BOTTLE FLIPPING
Dad
BY: DAVID HAWKINS
H
aving kids under school age, I was happily ignorant of the bottle-flipping mania that is sweeping the nation. So when our enigmatic editor, Melissa, sent me the video that has gone viral worldwide I just stared, mouth agape. I really must be a parent because I instantly asked the eternally uncool question, “How could this be incredibly popular?”.
In case you are as disconnected from modern pop culture as I am, the video shows an American high-schooler hamming it up on a small stage and then throwing a bottle, with a flip, which lands upright on a table. That’s it. Seriously. It’s not like he performed six somersaults and balanced on a chainsaw before flipping the bottle. How hard can it be? So my Editor-Extraordinaire set me the Dad-task of accomplishing this great interwebs feat. Could I flip the bottle and land it right end up, and could I become a YouTube sensation? Woah! Hold up there crazy person! You can’t just go running into this kind of uber-challenge without some hardcore research. I ignored the microfiche archives and got straight down to some serious Googling to see what kind of insights we can prime ourselves with:
Tip #1 WET FRACTIONS You can use any old bottle but the key seems to be the amount of water inside of it. Too much and the bottle won’t flip, too little and it won’t stop. Aim to fill your bottle up to about a third with water (or vodka if the kids are giving you hell today... they’ll never know) for the best balance. You may need to sip to get it just right (especially if it’s vodka). 20
Peninsula Kids – Summer 2016