Corinna said it was OK for the production team to contribute to the Bette and Boo Blog. So I, who am in charge of props for the show, am posting about my scientific investigation of the Gravy Problem.
Emily has to spill the gravy. The gravy has to sit there on the floor, ugly and viscous, while Boo tries to vaccuum the gravy. Eventually, Bette and Boo have to sponge up the gravy. And there is a quick change to the next scene.
I foresaw many ways in which this could go wrong. I have not yet forgotten the time we tried to use Karo syrup and red food coloring as the blood on Cuchulain’s sword.
But science has revealed the solution to me: The non-Newtonian solid.
Not shown in the video:
- the 10 minutes I spent messing around with a non-Newtonian solid which had the perfect consistency, but refused to come out of the bowl when I tried to spill it, even when I greased the bowl with cooking spray and then butter.
- the phase when I could only find yellow and red food coloring, during which the non-Newtonian solid was more or less the exact shade of the 45th president’s bronzer.
Give it up for SCIENCE, ladies and gentlemen!
And definitely do not vaccuum this gravy. Terrible things would happen.
Susan Harris
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