I don’t have much in the way of office toys these days, but I do have one that I enjoy a great deal. It’s a classic, red plastic eggshell filled with pink Silly Putty.
For someone with a lot of nervous energy, Silly Putty is like chewing gum for your hands. You can pull it, stretch and break it, or fold it over and snap off blunt little chunks. You can roll it into a ball and bounce it or roll it into a rope and coil it into a cartoony snail. It’s great for sculpting into all sorts of shapes, although it’s just soft enough that it’ll always smooth out and sink back down into a featureless lump eventually.
Several jobs ago, I remember giving a co-worker another office toy in a plastic egg: Angel Snot. It was softer and slimier than Silly Putty, but oddly cool to the touch, pearly white and fun to pour from hand to hand. We all played with it until the novelty wore off and its owner put it back in its clear plastic egg and let it sit for a month or so. That’s when things got disgusting.
Apparently the high water content of Angel Snot encouraged the growth of microorganisms from our hands once the substance was sealed inside its little container for a long time. The next time we looked at the egg, the goop inside had turned a virulent chartreuse color. We were afraid to open the egg lest we unleash a plague within the office, so we disposed of the Angel Snot, egg and all, as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, Silly Putty reveals no such tendencies toward hand-cootie husbandry. I learned by going to Silly Putty U that it comes in other colors besides bubblegum pink. There’s a glow-in-the-dark variety, one that changes colors with the heat of your hands, and several metallic hues. Perhaps I should collect them all!
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