Origins of a Menace

This is one that seemingly everyone doesn't like. That implies that we've all done, or at least attempted it, once or twice.

It really doesn't matter if you've done one, one hundred, or one thousand of them. It's just not a very fun exercise, and that's because it uses your entire body.

But where did it come from? How did it even get that name? Wikipedia would like you to believe that it was created by a man pursuing his doctorate in the late 1930s and early 1940s. That man's name just sounds invented. No offense to his parents.

I have a different theory as to how the name came about. I don't doubt that this doctor existed or even that he created the exercise. However, the name itself may in fact just be a nickname based on what happened when he first created the exercise.

This doctoral candidate at Columbia University happened to be a fan of RC Cola. He would have a bottle with his lunch every day.

As he was doing his doctorate, he must have gone through several iterations of the exercise that he would later become known for. The one that was the kicker came one afternoon in late April.

He was running late, so he ate his lunch and took his bottle of RC to go. He ran back to his gym, the bottle in hand. This, naturally, shook up the cola inside.

He knew what would happen when he opened the bottle, of course, so he was careful when letting the carbonation escape. He didn't want it to go flat though, so he chugged the bottle before all the carbonation faded.

Lunch successfully washed down, he set the bottle on his desk, went to his diagrams, and adjusted a couple of maneuvers. He attempted the exercise by squatting so his hands were on the ground, then kicking his legs out behind him, then bringing them back in. The final step was to stand up. He almost got there.

What followed, some ancient Columbian alumni say, was something for the record books. Walls were shaken, and blackboards were split from the force of the shock wave that exited the man's belly through his mouth. It was a belch of kingly proportions.

This man's name was Royal Burpee.

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Disclaimer: I do not claim the above story to be true. I have a great respect for Dr. Burpee (giggles) and the exercise he created has great benefits for everyone that does it.

Thanks to Dale, Denise, Bobby, Chris, Fred, Emily, Anna, Jen, John, Renee, Kelsey, Matthew, Rick, Robert, Laura, Minde, Heather, Alicia, Chad, Adam, Chawanna, Doug, Jennifer, Shelly, Darryl, Gary, and Thomas for their submission's to this week's prompt.

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