I live in Toronto and I don't drive a car. I walk to work or in bad weather I hop on a streetcar. It takes me about 20 minutes with or without the streetcar. I fill those 20 minutes with meandering thoughts about silly things as I am unlikely to delve into the deeper stuff in that kind of time allotment. I think about things like 'Is it worth it to trade eating whatever food I like for the easy, breezy life of a house pet?' or 'When spelling my name in ketchup or other assorted squeezy condiments, is it better to print or use cursive writing? Do they even teach cursive writing anymore?' or 'I bet Zorro peed in the Z-formation too.' etc. Today I was thinking about a former scourge of earth - ring around the collar. When I was wee in the eighties it seemed to me that buying laundry detergent was mainly based on the ability of said detergent to get rid of this dreaded staining. If your detergent failed to remove the grimy ring you would be a social outcast, subject to the whispers and judgements of your peers. Check out the photo above. Ring around the collar was a problem even in Elizabethan times. Word is that's what the ruffled collar was supposed to prevent. I don't remember the last time I heard about ring around the collar. Have we eradicated it? Are people's necks less dirty or oily? Has detergent advanced so much that ring around the collar has gone the way of small pox? I don't know. I just don't know.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Commuter Thoughts: Ring Around the Collar
I live in Toronto and I don't drive a car. I walk to work or in bad weather I hop on a streetcar. It takes me about 20 minutes with or without the streetcar. I fill those 20 minutes with meandering thoughts about silly things as I am unlikely to delve into the deeper stuff in that kind of time allotment. I think about things like 'Is it worth it to trade eating whatever food I like for the easy, breezy life of a house pet?' or 'When spelling my name in ketchup or other assorted squeezy condiments, is it better to print or use cursive writing? Do they even teach cursive writing anymore?' or 'I bet Zorro peed in the Z-formation too.' etc. Today I was thinking about a former scourge of earth - ring around the collar. When I was wee in the eighties it seemed to me that buying laundry detergent was mainly based on the ability of said detergent to get rid of this dreaded staining. If your detergent failed to remove the grimy ring you would be a social outcast, subject to the whispers and judgements of your peers. Check out the photo above. Ring around the collar was a problem even in Elizabethan times. Word is that's what the ruffled collar was supposed to prevent. I don't remember the last time I heard about ring around the collar. Have we eradicated it? Are people's necks less dirty or oily? Has detergent advanced so much that ring around the collar has gone the way of small pox? I don't know. I just don't know.
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Cursive, definitely. O, and they do still teach it briefly in 4th grade. The kids suffer through it then never use it again. You can't text in cursive.
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