ALL THE REST –    March 1, 2001
  

There are lots of hand soaps out there. Now liquid soaps seem to be very popular. Many are packaged with plastic net scrubbers to work up a lather and exfoliate the skin. Still, one soap is unique. Ivory soap is different because it floats. The development of this soap was an accident. I remember this story from grade school, it was the first time I heard of the term "serendipity."

In 1879 an absent-minded workman left a stirring machine running all through the entire lunch break. The machine whipped up a huge amount of air into the batch of soap. So much air was added that the soap floated. The management of Proctor and Gamble considered throwing out the "ruined" soap. They hated to waste all of the product, so they processed it and sold it anyway. Much to their surprise, they began to get letters from buyers asking for more of the miraculous floating soap.

Harly Proctor was quick to recognize the value of the sales gimmick. He began to advertise the new floating soap that could be used in both the bath and the laundry. He notched the bars so that they could be easily broken in half. Competition in soap sales was stiff then as it is now. A single soap that could be used both in the bath and for washing clothes was not readily accepted by the consumer. Several expensive imported soaps were popular at the time. Proctor and Gamble had their soap and three popular imported soaps analyzed by an independent laboratory. Analysis showed that the floating soap contained less impurities. Harley advertised his soap as 99 and 44/100% pure. And ivory, the only floating soap, is advertised the same way today. You may wonder where the name "Ivory" came from: One Sunday while Harley was in church he was reading Psalm 45. Verse 8 speaks of ivory palaces, and Harley thought that Ivory would be a great name.

I guess this is the last of the Serendipity Facts for now. I have 5 more facts, but I have lost them.  They are not on my hard drive, and I seem to have lost the floppy where they were archived. I'll keep looking and maybe I'll find them in time to include them starting again next week.

Sources: Serendipity | Encyclopaedia Britannica | The New Shell Book of Firsts

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:22 (NIV)

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."

Joseph Addison

DRIVING TIPS

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If the vehicle in front is signaling to turn, the only thing to be certain of is that its indicators are functional.

Ignore all hand signals. They are merely establishing whether or not it is raining.

The car in front must be overtaken at all costs.

Traffic lights are mere street decorations

Parking areas are demarcated by bright yellow lines at the side of the road

If you are driving a company car and you hear an expensive noise coming from the engine, turn the radio up until it dissapears.

If you get stopped by the police for drunk driving, say to the officer: "Thank goodness for that - I thought my steering had gone".

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A Helpful Neighbor

I've got a buddy, owns a German shepherd. The people next door to him own one of those goofy white rabbits they keep in a cage. He came home one Saturday, and his dog is running around the yard WITH THIS RABBIT in his mouth. The rabbit has mud on it, it's got dog spit on it, and IT IS DEAD.

Instead of being a man and telling the people what happened, he panicked. He took the rabbit away from the dog, took it in the house, washed it off with soap and water, and dried it with a hair dryer. (No pun intended.) He waited until it got dark, snuck the rabbit back over next door, put it in the cage like it had a heart attack, and locked the door.

A few days later he was out in his yard, and he saw the lady from next door. She came over to the fence and said, "I guess you heard what happened."

He said, "No, what?"

She said, "We have had a death in our family."

He said, "Who died?"

She said, "Fluffy. And the weird thing was, after we buried him, somebody dug him back up, cleaned him off, and put him back in his cage."

David A. Rinke II | Funny Pages Mailing List

 

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TWO Robins

Two robins were lying on their backs, soaking up some sun. A Mama cat and her kitten were walking by. The kitten complained, "Mama, I'm sooo hungry, what can we eat?" To which the Mama cat, spying the 2 robins, replied, "How about some Baskin Robbins?"

David A. Rinke II < drinkeii@moose.erie.net >

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10 BEST THINGS TO SAY IF YOU GET CAUGHT SLEEPING AT YOUR DESK

10. "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."

9. "This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to."

8. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the White-Out. You probably got here just in time.

7. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm."

6. "I was testing my keyboard for drool resistance."

5. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory toward people who practice Yoga?"

4. "Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."

3. "The coffee machine is broken..."

2. "Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot..."

And the #1 best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your
desk...

1. " ... in Jesus' name. Amen."

From Donnie: http://ns.zeuter.com/~cpuguys

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How do you keep an idiot busy for hours?

 

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TRUE FACT ...

Humans begin laughing at two to three months of age. Six year olds laugh about 300 times per day, while adults laugh from 15 to 100 times per day.

SOURCE: NYT, Dr. William F. Fry, Stanford University

You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.

Daily Miscellany Comics

Phillip Bower