A Fresca drinking (he also likes Diet Dr Pepper despite, he says, being “decently educated”) reader e-mails this tale of a hostage drama (which, happily, ended safely):

Note this detail:

“The gunman released the hostages after officers delivered a six-pack of Dr Pepper to him, using a long stick to pass the soda through a door.”

The police, of course, were not afraid of the gunman, who (rather prosaically) had “a beef with the postal service.” It must have been the demon Dr Pepper that they didn’t want to touch…