All Of These Things Are Just Like The Others

Do you remember that song from Sesame Street, where the characters present several items and sing "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong…"? Kind of a catchy tune for little kids but apparently not entirely scientific in basis.

Let me ask you a question-- What do the following products have in common? Salad Dressing. Toothpaste. Mascara. Spicy Peanut Sauce. Sorbet. Underwater Concrete. Lets see-- salad dressing, toothpaste, peanut sauce and sorbet, all go in your mouth, but not mascara, or concrete. Toothpaste and concrete can be used to fill holes of various sizes, but not the other things on the list. Just you try and fill that drywall hole with salad dressing. Sorbet will fill the hole for a short time but it always melts, and usually stains the wall. So, nothing you say. These things have nothing in common. If you look at these things from a purely functional perspective, you're right, they have nothing in common.

Commonality comes into play when you consider the ingredients. All of these diverse products contain the wonder of the product world—Xanthan Gum. This stuff is used as a thickener in all kinds of products that seemingly have nothing in common. Basically it helps things that become liquid when shaken, thicken back up when they stop being shaken. Pseudoplasticity it's called. Cool word eh? Really rolls off the tongue doesn't it? P s e u d o p l a s t i c i t y. It's hard to believe the range of products that this stuff ends up in. Everything from makeup to toothpaste, food products and construction materials. Maybe we should be looking at it for fuel for cars too. You can buy bags of the stuff at the grocery store. Wouldn't that be great. Need some gas for the car, run to the grocery store, pick up some xanthan gum, mix it up and drive away. I can see the commercials now (cue the announcer voice), "Need gas?
Buy Acme brand home petroleum mix. The only petroleum mix with Xanthan Gum, the best fermented corn sugar polysaccharide money can buy!" Of course some fool would probably blow himself up while mixing it so maybe not such a good idea after all.