At the time the then-satirical David Frost spoke of “Soft absorbent ads aimed at soft absorbent minds,” shifting most of the blame from Madison Avenue to the plumpen, gullible masses. (I experienced the drabness of [the] Soviet Union, noted in absentia by VN — the lack of comical consumerist jingles, replaced by oppressive but effective Stalinolatry.)
A nasty Scouse bog-roll parody emerged: “Charmin comes in three textures: Thick, Thin, and Yuck.”
Reminding us that ‘text’ shares ancient IndoEuropean roots with ‘textile’ -- whence we WEAVE cloth, words, and musical notes — rendering rather pointless the recent argufying as to the REAL meaning of the polysemous ‘texture.’ All is METAPHOR. All is CONtext!
Stan Kelly-Bootle
On 27/10/06 16:56, "Jerry Katsell" <jerry3@ADELPHIA.NET> wrote:
Dear Don,
Though a bit younger than thou, I vaguely recall in the 50s a Charmin add with a pale winged nymph carrying a baton with a sparkling tip with which she blessed and illumed oh so soft toilet rolls. My quick research tells me that Charmin in manufactured by Hoberg Paper Company in Green Bay Wisconsin and has been around since 1928. A recent entry on the Net offers this charmin’ bit of poshlust: The Free Charmin Roll Ruler—“It’s no secret that children sometimes have trouble figuring out how much toilet tissue to use. That’s why we created the Charmin Roll Ruler. …a colorful, convenient visual aide that hangs on the toilet roll to teach kids exactly how much tissue to use.”!!!
Best greetings,
Jerry Katsell
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 10:49 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Query: PF's pirouetting nymph?
Can some one in my aged age group (or older) identify the toiletry in this description in a TV commercial circa the early fifties? The winner will be immortalized in a footnote. Don Johnson
Line 412ff The Cause of Poetry on Channel 8.
A nymph came pirouetting, under white
Rotating petals, in a vernal rite
To kneel before an altar in a wood
Where various articles of toilet stood.