The Potential Benefits of Exploding Pants

It seems that juvenile schoolyard taunts are the big thing nowadays, particularly since they have lately become the coin of international diplomacy (see "Rocket Man" vs "Dotard"). The traditional chant of "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" has never seemed more appropriate, whether it's in White House press briefings or in snarky tweets, and it's even led to numerous online memes of varying degrees of cleverness, such as ...

and ...

I'm not sure if it would be better, as suggested by the second meme, because we've already had to rebuild the White House and the Capitol once after they burned down ... the British were responsible for the first one during the War of 1812, but the tremendous conflagration resulting from the spontaneous combustion of 100 pair of Senatorial and 435 pair of House pants would surely put the efforts of the Royal Army to shame.

But did you know that there are actual cases of pants - quite literally - catching fire? A recent article by Eric Grundhauser in Atlas Obscura tells the remarkable story of The Bizarre Case of New Zealand’s Exploding Pants. 

It seems that a large number of farmers in 1930's New Zealand were seriously injured by pants which suddenly caught fire or exploded. After some investigation, it was revealed that the cause was the use of a solution of sodium chlorate and water that was sprayed on their fields to kill a particular weed (ragwort). Unfortunately, sodium chlorate when combined with water becomes a very powerful oxidizing agent. While it was effective as a weed killer, if the solution splashed on the workers, dried on their clothing, and was subsequently exposed to heat, flame, or even shock ... the crystals of the chemical embedded in the fibers of the clothing could burst into flames or explode, whether in the presence of falsehoods or not.

With all that in mind, it occurs to me that we may have a possible solution to the proliferation of gross untruths in government, business, and the media. If we could require elected officials, media talking heads, and advertising writers to wear pants impregnated with sodium chlorate, it might be possible to actually make their pants catch fire when they are caught in a falsehood.

It certainly couldn't hurt.

Have a good day. And tell the truth. That couldn't hurt, either.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo