YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo., Jan. 16 � Suzanne Lewis
was in for a shock when she sat down at home one recent night to watch
television.
On came a commercial for Metamucil, the laxative, that
showed what looked like a National Park Service ranger pouring a glass of it
down Old Faithful and announcing that the product keeps the famous geyser
“regular.”
…”My eyes got bigger, and my jaw dropped,” Ms. Lewis
said. That is because she is the superintendent of Yellowstone and the chief
steward of the park and its geysers.
The park responded to complaints with a letter saying
that Procter & Gamble had not filmed the real Old Faithful or an actual park
ranger and that the company was within its legal rights. But, the letter added,
“This advertisement goes against all of the National Park Service’s efforts to
encourage people not to put foreign objects into the thermal features.”
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I understand what they mean, when my children were younger I constantly had
to keep telling them “stop sticking things into thermal features.” On a more
serious note the scariest thing I ever saw in my life was turning around and
seeing my three year old son sticking two nails into the kitchen electrical
socket. Luckily nothing happened and my heart returned to a more normal pulse a
month or two later. My wife and I immediately went out and bought those
electrical outlet covers for all of the empty electrical sockets, so if you have
young’uns I encourage you to do the same. My son was quite inquisitive and
industrious, one day he told us “I fixed mommies door.” Only to find out that he
had managed to remove the lower and middle pins from the hinges of our bedroom
door. And while I am relating childhood stories I will include one more. My son
was a big He-Man Master of the Universe fan and constantly carried a He-Man
sword I had made for him. I was carrying him around on my shoulders one day in a
park while he was swinging his sword and evoking He-Man lines. I offered to let
him walk around instead, reasoning to him saying “He-Man isn’t carried around
all day”, he blithely replied “How about Battle Cat?
