The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 473 - Toothpicks in America

Episode Date: March 23, 2021

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine toothpicks in AmericaSourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch

When you're staying at an Airbnb you might be like me wondering could my place be an Airbnb and if it could what could it earn? You could be sitting on an Airbnb and not even know it. That in-law sweet guest house where your parents stay only part-time Airbnb it and make some money the rest of the year whether you could use a little extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.ca slash host. You're listening to the dollop on the All Things Comedy Network. This is a

bilingual American History podcast for each week. I, Dave Anthony, read a story from American history to my friend. A Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about. How are you? Good man we've talked before this. So let's not do the fake recording catch-up thing. So you're good? Ten minutes prior to that. Yeah I'm good. Yep yep you know all the stuff so. Things are good and everything's good and everything's good. Yep sure what a crazy question but yep for sure so let's just work works good. Work is this just not like we've talked I don't really we're in the show so let's just do the

show. How's the family? I haven't heard Pam's voice in a long long time. Let's you literally just heard it before we started so that's a lie so I guess you're like playing a character now on the show which is kind of worrying and troublesome but let's just move on start the show and we're good to go. How's Jose? He's good but let's we've done this. It's nice to catch up you know a lot of podcasts just dive right in. Yeah and I think people appreciate that a lot. I think actually I've read comments that talk about how this this part doesn't need to be like this. People love it that's what you mean.

Let's let's play the intro. I have an idea I'm gonna ask you all the same questions twice. Okay. No what is no absolutely not. How are you? No no play the gun. And called it quote his jam pad. Jam pad? I'm the fucking hippo guy. Stay okay. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Wait. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna become a tiggly pod guy. Okay. This is like an up five part coefficient. My room's a place. Now hit him with a puppy. You both present sick arguments. No sleep down hippo. That's like a hippo. Action partner. Hi Gary. No. Is he done my friend? No. No. Ronda. Ronda in the park.

The Pleistocene epic. Epoch. Opoch. Wait Dave let me rephrase that. I'm not ready. What did you do? The Pleistocene. The Pleistocene? Pleistocene buddy. 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. That's the. So we are in what we're talking about. Neanderthals. Oh. Began using toothpicks to clean their teeth. Oh dearie me. Where are we headed? They use twigs. They use stiff grass stalks and slate or bone fragments to remove food that was caught between their teeth. Isn't it isn't it just weird to know that we share the same like general little issues that early man did? Oh yeah. Yeah. 100%. I hate having gunk in my teeth. Like they were

also like the gunk in my teeth. Gunk. Gunk. That's why I hate popcorn. No more popcorn. Okay. The toothpick was a tool that continued to be used by people after that forever. It's never gone away. We've always used toothpicks since the Neanderthals. Sure. In 3500 BC a king in the Mesotep Mesopotamian city of Ur was buried with a set of gold toiletries. That's the same as Bezos. That's right. A pair of tweezers. An ear spoon. That is enough for me on this one. That is. Yeah. I mean. They used to scoop their ears. Much like the way. The fact that you need a spoon just says that it was. It's like Baskin Robbins time. I mean Carol

the ice cream's ruined. Yeah. Yeah. That's it for that. And then he also had a gold toothpick. Yeah. Of course. Well you don't know what's gonna happen after you die. You might be entertaining. That's right. Oh no. Company. Let me. That's lefty clean. All right. Ancient Greeks were sometimes called toothpick chewers. Sure. Okay. Because they were known for using small wooden sticks to get food from between their teeth. So I guess they were just everybody had them. Like it was just something that they always had. Yeah. Well I believe it was a Philingsus who cast down from Mount Olympus the first pick of tooth. Yes. First

pick of tooth. After he defeated Flosius. Flosius comes later. Oh right. Okay. Toothpicks eventually became fancy status symbols for rich people. Of course they did. Right. So yeah. So not that not the wooden ones but like the really fancy golden those kind of the people were like you had a you had one. Yes. Look over here. Not wood. Gold. I mean some of these guys had their slaves pick their teeth for them. Oh man. I mean there's obviously just an endless amount of bullshit you have to put up with. But that would be very difficult. Oh god. And that's early dentistry. And also like what if you hit the gums too hard and

then you're dead. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's high stakes dentistry. Yeah. So that they made them from ivory and silver and they had fancy designs like a mermaid on the end or a bird. Like it's just ridiculous. Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. When I have a mermaid at the end of your gold tooth pick. Relatable. At dinner parties it was very normal to pick your teeth between courses. Just whip it out at the table and start picking away. There's paintings of people just digging in there. Excuse me though. I do want to tell you that. Oh gosh. The beef is very tender. Shredded. I did deep. Now Carol and I understand that you were

back on the market and available. I am. I'm sorry. I said I am and I came a little bit of ham. Please please. There you have. Don't mind me. Just got a bit of the gravy gum over here. Sorry about that. I don't mean to splash everyone with my brown pools. But you see Carol I would learn. Son of a bitch. Really in the back there. There's something on the end of your mermaid. Yes. That's right. It's a big piece of shredded beef from the back of my jaw. God I want to ravage you. In the book Natural History Pliny Pliny wrote quote it is beneficial also to pick the sick tooth with the longest tooth of the left side of a dog. Or I

think the dog is dead. I can't imagine that you're holding up a dog to your face. Although he surely he's just saying take the dog's tooth. He's not saying use the dog. No he's saying take the dog's tooth. Right. But he's saying take a dog's tooth to clean your teeth. Yeah that's right. Sure. That's there we go. Or use the frontal bones of a lizard taken from the head of the animal at full moon which have not touched the earth. Well that's easy. I mean you're talking about a few months to get the right toothpick just of observation. Just a constant observation of the lizard's existence. Just out lizard hunting on a

