I just witnessed someone use the phrase “blowing up like a blueberry” to describe an allergic reaction. I understood immediately what she was saying.

What’s interesting is that, as I’m sure many of you know, blueberries do not blow up.

In fact, the only thing that I can think of that unites “blowing up” with “blueberry” is in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory*.

That means that we have, as a culture, made subtext into text.

Centuries from now, scholars will wonder why we developed such issues with explosive blueberries in the late 1900s and through the mid-2000s.

It will be like when Marty McFly goes to 1955 and uses the word “heavy” so much that Doc asks if there’s a problem with the earth’s gravitational pull in the future.

*Why yes, that IS a link to one of my first HTML projects in high school that is somehow still up. Good on you for finding that Easter egg.