recently.
        "So, what kind of slime do they like?" I asked my daughter. "Or is all slime the same?"
          "Oh, no, it's not all the same," my daughter replied. "They like butter slime, but not cloud slime. And they don't like slime with sparkles or sprinkles in it. They like slime that looks like and smells like food."
        I went online to look for slime websites. I found the variety of wares confusing and overwhelming.       

        I decided to try and seek out some slime locally.  In the nearby suburb of New Albany I located an educational toy store called Learning Express that claimed to carry a wide selection of a brand called Dope Slime.
         I called my daughter to make sure this was an acceptable kind of slime.
          "Oh, yes, they love Dope Slime," my daughter assured me.
        So I brought my local daughter Theresa along with me to Learning Express on a Dope Slime expedition.
         Learning Express was a cute, school housey-looking shop,

...full of  cute, tasteful, educational-looking toys,

...and, true to its promise, it offered several neatly-arrayed shelves full of lovely-looking slime.

...at $15.99 or $16.99 a jar.

      The helpful sales clerk explained to me in detail the distinctions between the slimes, butter vs. cloud vs. butter-cloud mixes, vs. Dope Slime. She kindly pointed me towards the Dope Slimes, any flavor of which she was sure my grand daughters would enjoy.
​         My only problem was that I didn't want to spend $15.99 or $16.99 for a jar of slime, no matter how dope it was.
           "You know," said Theresa, "I'm pretty sure they sell slime at Five Below."
           Five Below, a second (or maybe third or fourth) tier department store where everything is $5.50 or less, is among my daughter's favorite shopping venues.           

        So we decided to ditch Learning Express and check out Five Below. However, I did find the Dreidel Dreams Slime irresistible, especially with Channukah coming up, so I bought my grand daughters each a jar of Dreidel Dream Slime.                

     We then headed out for the nearby Five Below, which, true to Theresa's preiction, turned out to be slime El Dorado.

       There was shelf after shelf stocked with every kind of slime imaginable,

...with all the slime fixings.

           After filing my shopping cart with packages of discount slime I asked Theresa if she thought the girls would like these kinds  of slimes.
             "They'll love them," she said. 
              To be continued...