YUCK

“Icky” may be an old fashioned word, but I can’t think of one more appropriate for the latest hands-on museum, that opened in October, in The Big Apple. I always thought that weird phenomena began on the West Coast and worked it’s way East, but this time the 8000-Square Foot SLOOMOO INSTITUTE, dedicated to slime, definitely wins the Off The Wall prize.

Sloomoo (replace the vowels in slime with “oo”) costs $38 a ticket in order for a customer to participate one time in the 6-month celebration of “everything slime.” A person can even don a poncho and goggles to be doused in the stuff, but if you want that experience, it will cost another $30.  I think handy-wipes are free.

Granted, it is a messy experience, but devotees of slime claim a health benefit when playing with the stuff. It makes them feel “rejuvenated and relaxed.” Some people get euphoric “brain tingles,” (there is an assumption in there somewhere) a sensory experience called ASMR (autonomous sensory median response) not only from playing with slime, but also from watching slime videos. Anyway, I guess it’s kind of like getting goosebumps from hearing a rousing speech or listening to a bit of moving music.

Obviously, there’s money in slime.  Politicians have known this for a long time. Nichole Jackyline, of Grand Rapids, Michigan is a top slimer enlisted by Sloomoo. She’s been on You- Tube since 2013, and brings in between $5000 and $10,000 a month selling slime making merchandise and supplies on-line.

Finally, trying not to be too dismissive, such as calling slime devotees, deplorable, I discovered  that slime has been around for a long time. Exactly, what is slime? Technically speaking, it is a “cross-linked polymer” scientifically known as a “non-Newtonian fluid.” The history of slime goes way back to the 1830’s when polymer scientists, Nathaniel Hayward and Friedrich Lundersdorf found that adding sulphur to raw natural rubber prevented it from getting sticky.

In 1968, SILLY PUTTY went to the moon on Apollo 8, and in 1976 Mattel came out with a jiggly slime toy in a plastic garbage can. Nickelodeon has used slime to dose contestants starting in the 1980’s. And in 2014 slime videos fromThailand spread all over the world.

I guess all of this slime can’t hurt people unless they try smoking it. Personally, I’d rather get goosebumps from Martin Luther King’s, “I Have a Dream” speech. I know that many of my friends get that reaction from hearing the song, “Amazing Grace.” But to be fair, some speeches as well as tunes can be “icky.”

As far as I know, the world is still spinning on its axis, and I suspect that the slime craze will eventually slide into the annals of history.

Esther Blumenfeld