Most of my heroes don't appear on no food stamps

November 27, 2006 6:48 AM

Fight the Powah! Small-town Maine teens set off bombs at their local Wal-Mart. Maybe they were hopped up on Skowhegan Martinis. Perhaps they wouldn't have been so angry if The Revolution had happened.
posted by Mayor Curley (38 comments total)

At least their parents turned them in. Good for them.
posted by antifuse at 7:03 AM on November 27, 2006

i think mayor curley is just looking for an excuse to talk about Allen's Coffee Brandy again. not that i blame him; that stuff makes you crazy.
posted by the painkiller at 7:09 AM on November 27, 2006

"There is no evidence that this was any type of protest against Wal-Mart."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:12 AM on November 27, 2006

"Acid bomb"? Like vinegar and baking soda in a bottle? Might the journalists do a little more journalism, please?
posted by stam_broker at 7:15 AM on November 27, 2006

"There is no evidence that this was any type of protest against Wal-Mart."

That's what THEY want you to believe, man! Like, read between the lines!
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:16 AM on November 27, 2006

"There is no evidence that this was any type of protest against Wal-Mart."

No but it was almost certainly a protest against the election of 1976, or the practice referring to sombreros as skowhegan martinis, or perhaps to the practice of randomly arbitrary collections of links being posted to MetaFilter.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:20 AM on November 27, 2006

Man, I really want some Allen's Coffee Brandy in this mediocre iced java from Dunkin Donuts. That shit is made for functional alcoholics. I'm sure the lobster industry accounts for about 90% of its sales. Can you imagine how much more pleasant bringing up cages would be with a nice caffeine-and-liquor buzz on?
posted by beaucoupkevin at 7:29 AM on November 27, 2006

"There is no evidence that this was any type of protest against Wal-Mart."

That's what THEY want you to believe, man! Like, read between the lines!

You must mean the lines where they found another one of these acid bombs on the roof of a Chinese restaurant! And two more on the lawns of the kid's best friends! Right arm, dudes!
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:29 AM on November 27, 2006

on the roof of a Chinese restaurant! And two more on the lawns of the kid's best friends!

Dialectical disagreements with Maoists and former friends turned Menshaviks. Do I have to draw you a diagram?
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:38 AM on November 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

Now I want some grits.
posted by sciurus at 7:44 AM on November 27, 2006

So is the fact that the newspaper web site renders properly and then goes to a different screen telling me I need cookies and javascript to view it part of the plot?
posted by maxwelton at 7:44 AM on November 27, 2006

Where is the Department of HeimatSekurität Homeland Security when you need them? Busy taking away bottles of mouthwash from old ladies at the airport, no doubt. Or tapping the phones of peace protesters. No doubt this incident will raise the security alert level to orange. Good thing too, since we haven't had one of those since, oh, the week before the last presidential election.
posted by spitbull at 7:44 AM on November 27, 2006

Sounds like a couple of idiot yahoos' idea of fun, as in the case of a teenage boy in B.C. who put baking soda on a instant teller during the anthrax scare.
posted by orange swan at 7:48 AM on November 27, 2006

I've spent a summer in Skowhegan, Me. Its an odd place.... a bluecollar Maine city/town, with a well known international (summertime) art school/residency on its outskirts. Every summer, young artists from NYC, LA, Berlin, Tokyo (& everywhere else) desend on Skowhegan.

The Walmart is just outside the downtown. Coming from NYC, it was the first time i had ever been in a Walmart... never mind one that sells shotguns and ammo.
posted by R. Mutt at 7:49 AM on November 27, 2006

Will former President Muskie come to town and negotiate a peace?
posted by dhartung at 7:53 AM on November 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

Skowhegan also has been home to a Darwin Award recipient ...
The owner of the Carrier Chipping Company inadvertently reproduced the chilling climactic scene in the movie Fargo, and was rent asunder by his own wood chipper....
posted by R. Mutt at 8:00 AM on November 27, 2006

The owner of the Carrier Chipping Company inadvertently reproduced the chilling climactic scene in the movie Fargo, and was rent asunder by his own wood chipper....

He shall be mist.
posted by hal9k at 8:07 AM on November 27, 2006 [6 favorites]

boom!

Investigators had already identified the boys by showing the pictures taken by Wal-Mart security cameras to teenagers at a Skowhegan McDonalds.