full moon so you can get that piece of popcorn out of your teeth. Son of a bitch he took a step. Then he's not the one for us. His head is half touched at the earth. Then he is no longer good enough to clean our teeth. We don't want a wizard's curse. The Prophet Muhammad asked that his quote funeral preparations include placing a toothpick in his mouth. That is not the way that we have ever pictured him. Yeah I mean you gotta be very careful how you picture him. But yeah of course a toothpick. I mean you know that maybe is a loophole that maybe it's not to be mocked. Maybe it's just something we're

not taking advantage of enough. You know what I mean? Like yeah why not have a death writer? Why not have like your things that you want in your casket before you go you know? I have the only thing I want is at my funeral my mouth is to be open and filled with Reese's pieces and then anybody can have one. It's an open casket. Open mouth open casket. Dave did this right. Mine is I just demand on being fully erect when buried. That's correct. Well that's gonna happen. Yeah. In medieval time in medieval Europe it was normal to always have a toothpick hanging from your mouth. So at this point it's just common and

everyone's got one and you're just picking away. So how did you identify the creepy guy? Oh you can't. You can't. I was pants are off. That's yeah that's the same in every right. Okay. The well very well off had gold or silver toothpicks hanging from necklaces so they didn't have to keep it in their mouth right. It's just gross. The Renaissance was known as the golden age of toothpicks. Okay. So dumb. Do you want to be from that era? No. This is when we really nailed it. Okay. According to some historians people would use toothpicks at dinners quote and the food particles which they dislodged were spit out with gusto at that time

such behavior is viewed as a compliment to the host. Oh my god. Jerry how did you. Yeah. Yeah. You must give us the rest. Oh my god. You must give us the recipe. I mean this is I'm not kidding. Yeah. Oh my god. Get the fuck out of there you little shit. You're so kind. Please Jerry. I'm not kidding. Look at all this stuff. It's all over you. I'm hanging stuff from the walls of my mouth. I'm delighted. Look at it. Oh gosh. It's all over. Look at the mess I've made around myself from food that I've dislodged from my mouth. I love it. Yes. Please Jerry. Eat all of the bounty that's come out of my mouth. There you

are. Get in there. Yes. Eat my scraps and for I shall eat more and then more come out of me. It could be an ending never fair. That guy lost his mind in the 16th century sound effects because that's what end with a window breaking sound. In the 16th century Spaniards were known for their love of toothpicks. Sure. One account quote this decoration is said to be very becoming to the young ladies. They seldom put it away in the daytime. It serves to protect their virtue if someone approaches them to steal a kiss. In Sevilla the dancers during the public performances have a

toothpick in their mouth as an indispensable part of their costume. Wait. Wait. Go back. What did you just say before? You would have a toothpick in and it was some sort of defense? Yes. It serves to protect their virtue if someone approaches them to steal a kiss. So if someone. Oh. Oh. So if you're a woman you have a toothpick in your mouth. Really just again says a lot about the men. Yeah. That you know you basically had a device that would stop the man's mouth would stab from from touching your mouth because right because again you know that's how kissing works. That's right. Yeah. You

just when you want one take it. You need you need the same sort of defensive tools that they would have when trying to stop someone from invading a castle. Right. Like a long pole or used on the battlefield. You've seen them in Braveheart. Now put them in your mouth. Well that's why I would say women should just build motes around their heads. That's correct. One of the last things Charles the first did right before he was executed in 1649 was to give away his gold toothpick while on the scaffold. So. No. No. Gross. No. I forgot to match one last item to give away. Oh God. It's my penguin shaped

toothpick. It's disgusting. I've used it so many times. It's awful. Do not throw that at us. You son of a bitch. There you go. Yeah. Good. Don't touch it. Kill it. I know. I knew that guy was here. When George Washington's teeth became a problem which we've done a whole episode about. His dentist told him to use a quill toothpicker. Can you imagine seeing that mouth full of horse teeth and deceased human teeth and thinking you know what this needs to fix it all. A toothpick. That's right. When George Washington wrote his rules for civility his his one hundredth was that you shouldn't use a knife or fork to

remove stuck food. Quote let it be done with a with a pick tooth. Yeah. Okay. George we're all on board for the first half. Don't use a knife and fork. Don't cut your teeth open to remove the food. Use this dislodger. I when I was when I was researching this I discovered that when English people came over at the beginning of America and they saw Americans using forks they were like horrified. Yeah. No idea. What were they using. They would use their hands and I think the belief was that the fork would have would would other people use it. It was gross or or just using it over and over again was gross. I don't know. I

think the idea of sharing a utensil for reading is disgusting. Here's the thing I've been putting betwixt my teeth. I think I could have gone down that wormhole but I felt like that would have just taken me to a really bad place. Well Dave I think you know you decided to avoid the history of forks and that's okay. Yeah someone had to. Yeah. Toothpicks have been made out of many things metals copper gold silver bronze different kinds of wood spines of cacti animal claws and bones bird birdbills fish bones rat thigh bones tusks tortoise shells Fred Flintstone and hedgehogs were called a walking bunch of

toothpicks. Oh that's good. What a great and isn't that great when your species is defined as it's just utensil use. Oh look perfect. Hey there goes a bowl. That's a turtle. It's a bowl. Oh yeah. Okay. So it's quite a list. So they were really I mean bones big player animal the animals big player as far as you want to pick always out of your teeth. Right. Yeah. And it must be some sort of nice kick to you know get a little bit of chicken breast in between your teeth with the beak of the bird. Sort of a nice kick there you know. It's just nice to look at animal and be like how can I turn that golfer into something I can use. You are

