THIS IS NOT A DRILL: There’s a whipped cream shortage just before Christmas

As the weather gets chilly in much of the United States, the one saving grace is that it's time for hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream. But that simple pleasure might be in jeopardy this year. There’s a nationwide shortage of nitrous oxide, the gas used in whipped cream spray cans such as Conagra’s Reddi-wip. A tragic accident in August triggered the whipped cream shortage. Two gas tankers, as well as a nitrous oxide holding tank, exploded at a loading dock in an Airgas chemical plant in Florida.