Don't be so hard on Don in this case, Steve. I once heard of a zoo whose flamingos turned white; by the time the story got to me, the strongly-alkaline nature of the lake they'd normally inhabit was said to be the cause of their pinkness in the wild. Perhaps someone in the editorial chain remembered seeing phenolphthalein used as an indicator of alkalinity in school chemistry lessons, and jumped to an unwarranted conclusion from a standing start. Possibly that person was me.