mine now. So quills became the most common type of toothpick in the 18th and into the 19th century. That's sad. Yeah but you know that was bird holocaust time right. So sure. Right. Use every part of it I guess. People cut their old quill pens into toothpicks. Okay. In 1827 a newspaper reported Congress had bought twenty thousand quills and pens quote toothers of which must have been used for toothpicks. So that as a newspaper attacking them and so this is that they considered this corruption that congressmen were taking the people's money and buying toothpicks. Wouldn't it be just bear with me Dave wouldn't it be

nice to go back to that level of corruption. Oh dare you. You're wasting our toothpick budget. Yeah. Instead of now when we're like it's a race to see who can get the richest. They're winning. Now by the middle of the 1800s the demand for quills were mass produced wooden toothpicks were also becoming common because anyone could make them right. I mean that was a thing you could just grab a twig and sharpen it up and use it. Sure. Everyone in Brazil used toothpicks because the Portuguese were huge on toothpicks and probably had the first manufacturing system some religious nuns I think created like a

little toothpick business. Sure. So Portugal is big on it too. So Brazil is where Charles Forester traveled in the middle of the 1800s. Charles was born in 1826 in Charlestown Massachusetts to an aristocratic New England family. Man imagine being born into a rich family and a town named after you. You'd be like yes. I'm the king. His great grandfather had fought in the revolution and gone to Harvard with John Hancock. His grandfather owned a big furniture business so rich family well a family. But his father gave tons of money to the poor quote a peddler or tramp who called at his

door at noon was often invited to dinner. He gave away money in great quantities to the poor. He was so charitable that he came near leaving his own family in poverty when he died. Oh wow. So that's a guy we like. So and what year did that species go extinct. The species of human that does that. I would say he was the one. OK. We had one. So Charles grew up living both large and poor. Right. And he had he got both sides of it because of the furniture business. He knew woodworking. Charles Uncle Henry was a Boston merchant who who founded a company in I should have looked this

up. Pernum Pernum a book or Pernum book or Brazil. So sometime in the mid 1800s Charles went to Brazil and when he got there he was like check out these fucking awesome choppers on these Brazilians. He was he had tooth envy. Everybody had awesome teeth. Right. Which he said was due to the quote whittled slivers of wood that were sold by boys in the streets. So there's little kids run around selling toothpicks. Sure. And then there were the larger handmade toothpick that were made in Brazil five inches long and sold 20 to a box for 15 cents. Wow. Big pick. What do you do. That's that's

huge excavate excavate. We really got to get in there. Teeth were bigger. Teeth were bigger back then. I use it as a walking kit. Is that true. An inch long. No. No. Not true at all. Oh I was like what. Like that would make more sense if everyone had like Bugs Bunny Mouth and the U.S. wooden toothpicks were in the U.S. wooden toothpicks were something you made yourself from whatever wood was around when you needed one. So Americans just like well there I need to pick my teeth and here's a twig and I'll just sharpen it now and use it. It was like immediate. You just did it at the moment if you

needed it. Sure. Some people would make a bunch. I think people still do do that by the way. Oh yeah. I think people still at times will just be like just take this little piece of wood here. I mean I've used all kinds of stuff. Like you pick some up. You're like I got something in there. Let me see if I can get out with this piece of cardboard. Yeah you become very yeah you become very MacGyver-y. Some some some Americans would make a bunch ahead of time and just keep them on hand. So they just have a pile of toothpicks. Sure. Yeah. Right. You'd have a toothpick day where you made toothpicks. Well I'm going to make a bunch of

tooth apparatus. Americans were also known for whittling. Right. So it was like it went hand in hand with Americans. We were a thought of people are always a whittle people whittling away. Right. Always with a knife handy. So the idea of importing wooden toothpicks seems pretty bizarre. Right. Because we'll just whittle. We'll whittle our way out of this. And then when a load of toothpicks arrived in 1949 in Boston a local newspaper wrote quote novel importation of vessel lately arrived at this port from Rio Genaro having as part of her cargo fifty five thousand wooden toothpicks are Yankees done whittling

are Yankees done. Oh man the columns are Yankees done whittling. Have we finished with our whittles. Are we done whittling. And we finally turned the page. Who would bring toothpicks if you could just pick up a thing and sharpen it. It makes no sense. Just take my friend's nail here. Oh that's nice. So that load didn't really sell much. We don't know for her. So to answer the question we were not done whittling. We were not whittle secret. So we still yeah we still wanted to whittle. That's right. So we don't know for sure who sent that load but it was probably Charles. OK. He did. We know he bought seventy five cases of

toothpicks for fifty bucks a case and brought them back to Boston. Quote it was only with extreme difficulty that he could sell them and even then at a sacrifice. So he he he he lost money on his. His this guy walked into Brazil. The teeth were so good that he was like what's your secret. They weren't doing that much differently. Right. No I don't. They weren't doing it differently but it was everybody was doing it. It was a lifestyle. I think that's the difference. I think that I think that in America you would pick up a twig and pick the thing out of your teeth and then kind of move on. But in Brazil listen to how amazing

that answer is. I mean what are we even talking about. I think you in America you would pick up a twig and get the food out of your mouth and move on. But in in Brazil it was like it had become part of the culture like everybody just and then he noticed on top that he's like oh my god all these people's teeth look really good. Right. OK. And studies have shown that using a toothpick is really good for your teeth. Yeah. But why. But it's just strange to like I get like if I if you're him if I'm him I'm going oh yeah it's great. Look there's a great teeth. I'm going to get a bunch of these for myself. I'm not going to go like I need this to be in every household. This

