Perhaps you’ve seen The Matrix?  It was a fairly popular movie.  Popular enough to have spawn all sorts of essays on philosophy and the meaning of “take the red pill.”  I found an alternate interpretation for that might mean last week.

A friend was downtown and seeking something to quench his thirst so we wondered into a bar off the Division Street strip.  As he was sipping, he noticed something at his feet.  He leaned down to look at it and was puzzled.

The object looked a lot like a vinyl business card holder, except that it was too large.  Guess what he found when he opened it up?

That’s right, somebody lost their birth control pills at the bar.

Why you’d need to take the pills with you, I can only speculate.  Perhaps she thought she was going to meet Mr. Right and immediately be whisked away for a week in Europe?  (In which case, I hope she didn’t lose her passport.)

As delusional as that scenario might be, anything shorter than a three day trip, wouldn’t matter.  Please note the next two pills in the sequence are red.  That is to say “reminder pills.”  That is to say, our forgetful femme fatale was probably having herself a bloody good time.

Oh, the things you find on the floor in bars…

But remember, next time you hear the phrase, “take the red pill,” it might be referring to something other than philosophy.