McDonalds and WalMart, in cahoots!
posted by eustatic at 8:18 AM on November 27, 2006

I hereby sentence them to 5 years. Of working at Wal-Mart!
posted by jonmc at 8:24 AM on November 27, 2006

Do I have to draw you a diagram?

Well, you don't have to, but if it's a nice enough one, I could have cafepress.com^® make some mugs and sell them to Wal-Mart . . .
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:33 AM on November 27, 2006

Dialectical disagreements with Maoists and former friends turned Menshaviks.

Splitters!
posted by gompa at 9:46 AM on November 27, 2006

A Wal Mart that does not sell guns and ammo is like tits on a bull.
posted by spicynuts at 9:51 AM on November 27, 2006

I still don't know what an "acid bomb" is. Do they mean one of these?

Ingredients
2 - 3 oz Bacardi® Limon rum
1 bottle Corona® Extra lager
1 slice lemon
salt

Or are they thinking of an HCB? (Which does sound like a bad idea.) If the latter there is obviously only one solution: use the same kind of controls on sodium hypochlorite and dry cells as they do on methamphetamine precursors. Do it for the children!
posted by davy at 9:51 AM on November 27, 2006

It seems some residents of Maine are still honing the art of protest
posted by suki at 9:59 AM on November 27, 2006

"Acid bomb" = aluminum foil and Drano in a 2 liter pop bottle. Makes it go "boom" after a while.

The comments on the news page are amusing to me. Unjustified moral outrage over a couple of kids acting like kids. The single comment stating that before 9/11 this would not even be a story is the only one that makes sense.

My little brother got in deep shit years ago for blowing up mailboxes with homemade pipe bombs. He was dumb enough to take pictures of his deeds, and was caught showing them to a friend. While smoking a joint. Poor little bastard. Cop tells him "this isn't a good place to be doing that, son" and without a blink he replies "could you tell me where a good place might be?" Good damn thing this was all pre-9/11 or he'd still be in jail, instead of just showing up on FBI watchlists.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:10 AM on November 27, 2006

"These are two teenagers who had too much time on their hands and we are very fortunate that the injuries were as minor as they are," McCausland said.

Too much time on their hands! I wish they used this explanation for every bombing. Unabomber? Long weekend. Dresden? Couple hours before dinner and no more homework. Hiroshima? Nothing on tv.
posted by haveanicesummer at 10:19 AM on November 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

These were not bombs. They were not devices. They were soda bottle that popped. If I put baking soda and vinegar in a balloon, is that a bomb?

The boys were reckless, they could have caused some bad chemical burns, but they are not bombers. Their craft doesn't meet the definition.

bomb (bŏm) pronunciation
n.

1.
1. An explosive weapon detonated by impact, proximity to an object, a timing mechanism, or other means.
2. An atomic or nuclear bomb. Used with the.
2. Any of various weapons detonated to release destructive material, such as smoke or gas.
posted by Megafly at 10:52 AM on November 27, 2006

From the reader comments:

Katrina
Nov 27, 2006 2:33 PM
I cannot believe that they released the boys to their parents' custody! Isn't that whose custody they were in WHILE THEY WERE MAKING THE BOMBS?? They should be spending some time in jail! They KNEW what they were doing and that there was a very real possibility that people, CHILDREN would be injured!

My GOD Katrina, you are RIGHT!! Those are terrible PARENTS!! But I have a QUESTION! Why are we TALKING like THIS?? It's really IRRITATING!! WON'T someone please think of the CHILDREN?!?

Megafly, I thought the same thing. I really like how the article's phrasing is designed for biggest scare value: The two acid bombs detonated in two separate aisles as the store was crowded with shoppers

Acid bombs were detonated! Lordy! Next year when I light off some bottle rockets I fully expect them to document it as "Ballistic explosive projectiles were targeted skyward. No one is certain if they were intended to bring down aircraft."

Still, the kids are idiots. You don't set things like this in places people aren't expecting it. The 'devices' themselves are unlikely to hurt anyone, but if people panicked someone could have been injured.
posted by quin at 1:23 PM on November 27, 2006

Apply punctuation as needed. It's been a long day.
posted by quin at 1:26 PM on November 27, 2006

don't be asinine. vinegar and baking soda in a pop bottle isn't going to evacuate a wal-mart. this was a drano bomb.

and in case you're wondering what drain cleaner does when it gets on kids, click.