technology is too good. Well that's why you don't have the capitalist mind. That's right. Exactly. So he's still determined even though he does that it doesn't work out. People. Imagine. Imagine having that will after that to be like I must fight further. Yeah. I would never never ever. Yeah. I also don't like to sell. I don't like to walk around and try to convince people to use things like I just can't imagine. I mean it's it's just not how a trend works. Like I just don't feel like someone comes is like here's the trend. Come on gather. You know like that's just not how it works. Well we're all going to start picking meat that have our teeth

with these. Why not these. Why not these. I've been using these forever. No that's a twig you fool. Look at these. These are Brazilian. These are these. You must pay. See. I mean that's the big difference right. All these people are like I can just make one in two seconds with my knife and a branch. Why would I. Yeah. That's the big difference. It's yeah. He's trying to make something worth money so he can be rich. That's all it is. Right. Yeah. It's quite a dream though. So people were using toothpicks. Fancy ones or ones they made themselves. That was it. Like the rich people had a gold one. You know Frank pick went off the ground and so it's

very similar to now. I mean it's just like yeah. Right. Yeah. And they're also toothpick skulls. So people who criticize. Skulled. Oh Skulled. OK. People who criticize anyone who pick their teeth in public. Right. So you had those people out there. Miss Miss Manners types writing in the paper. Don't. The regular people. Hey that's totally disgusting. Do you understand why that grosses me out. That's partially digested. Horrible to see. It was pretty roundly condemned in the 1830s. Once a teenager was on a ship on Lake Erie using a large silver toothpick and another passenger walked up and grabbed his arm quote to clean your

teeth in public is a sign of vulgarity. But to torment your gums with a metal spike when you can treat them to the softness of a quill is sheer stupidity. This is like 1830s commercials. You know what I mean. That's just like there's got to be a better way. It's like that. Yeah. I mean he's saying do it. Do it in your your private and then do it with some class. I mean quills were the big thing at this point. So he's like it's a little bit softer. It's not as hard as a silver thing. So right. Now at this time in the 1830s young men would gather on sidewalks with toothpicks hanging out of their mouths. So it was a common

belief that quote the man who carried a toothpick in his mouth did so in order to convey the false impression that he had dined on meat instead of coffee and cakes. So how about this. Take your time and your energy. Yeah. And put it towards buying a piece of that meat and then stand on the corner with that. Yeah. Oh that's interesting. But what if you couldn't afford that meat. But you could only afford a little stick. So you save up a little. You take you instead of standing on the side being like look at him. Look at me. You get you know you go do a little bit of work and you afford one. I mean it doesn't even you just

could make a fake piece of me. I'm just saying who. How are we making fake meat now. Boy this project has gotten really big. It's got a little complicated. I'm like a lie. It's I wanted I wanted it to go better. Kind of lost the thread a little bit. I don't know. This sounds like their version of a bunch of kids smoking cigarettes in like the 50s. Right. I think it's that they think it looks really cool. They're greasers. Yeah. They're greasers. They're going against society. They're like I don't care. I'm toothpicking it and the girls. So much goddamn hen caught in between my teeth. It's crazy. Oh hello lady. Where you

going girls. Oh man. Good thing I'm able to dislodge all this quail from supper. Oh a group of ladies. Unless I say otherwise every quote is from Henry Petresky's book The Toothpick. Wow. Yeah. Some dude went fucking deep. Deep. Yeah. Deep. Okay. So Benjamin Strutevant Strutevant was born in 1833 when he was a kid. He was poor. So he made wooden shoe pegs that were used to attach shoes to the shoe soles that were more worn mostly by working class. So richer people would have them sewed but working class people you would get little pegs. Yeah. Okay. It was faster than stitching shoes and Strutevant went on to become a

shoemaker and then another guy Paul Pillsbury built the first peg mill and it was so it was so successful that he became known as Peg Pillsbury. Peg Pillsbury. Yeah. Which now is something sexual you do to the Doughboy. Yeah. You can really get pegged by Pillsbury if you really. So we're probably not gonna have them as an advertiser. Come on. I mean isn't it worth it to hear the Pillsbury Doughboy have an orgasm. A hundred percent. Oh that was a good Doughgasm. Just dough comes out. That's how it's made. Oh you can make little croissants out of this. By the late 1860s pegs were used in about 90 percent of shoes in the U.S.

So Strutevant invented an improved pegging machine and also a machine to make pegs. So not only just to put them in the shoes but also to make them. Right. He went to Boston so he comes up with the idea of these machines and then he goes I'm gonna make it rich and he heads to Boston and he's got his two machines and 20 cents in his pocket and he's 23 years old. So it's like a it's like a kid. It's like the beginning of guns and roses video. Welcome to the jungle when he gets off the bus except instead of Axl Rose. It's this guy and he's got two. It's a deep cut. It's a it's a kid trying to make it rich in the

big city. He got patents for his machines in 1857 and set up his businesses in 1859 on Sudbury Street in Boston. He soon employed eight men. So it's going good. His machines are quality. Wood is expensive to transport though really expensive to move around. So he ended up renting a mill in the Livermore Falls Main and brought his machines up there. So he's like we got to do this closer to the wood. Sure. OK. Now after about three years he'd cut down and used all of the wood near the mill. So he moved the entire mill to Wilton Main. So he's just like kind of eating up the wood for these shoe pegs. Yeah. Because everybody

needs them in America. Right. And obviously not replanting. He is just the Lorax would not be happy. No of course not. No in general. No. I think this is I think this is good for the forest. Right. To just cut it down and then move on. Yep. Not do anything and then move on exactly. That's why fires are so helpful. Yes. He opened a second mill in Oxford Main and within two years had cut down so many trees that he shut that one down. It's still it's just cheaper to move a mill than it is to transport trees. Is this guy going to be a mill millionaire. Yes. OK. Now Charles is looking for someone to make wooden

toothpicks in America. And by the 1860s they're they're pretty widely used. I mean people are just using toothpicks all over. OK. There's a lot less scolding of pickers. It wasn't that they weren't scolding anymore. It was just kind of meh. Like it wasn't against. It wasn't for it. It was just a thing. Sure. We've accepted it. It's probably like smoking at one point like you were saying. Although Vanity Fair said asking to borrow someone else's toothpick was what a fool did. Yeah. Well no shit. I mean do we need a publication to let us know that that's crazy. Well. Also all this vanity fair. I don't know.

