Poppies Poppies Poppies!!!

Remember in Wizard of Oz when the gang falls asleep in the big red field of poppies, just before they get to Oz? And they wake only because Glinda sees the danger and sends a snow storm (which, I guess, kills the poppies, or at least dampens their power over the sleepers?)

There is this burger joint that I LOVE to eat at, called Chester's. They have wonderful burgers, with the perfect glaze of just a teeny bit of burger grease, a slice of real American cheese, all the chilled, crisp toppings like pickles and tomatoes, and poppy seed buns that are lightly buttered and then toasted to a slightly crisp edge. (They also have great onion rings, but that's not the point of the post.)

For a while, now, I've been meaning to look up on the urban legends site whether poppy seeds really do cause you to possibly fail a drug test. Because of Chester's, we regularly eat poppy seeds, and while I never have any drug tests in my line of work (who would test a grad student?) Andrew does. I figured it was an urban myth. It sounds like one, you know? How can it be true that the poppy seeds, a harmless, decorative black thing on top of a bun, (of which I usually try to scrape off most) can cause you to get in trouble for opiates? (Heroin being one of them.)

Well, this morning, I looked it up, finally. And it turns out, it is true that poppy seeds can get you in all kinds of trouble. Whodathunkit? I guess we'll have to request non-poppy seed versions for Andrew from now on. They don't really add any flavor that I can tell, so it's not like they're really necessary to the pleasure of sinking teeth into burger. Apparently some places have adjusted the sensitivity level to the chemical down some in their evaluations, so that's probably why poppy seed consuming muffin and bagel eaters aren't lining our prison halls.

But still. It's like we're all dozing in that field of gorgeous red flowers in front of Oz, not caring about the emerald green spires being so close and our quest at an end. But man, Glinda sending snow? Is that some kind of cocaine reference? I mean, you can watch Pink Floyd's The Wall listening to the soundtrack from Wizard of Oz, apparently, and they apparently match up. So. Watch out for those poppies. Ya buncha druggies with your "bagels" and "muffins" and "hamburger buns". (That's what the kids are callin' it these days)......