Hot Means Hot

Human beings are funny creatures. I don't mean funny in the Buster Keaton or Jerry Seinfeld way. But funny in that we do things, that, if we thought about them for just a second, we would rush to avoid.

This weakness really comes into play when we are told not to do something. I speak here of the warning label. Never in the history of the world has an invention so encouraged us to do exactly the opposite of what the sign is warning us not to do. Not only do we often read the label, we proceed to ignore everything the label said to do or not to do. The other day I saw a guy smoking. While smoking, he was intently reading the warning on the pack of cigarettes and looking at the disgusting picture on the package. Right on. Obviously the warnings were not meant for him I guess.

Sadly, I am not immune to this foible of the human being. Just this morning I stopped at the local national retailer of hot beverages to buy a hot chocolate and a muffin. As I sat in the sun enjoying my muffin, I casually read the side of the cup my hot chocolate was in and saw the warning – "CAUTION: CONTENTS MAY BE HOT!" When I first read the warning I thought to myself, "Yep. Hot chocolate is usually hot. Why would they need to put that on the cup? Obviously they need to protect people from themselves." I proceeded to finish my muffin and peeled back the lid of the cup. Just before I took a drink a friend stopped to say hello and we spoke for a few minutes. Then my friend left me to run an errand and I returned to my hot chocolate. Now I don't want to exaggerate too much, but the liquid in that cup could only have been that temperature if it had been scrapped off the surface of the sun only minutes before I arrived in the store. I managed to choke down the blistering drink and not spit it on the window of the store, but WOW! They weren't fooling! I guess hot really does means hot.