Well what your advantage. What your advantage start being fair. It's it's never been fair. Let's be honest. OK. Well OK. So one Englishman who visited America said quote it is by no means an unusual thing for a Yankee to offer you his tongue scraper or his toothpick. Oh Dave you got to like give me like a bucket. That the idea of the idea of a tongue scraper ever being used again on someone else is. I mean just. Oh you got to be careful. You might have a little of my scrape left on it from before. Hey governor watch watch clean up your tongue right there. Go ahead and just give it a nice rub it down

the middle. Let me do it like a prime in your walls before painting. Oh Americans. But nothing. They weren't made here. Right. Wooden ones were imported from South America. Charles met Strait of it and tried to talk him into turning the peg machine into a toothpick machine. It's not a toothpick machine. It's a peg machine. It always will be. It won't be the same. I didn't get in the pegging business to be toothpicking. Well that's kind of exactly what happened. Yeah. He's that you can tell this guy has like shoe integrity. Yeah. No. This machine is built for one thing and one thing only

shoe pegs. I'm a foot guy. I'm not a mouth guy. I always just enjoyed the foot. I always want to work around the foot. Things that go on the foot never want to be in the mouth game. My father made me promise I wouldn't do anything with mouths. He was talking about something else. My life. So. So Charles doesn't give up during one of his trips to Brazil. His Charles fiance Charlotte makes a deal. So I guess they were working on the whole time and then she when he's away because he would still go to Brazil for a while and come back and so she makes a deal with Strait of it and she got

exclusive rights to use his machine for quote making strips of wood to be cut up into toothpicks. So he goes to Brazil and she's able to land the deal. But is it not just again a little bizarre for your dream to be this much about toothpicks. It is a little odd. I mean I it just seems like it's a real really but I mean and you know God bless him. He's right. He believed when nobody else did. But my God. The idea that even a woman was like I will be around for your weird dream. Yeah. It is. Yeah. It's strange. She was totally on board. They also bought one machine from him and should have got a patent

then for his altered peg machine that made toothpicks. OK. Sounds pretty much like the other machine though. So I mean the other guy is like wait what did you do. He's like I finally got a patent on this thing on my shoe pegging machine. No no on my toothpicking machine. But it does seem like it uses some of similar technology which might be a problem legally for you. So. So he gets a patent for his altered peg toothpick machine. Now Charles was having trouble with the machine that his fiance had bought when I was wife. It's not cutting them. So they had a nice point on the end. Now at this point toothpicks which

is key. Yeah. I think they're square. I think almost all here. I think all the toothpicks are square at this point. And then they just have a run like a spear. And then and then they're supposed to have a point in it. But the end really isn't pointed enough. It's a little pointed but it's a little blunt. So. Right. He asked. He just he's just like I can't get this right. He asked a student of it to take the machine back. Make the toothpicks and then just pay Charles a royalty and and sort of it's like OK I can do that. But he only made toothpicks for a few months because he was just breaking even and then

a student of it declared the business of making toothpicks quote unremunit. I can never say this or unremunerative unremunerative and bailed. So it's not it's not going to bring you profit. It's just not going to make you money. Unremunerative. Yeah. It's a hard isn't it hard to say. Yeah. And yeah whatever. Charles was then back to making his own toothpicks. So stride of it now. At what point do you go. I'm just going to be a bartender. He's got a dream man. Stick with your dream. It's a really weird dream. So I just picked a lane. So it gave him the machine and the toothpick pattern. He's like it's all

yours. I don't care. I'm I'm into pegging. Super into pegging. Charles is now 40. He has two daughters. They soon have a son. And in 1869 after a lot of attempts Charles finally had a toothpick machine that's going to be the exact same machine used for decades. So he can finally make the thing nobody wants at a good clip. That's right. Finally. Okay. All right. But people are using toothpicks. They are or are. Yeah. Well in 1869 about five million toothpicks are being sold a day. They're all imported from Brazil. So that is a lot. It's not a huge street just lined with toothpicks. I don't know. I would assume that

they're all of it. I mean but this is a time to be like peanut shells at a barbecue place. Yeah. I mean I would imagine they were just all over the place. People remember this one people threw their shit out their window from a bucket. So it was like. I'm by the way I still do that. That's my favorite way to get rid of things. And I'm done with this stuff. Get out of the street. That was poo. Goodbye. Have a good day everyone. So much garbage up here. So by 1870 the disposable wooden toothpick had taken over the quill for use as personal toothpicks. Okay. I think they're much cheaper but also I think they're better

than the quill. I think they're just for your teeth and your gums and whatever. That's a better mousetrap. So he decides to move to Maine because he concluded the white birch was the best wood and he set up a mill in Sumner, Maine. It's just if you're his daughter or his wife you're probably like so you're still sticking with this whole toothpick thing huh? Well honey you can't expect me to put it down when I just figured out the perfect type of wood to use. I mean my god this is the breakthrough we've been waiting for. Birch darling. Birch. It was birch the whole time. Here I am complaining about pine. Well that's not me. I should have been

