This little sliver of cultural detritus has been lodged in my craw since I heard about it in a documentary on the whole Jim Jones phenomena. So imagine my wonderment when I heard someone on an episode of TTBOOK (To the Best of Our Knowledge) say, ". . . but I didn't buy the bridge in Brooklyn; I didn't drink the Flavor-Aid . . . ," explaining how she had not been taken in by whatever scam she was talking about. My recollection is paraphrased and I can't remember the whole context, but she did say "Flavor-Aid." Neither she nor the interviewer made any further comment about it. "Wow," I thought to myself, "someone else out there knows it wasn't really Kool-Aid." Unfortunately for the makers of Kool-Aid, it still sounds way snarkier to say "drink the kool-aid" than "drink the Flavor-Aid." A lot of people don't know what Flavor-Aid is and the idiom loses its punch (pun intentionally left lying on the stairs where anyone might trip over it) if the listener has to ask what it means. My mom actually bought Flavor-Aid in the '50s and '60s and most of the store brands, too. Whatever was cheap that week, which I'm sure was what all of the "moms" in Jonestown were doing.
So, anyway . . .
