Once this summer we were camping with our grandparents. We decided to play a game of Monopoly, since it was our custom to do so while camping with them. So we got the Monopoly game set up.

Then there were the bugs, flying around the picnic table on which we were about to play. My brothers and I didn’t really mind the bugs, but my grandma apparently did, so she decided to get her Deet-containing bug spray. Of course, I was automatically repulsed by the thought of using a Deet-containing bug spray, after hearing how powerful the chemical was and how it had been frowned upon by government health agencies. But I figured, “it must be okay; people use it all the time.” So my grandma sprayed it on and around our Monopoly playing area. I really would have preferred that she would have done it before our Monopoly game had been set up, but I couldn’t really protest; it was too late anyway. So we sat down to play.

Suddenly I saw something very frightening: the bugspray was apparantly eating right through the ink on the Monopoly board. (Whoops, there goes St. Charles Place.) The ink didn’t really smear (there was a little smeared ink on the dice, but that was it), it just seemed to vanish. Very disturbing. And they want you to put that stuff on your skin?!