doing that. This is a fool. Birch. Birch baby. Birch. I'm married horribly. I'm married horribly. What? Wait what? What did you say? I'm married horribly. I just picked the wrong man. No you toothpicked the right man. Someday this is all gonna make sense. I know that our daughters are starving and that we have a son on the way and I know that I've really gone all in on this toothpick business and it doesn't seem to be working but that was before I found the perfect tree. Baby birch. I'm dying inside. Well here eat a couple of these. Now we're all going to be eating the toothpick wood for a little while until dad gets flush with cash. Shouldn't be long. Did I tell everyone the good news? It's birch. They would eventually move

everything to strong main but in 1873 so he's selling. They start to sell and in 1873 he bought 500 cords of wood and that was so much wood that it made news up and down the east coast like man buys a ton of wood. What? Get out of here. Let me give me that. Give me two of those papers. Good lord. This guy bought so much fucking wood dale. Really? Let me have a look at that. My lord. That's a lot of wood. Benjamin did you see this? Yes I did. It's all we're talking about. I am flabbergasted. It's insanity. I don't know how to fathom this level of wood purchase. What would a man do? Is he building boats? I don't even think we should try to figure it out. It's so much wood I don't believe that much wood exists. I want to see this pile of wood.

That's what I want to see. Also, you ever feel like so boring right now? I have that. That thought has crossed my yes. I was reading about a guy buying 300 bales of hay the other day and then talking about it with Martha. We talked about it for about an hour and then I said my god our lives are hell. They're absolute hell. I couldn't agree with you more. It's just crazy what's entertaining these little brains of ours. But the wood. I just wish someone would invent the zoon. Whatever that, yeah that'll be great because that for sure is when we get our hands on those materials that'll be an exciting time. Thank you. We are able to see the zoon in form. Yes.

So Charles had the market corner. He had the patent. But the patent was going to end in 1880. So he really wanted to push. He really wanted to push. He's kind of built this all on his own. So the idea that like in the patent is stressful. Well honey look we did it but we didn't do it for the cash. What matters is we got the toothpicks in mouths. So he really wants to push them so he can make as much money as he can before 1880 comes. Now there are two big markets. There's places like hotels and restaurants, businesses that give them out and then they would buy in bulk and then there was also just individuals. People would go into a store and buy a pack. Right. He tried to sell them to stores but the owners thought it was a ridiculous item to sell.

He was getting nowhere and made it seem like he had given up. Right. He makes it look like well this isn't going to happen. He stops going to the stores and then he hires men and women from different areas all over Boston. This is crazy. And he gives them a list of stores. Quote they were to visit and seek to purchase wooden toothpicks. I can't believe this. Day after day these men and women one after the other called it the different stores and sought to purchase wooden toothpicks. For more than a month. I can't. He came up with a troll farm.

It's a troll farm. For more than a month this attempt to purchase toothpicks was kept up. Each day one or more of these men and women would call upon the various storekeepers to try to purchase wooden toothpicks. Well I just got a job calling stores about toothpicks. So that's amazing. So every day they would just be like boy it just seems like people with similar voices every day call about these toothpicks. No they walk in. Oh they go in. Oh yeah to call then meant to call upon. So they were like hello do you have toothpicks. No we've done this. No I don't. It's so weird that this all of a sudden started. I don't know where I've had this store for 13 years

and on Monday behind her and I just said what didn't hear the answer. There are or are not two. No we don't we don't we've never had anybody ever in my 13 years and that's a mistake. I'll go to Jackson's down the street. I know they've got toothpicks that. No I don't think they do. I don't. Well someone's eventually going to carry him because golly my teeth are killing me. Okay. That went really good. That went great. What are you guys talking to each other. I merely am expressing to the fair lady that I too agree that we need toothpicks and that it seems like you are starting to feel that way which to us is good because for no reason outside of our own necessities are we trying to get them here. So we are killing this game right now.

So after a while of sending these people it seems like a month Charles went to the stores and then was easily able to sell them boxes of toothpicks. I mean again just like his wife must have just been like wait what's the next part. I'm hiring actors darling it's the next step. And then he sent the shoppers back and they would actually buy the boxes of toothpicks. What is going on. And then they would give the boxes to Charles. So he would so essentially and he's resell them. So I mean it is just he's created folk commerce for himself. Yeah sold some more. Well no not yet baby. This is a part B and the plan that takes a long time to get toothpicks and mouths. So he did this over and over and he did this until

the stores were convinced wooden toothpicks had value. I mean he stuck with it. Some claimed he also pulled this game on restaurants. He hired people to go to nice restaurants and he'd pay them with just the meal and then order the fanciest thing on the menu so they know you're a real aristocrat. And then they'd request a toothpick and when they didn't get one the guy would say how disappointed he was until the manager's restaurant was falling behind the times. Well I don't know about you but most places have toothpicks. Anyway I guess I'll just pay the four hundred dollar bill now. The champagne didn't seem necessary. You said you wanted us to seem like we were classy. Yeah but you didn't have to get all

that champagne. My wife's leaving me. Birch. So then Charles would show up to the restaurant with wooden toothpick samples and then get an order for toothpicks and this this con might have happened but toothpicks were already becoming common in restaurants. I mean that was one of the only places that those five million were going at hotels and restaurants. So people think that's not a true story but anyway I just thought I'd throw it in just in case. So either way the wooden toothpicks sold and soon had quote almost entirely displaced the sharpened match. Okay so people up until this time would also just take a match out of a box and sharpen the end and then use it as a toothpick. It just sounds a little dangerous. But that's not a bad idea because

then you get a double use out of a thing. Sure. Because you have the one end that's just a stick and the other end's a match so you use it as a toothpick and then you put it back in the box and now you have a match. Yeah sure but also how about you separate the things you're lighting fire with from the things you're throwing in the gunk in your mouth. Well now that doesn't sound like it doesn't sound like you care about the environment. That's what I'm hearing. Don't do this. Oh Jimmy matches. Hey who cares right. They don't come from trees or nothing. They do. They come from trees. What does the match head. No the match stick the part of the match not the head. You're telling me that this is a tree. This little baby thing right here is

