[“Nailing It.” Zippy, August 4, 2021. Click for a larger view.]
I thought about going down the rabbit hole yesterday. I went today. In search of an entertaining advertisement for Absorbine Jr., I discovered that there were two Jrs. Here they are, or were, sharing the year 1959 in the pages of Life.
[Life, June 1, 1959 and October 5, 1959. Click either image for a larger view.]
The Absorbine Jr. website makes no mention of a preparation for athlete’s foot. But it does explain “Jr.”:
Absorbine was originally created in 1892 by Wilbur F. Young and his wife, Mary Ida, to relieve the muscle pain of their hardworking horses that pulled heavy cargo. The popularity of the formula grew among farmers, who soon realized it quickly relieved their own aches and pains too.The strange thing is that both products were sold under the same name. “Oh, and pick up some Absorbine Jr., willya?” “You bet.” Imagine the hilarity that might have ensued when an unwitting athlete applied mentholated liquid to a foot. As Zippy would say, “Yow!”
Absorbine Jr., named after W.F. Young’s son, Junior, was developed specifically for humans — for fast, long lasting and effective relief of pain, stiffness and muscle aches.
But a stranger thing, for me: a couple of days ago I wrote in an e-mail to my friend Fresca, “It’s great to know people are getting after books.” (Books I had sent her for a free library had already been taken.) Where did that quaint “getting after” come from? From an ad in the pages of Life, which I hadn’t seen before this morning? I suppose that’s what Vladmir Nabokov might have called precognitive e-mail.
Related reading
All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard) : Nabokov, dreams, precognition
comments: 0
Post a Comment