5.14.2013

Bubblegum

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that in most Western European countries the bubblegum phenomenon saw both its advent and its demise some time in the mid to late nineties, along with platform shoes, yo-yo's and The Spice Girls. In 21st century Turkey, however, it's the commonest of things to see people walking down the street, sitting in a cafe, working in an office all loudly masticating before blowing a glowing, opaque bubble from their mouths. And it's not just pre-teen girls wearing pigtails. It's the high-powered business men striding through the streets in smart suits, it's the people working in the banks, it's the policemen. I once even saw an elderly woman in a full burka blowing the most enormous bubble from the small triangular opening around her mouth, nose and eyes. Somehow it just didn't quite seem fitting...

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