a. Yeah it's made from trees. It's made from trees. Then how come it ain't got no bark on it. Smart pants. Okay. I don't want to talk to you anymore. I mean that's sort of my feeling when I talk to you I never want to talk to you again and it's a bummer because we work together. Yeah. Well I'm just saying it's tough news that you believe things this tiny is trees. I don't think it's a whole tree. I think it's made from a tree. It's a little part of a tree. How the hell are you going to make some from a tree. It's possible. They don't even make no sense. Where do you think you're a good thing. Where did your house come from. The guy he made it. What did he make it from. He made it from what would come. Yeah but not from tree wood.

You got to lead. That shit don't come from the tree. It's what you dummy. This guy don't even know what nature is. It's just a stupid guy. He thinks my house is a forest. He thinks my house is made of trees. OK buddy. Yeah this guy is fucking just so stupid. OK I'm just going to not work here anymore. Yeah yeah yeah yeah this is crazy. Hey don't maybe go. Hey I'm a tree. This guy is just so dumb. I'm a mess of fire. You're going to have a big future in America by the way. I'm running for Congress. So Charles moved his factory factory to Buckfield where locals gave him a five year tax break. So he got like a fucking Amazon deal. Yeah. It sounds like Amazon. Yeah.

Yeah. Hey what do you say we start the race to the bottom in 1874. Yeah I mean. So by 1874 tons of orders for toothpicks were coming from hotels and restaurants. 500 million were now being sold. Wow. So it's working. His push. There's other pushes happening obviously there was people trying to sell them and yeah so he's not the only one but he he's definitely a major part of this. He's also it's he's selling so many now he's considering exporting them. Some started making fun of toothpicks in places like hotels. One person wrote you could learn how to properly use a toothpick by going to hotel quote we recommend the steps of any fashionable hotel as a studio between three and seven p.m. or lessons are given

grottis by distinguished members please join me next week for snark look wouldn't toothpicks were seen as lower class by some of course there's always these people yeah young beggar children sold toothpicks around hotels when New York began cleaning the streets of orphans and sending them west on trains they were described as quote juvenile match and toothpick vendors. Oh my god. It's just quite a conclusion. Yeah we were selling a bunch of stuff to make people clean the mouse now we're going on a train with no mom and dad. Some adults also sold toothpicks on the street. Some sold clearly used toothpicks. Now I don't

think these are sticks but they might I'm what they call a used toothpick dealer. Now I understand I don't like to think of it as used. I like to think of it as second hand. Right here's a perfect model. This is two years old. This model barely even made its way around the mouth. As far as I'm concerned it basically spent most of its time between one of the back teeth and one of the teeth right in front of it. So this year while it is technically a second hand toothpick is not something I would consider to be a second hand. Now this is a what's the matter. And now the way I like some is do you have a steel one because you know when you use a steel pan you get all that flavor in there and it goes in over the years it gets nice flavorful.

Well that's what I'm looking for in a toothpick. I'm looking for something someone's been using for a long time. You're looking for a midsize. It's got a flavor. It looks for an older model with a midsize. Well let's get to the previous owner on it. That's right. I didn't realize you were a classy gentleman. I was trying to show you some of these wooden models but obviously you're looking for something a little more teeth to it. That's right. This model right here is unbelievable. I actually put a couple in this model two days ago. They called me they called but that means they came over they didn't pick up the phone. They called me the other day said change their life. This toothpick here unfortunately though it's on hold so I'm not going to be able to sell you

this particular model. Can I can I just have a little taste. Can I put it in my mouth for one second. I guess you could give it a test pick but I'm not going to let you do it too much. Get in there a little bit. A little swoopy do. There we go. You feel that in there. It really digs in. Oh nice. It's impressive. It's not subtle. It's right in the middle. It's what I like to think of it as I recall this toothpick. The Goldilocks because this porridge is just right. Okay. It tastes like it tastes like Bobby and pineapples. I'll tell you what I'm going to do even though I put this on hold. I cannot possibly step in the way of a report that you have with a device of this nature. Therefore what I'm going to say to you is for four easy payments of four

hundred ninety nine dollars this toothpick right here belongs to you. Okay. Hold on. Hold on. That's a hedgehog. I'm going to follow that hedgehog there. I got this. Just fucking thing. I swear to God if I ever see Mother Nature I am going to stab her. So the reason that apparently these adults would sell used ones and they're clearly used there. It's obvious you can see this has got the previous guys good got it because they were hoping that it would just lead to charity instead of a purchase. Oh OK. So OK. That's interesting. Sure. It's quite the take. Yeah. I don't want your toothpick but here's a farthing. Oh boy. This guy's a sucker. In 1974 a letter to the New York Times wrote about a man who had been a bachelor for 15 years

and this had been made worse because it was so difficult to live in the city on a small income. So someone else wrote a letter back and responded that Times Reader should invest in an apartment building to house 60 bachelors. So they're like you know the all these all these poor guys are having a hard time finding a lady so let's help them out with cheap housing so they can get by better and maybe that'll help their lives. But then it's a it's a shocking premise to hear in this nation. It became a discussion and then there were some concerns quote. Isn't there some probability of their cutting monograms and eagles all over the woodwork and carrying mantle pieces away by piecemeal in the shape of toothpicks. Wait. So the idea was

let's give these poor people housing. That's right. That's right. And people are like that's actually quite a novel idea. I guess we have these empty places. Why not put human bodies in them and then someone's like yeah but they're probably going to make a bunch of monograms and then they'll steal the mantles to turn them into toothpicks. That's obviously very plausible and logical. Let's not do this because again like this weird man said over here who's got a bunch of blueberry pie on his face these people will probably use the mantles to make toothpicks out of them. Great. No no housing. Well we talked us we talked ourselves out of helping poor people. Hey but what matters is we thought about it. That's right. Now we still look good.

