A few days ago, I was cutting up mushrooms for my salad and accidentally sliced my left thumb. It wasn’t a serious laceration, but I thought I should stick an adhesive bandage on it to protect it while it heals. So I went to the bathroom cabinet to see what was available. There was no shortage of strip bandages, but they were all varieties that call attention to themselves, rather than trying to blend in. My choices were:

• Glittery silver
• Harry Potter
• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Assorted fluorescent colors (hot pink, bug-bulb yellow, lime green, traffic-cone orange)

I’ve heard that you can get skin-colored adhesive bandages, but I don’t live in a household that stocks that sort of thing. So if anyone’s wondering, that’s why I’m wearing Harry Potter’s face on my thumb today.
UPDATE: According to the official BAND-AID Story, the man who invented the product did so because his wife was a clumsy with a kitchen knife as I am.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Argh. I see that James Lileks wrote about this topic two days ago, making me look imitative and lame. But I cut my thumb before that column appeared, darn it! Is it my fault I didn’t get around to blogging about it until today? Well, yes, I suppose it is. But I have a full-time day job, and rehearsals for the play I’m in that have me getting home around 11 p.m. every night this week. Is it any wonder it took me a few days to find time to write a blog post? Lileks, on the other hand, only has to be a stay-at-home dad and do radio interviews all day long promoting his new book. And write daily blog posts and a daily newspaper column and articles for various other periodicals and websites. And produce a weekly podcast. Slacker.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Yes, I know you can buy pre-sliced mushrooms. They’re more expensive than whole ones. I’m trying to be financially prudent here, and if that means sacrificing a finger or two, well, nobody ever promised that being a husband and father would be easy.