WTF Friday: Ramune. Why?
What is ramune?
It is this:
(image via japanramune.com — FYI I chose this website because it had the best photo and the site cracked me up, not because I endorse it particularly)
Carbonated day-glo (glo, not glow, I assure you) flavored chemicals. Probably similar ingredients to Mountain Dew or Orange Fanta (No, I really don’t wanna, but thanks). Not quite sweet enough to make your teeth hurt, but definitely enough to get your beta islet cells working.
Why are we talking about this weird thing I love?
The marble.
These sodas, made in Japan (purchasable at most Asian groceries I’ve been too or, if you don’t have one near you, via Amazon and other internet sources). It’s hard to see in the photo, but rather than having a twist top of some sort, these beauties are corked with a marble. There’s a plastic device safety sealed onto the cap. It looks like this:
(image via quirkspace.com)
One sets the narrower end of the plunger down onto the marble and slaps the flat end with one’s hand, dislodging the marble into the bottle neck. The neck is tapered inside so the marble doesn’t fall through into the beverage. It’s also nearly impossible to get into the bottle from the, oh I don’t know… let’s call it “the drinking hole” (in fact someone I introduced to this stuff told me it took him 45 minutes and a soldering iron to get the marble out). Bravo, no choking hazard. The marble clinks around in the deck while you drink, occasionally plugging the “drinking hole” mid-sip, which is, somehow, more charming than annoying.
What purpose does the marble serve? I read somewhere it’s intended to keep the carbonation in the bottle if you set your ramune aside for a bit, but the marble doesn’t plug the whole of the interior neck, so I don’t buy it. I have encountered no other theories.
What purpose, then, does the marble serve?
It’s fun. Totally extraneously entertaining and amusing and novel.
And don’t we all need a little bit more of that in our lives. Or, perhaps…
… in our writing.
I’m not talking about 75 page tangents or using big words when there’s a $2 one just as effective and probably better suited. I don’t mean letting your characters monologue through the 4th wall until the reader wants to punch the book. I certainly don’t mean nonsense.
I mean fun.
Have some fun once in a while. Do something silly. Something absolutely unnecessary just because it makes a nice sound or starts something bubbling or hits your tongue just the right way. Something goofy. Something day glo. It doesn’t have to be for the whole world, though it certainly can be. Something like using the 20’s phrase, “ding-dong” when a guy sees a girl he thinks is cute. Let your characters have a food fight.
No one ever has to see it. Maybe it makes the final cut and maybe it doesn’t. iI it does, great. If it doesn’t? Make yourself an “outtakes” file and have it on hand for when you need it.
I take my writing seriously. That doesn’t mean I have to take myself seriously while I’m writing, nor does it mean my characters all have to have the affect of Wednesday Adams.
Laughing is good for you. Seriously. There have been multiple studies.
Buy yourself some ramune and goof off.
Unless you can’t get your hands on an Oatmeal Stout Cupcake from Eliza’s Oven in The Pittsburgh Public Market. Which you can’t if you’re not here. Haha. More for me.
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