(and yes, i know that drano isn't an acidic drain cleaner, it's a basic drain cleaner, and for those of you i point to here to see what sodium hydroxide does to your skin.)

i mean, i think we live in an overprotective, alarmist society sometimes, but a cloud of vaporized strong acid or base is a fucking awful thing, and a good way to permanently ruin someone's life. and in the toy section where it's clearly meant to do the most damage?

this is nothing like a pipe bomb in the mailbox.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 2:08 PM on November 27, 2006

I came pretty close to blowing myself apart with a homemade bomb around age 13. Haven't touched a bomb since.

My point is that perhaps these kids hadn't had any bomb experience before this one that gave them an idea of the seriousness of what they were doing. Do you really think kids that age are thinking clearly all the time? I sure wasn't, I was just fucking around 'cause it was fun. I hesitate to ascribe any kind of grand motive to these kids.
posted by mistermoore at 2:30 PM on November 27, 2006

Well, pure sodium hydroxide is already a "protected" chemical, which is why all commercial drain cleaners have metal shavings in them now. I have personally had to meet with Homeland Security because I was buying a 700 pounds of it in 50 pound bags. (I'm a soap maker.)

Also...sulfuric acid != sodium hydroxide.

And there's nothing in the article to suggest that there was any sort of lye or sulfuric acid in the containers.

Me, I'm betting they watched Mythbusters and did dry ice and a soda bottle.

And Sarge, I have had multiple sodium hydroxide burns...and they don't look anything like that. In fact, if you just wash it off, and pour a little vinegar on it, you'll be fine. That said, I still keep mine in locked hazmat containers in a locked steel cabinet and have warned local fire officials that I have thermogenic chemicals in certain areas.)
posted by dejah420 at 6:24 PM on November 27, 2006

point to here to see what sodium hydroxide does to your skin.

Oh Noze. NaOH on the skin!

*yawn*

There was only one chemical I never wanted on my skin - Fuming Nitric Acid. The fuming sulferic acid wasn't fun either. Fuming hydrochloric acid...not a crisis, but not all that dangerous either. But NaOH - a cakewalk.

You want pain - play with the nitric acid.

Tales of security people gone nuts - I walked in one day with 3 12VDC batteries into a courthouse (power plant for an electric bicycle). On the xray it got questioned (seems wires were an issue). Nuckle-draging mouth breather #1 asked if it was dangerous, and I mentioned that the 18 mJoules could be. He called over a supervisor who looked at the label and said "they are batteries" amd 'you have an electric bike? That's cool - is that what the bike messengers use now?' That and 'take off your shoes' looking for bombs when you are wearing sandels......Damn nutters.
posted by rough ashlar at 9:58 PM on November 27, 2006

Sounds like a couple of idiot yahoos' idea of fun, as in the case of a teenage boy in B.C. who put baking soda on a instant teller during the anthrax scare.

That horrid British Columbia anthrax scare that gripped the Canadian nation's collective bowels in sheepy terror? Yeah, I seem to remember that.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:39 AM on November 28, 2006

Which is to say, more power to the little bastard.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:39 AM on November 28, 2006

But not these American kids, I hasten to add. They oughta fry!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:50 AM on November 28, 2006

If I remember my Anarchist Cookbook correctly, it was probably Ammonium Hydroxide and tin foil in a two liter plastic bottle.
posted by iamck at 5:28 AM on November 28, 2006

dejah, i agree that it's easy to deal with a little bit of NaOH on the skin if you know a little acid-base chemistry, if you know what the spill is, and if you deal with it right away.

most kids in the toy aisle (and indeed, probably most wal-mart parents) don't know how to neutralize acids/bases, and unless you're the person who put the stuff in the bottle, how would you know which one it is to start with? drain cleaners can be either acidic or basic (which is why i mentioned sulfuric acid). also a kid might not go flush their skin right away until it starts to get unbearably itchy or whatever.

also, in an explosion of this kind you end up with an aerosol, a bunch of finely dispersed droplets in the air. someone standing next to the thing when it popped would probably end up breathing a good deal of it, which would land on the delicate inner surfaces of the lungs, where you can't just rinse it off or neutralize it in any way.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 5:53 AM on November 28, 2006