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Extreme boredom demands extreme measures! Styrofoam and cardboard are pretty cool for poking holes through or otherwise destroying. Ubiquitous plastic bags and insulating wrap, by contrast, usually rate very low on the fun and excitement scales. But forget about all of those, because the real gem of any packaged good is... bubble wrap!

Many of us had our first experience with bubble wrap when we bought our first consumer electronics product; I think I found bubble wrap around the first calculator that I bought (note to the Millenials: this might have been around 1980. Check Wikipedia for the definition of a calculator). It was so bizarre to see plastic wrap that contained so many little plastic air pockets, kind of like someone stole it from NASA's top experimental laboratory. I'm sure it was an accident that led to the first "pop" of bubble wrap, but it was sure the "pop" heard 'round the world! You may not be able to speak a foreign exchange student's language, but if I give you both a piece of bubble wrap, you'll both know exactly what to do.

Speaking of which... there are a multitude of creative ways to pop those waiting bubbles. Here are a few:

(1) Squeezing bubble wrap with your hand is simple, way too simple. Instead, try to grab it with your feet or toes and make it pop.
(2) Open a large, hard-covered book and place some bubble wrap inside. Now slam the book shut as HARD as you can!
(3) In a similar vein, stick some bubble wrap in a doorway (use some tape to make it stick), then slam the door shut, HARD!
(4) Run over the bubble wrap with your car or motorcycle. Better yet, get someone else to do it so you can hear how it sounds. Use a bicycle, skateboard, or roller blades if you must.
(5) Out of whoopee cushions? Here's an excellent replacement! Your victim will be horribly embarrassed and may even be whisked off to the nearest hospital for diagnosis! Sick but fun!
(6) For the obsessive compulsives in the audience, take a single pin and pop each bubble one at a time. No more than one pop per second.
(7) Walk upon the bubble wrap in cleats.
(8) Take a needle and thread. Sew through every stinking bubble.
(9) If you get enough, you can make a punching bag out of bubble wrap. Think of the possibilities.
(10) Drop a 16 ton weight upon the bubble wrap. If you don't have one within easy reach, a dumbbell should work. Or a piano.

Of course, this is just a sampling of the possibilities. Go nuts and pop like no one ever could!

Learn more about this author, Mark Dykeman.
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