Toothpicks are selling. Other inventors tried to jump on the toothpick toothpick wagon by coming up with new variations of the toothpick. It's called the pick tooth. You use a tooth to clean your toothpick with it. Alfon's Cryzac was given a patent for a pointed hooked end toothpick with a side spoon that stuck out. The spoon part was for cleaning out hollow or sensitive teeth that the pointed end would hurt. So he's made like a Swiss army pick. That's right. Yeah so he's like the difference is the patented spoon that is able to get out of the gunk out of your mouth. Okay. There are others. John Sturdy's combined case for pen pencil knife toothpick and yeah what I've come up with is a case that'll hold a bunch of stuff among them a toothpick

which I think is vastly different from the toothpick. Richard Cross's watch key toothpick and toggle combined. Yes yes this has a toggle and will tell time and is also good at getting rid of the things that ale that betwixt your teeth. But again how many times have you been picking your teeth and thought gosh I've just lost track of the hours. Well with this little device you'll now know how much time you've wasted fantasizing about other things while plucking from betwixt your teeth. So oh I had to look this up because a watch key is actually a key that you carried to turn your watch. To right wind your watch yeah. I had no idea. So I thought there was always just a little round thing on the side but they actually had a key to crank it. Yeah I do remember that yeah

and then someone finally was like not anymore and people like whoa. Holy shit mind blown. We've peaked. Hengram and Richard Childs came up with the improvement in combined watch key and toothpick. So they improved upon the combo watch key toothpick. Can you imagine ripping off the toothpick with your watch key part and then someone ripping you off and be like no I was ripping you just ripped me off on the rip off. It's so crazy. William Blake patented medical toothpicks which would have a coating of medicine on them to help with health issues. Well I'm in for the medicine coated toothpicks. Like quote voice mouth and throat as well as to aid in digestion. Heat this guy. It's really more of a wizard staff than a toothpick. What

won't this do. It's just perfect to cast spells with this. You don't even need to put it in between your teeth. You just need to say remove this. God mildew a sack. Placus. And then watch it all leave like it's Fantasia. In 1875 a guy invented a toothpick case for your pocket. Someone else patented flavored toothpicks that would quote perfume the breath. I was thinking that the mint flavored toothpick. Yeah. Be kind of a revelation. Yeah. I mean I don't know. I think they came up with this right around that time but that that's still a thing that's around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 1876 as promotion Charles went to the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. So there's just tons of people for this. He quote he hired a large high beautifully decorated

wagon drawn by four snow white horses and Mr. Forester attired in a dress suit and wearing a tall hat mounted the wagon and was drawn through the streets of Philadelphia as the wagon proceeded on its journey. Mr. Forester himself threw boxes of toothpicks into the crowd of people standing in the streets watching the procession pass by. Dave it is totally insane but it is this guy's earned it. He has earned this moment. He hung in that he he had gone on multiple trips to see what he liked. He fell in love when everyone told him his dream was total madness. He stuck with it. He stuck with it. He stuck with it. And he finally after hiring actors to pretend that they want he has won it. If there's anybody who ever deserves to sit atop

a carriage and toss out little pieces of wood to people it's this guy. It's boxes. He's throwing little little packages but yeah just imagine imagine the crowds just swarming to get those toothpicks. Oh yeah it was just a different time now because you cut to today and there's a guy throwing toothpicks and they're just landing on the ground and everyone's looking at him. Yeah yeah well yes yeah that person would be a troubling side. Hello you're not being very good subjects. Of course the papers reported on this and and they had pictures like it's it's all it worked like it's PR it works yeah yeah. Now by this time chewing on a wooden toothpick in public was now considered completely acceptable style. Okay. For men for men. I was well Dave you don't

tell me obviously when a woman does it it is foul odorous and disgusting and when a man is doing it he is just particular and keeps very good care of himself but when a woman does it you leave leave leave. Oh are you a woman? It's hard to tell but you have a stick in your mouth. I'm looking for a wife whose teeth are perfectly connected. Now a lot of women weren't sure what was acceptable for them. There were a lot of letters seeking advice that were answered in women's magazines about toothpicks. That's so crazy. You are expected to sit there with the food in between your teeth. It's just such a bizarre. Yeah well it's also when you think of the time too it's like the gaps in the teeth were probably pretty substantial so yeah I mean. You're talking about like

you know lodged food. I mean yeah look this is before dentist I mean orthodontics so teeth are far more crooked and that leads to difficult situations. Yeah people probably had toothpicks stuck in their mouth that they didn't know. Everyone wanted advice on how to properly use toothpick. By 1885 three billion toothpicks were being made in the US. Two years later it was five billion. Charles factory was making. It's tooth peaking. His factory is cranking out 500 million packages a year and there's only 75 million people in the US so you know it's gone from remembering they were importing five million well now this is just fucking bananas. Out of control right. So toothpicks had transitioned from a thing the wealthy used and displayed or what

people made themselves to now something the common man bought. Okay. Which is capitalism right. Like yep yeah that's it in a nutshell. In the late 1880s Arthur's home magazine wrote that Christmas gifts for gentlemen included quote books for those who have fond of reading and toothpicks for those who are not. That's the new socks. I mean that was the socks of that time when you were like oh toothpicks thank you. It's really it's really the thing that I wonder how many kids bought those for their dads. Yeah yeah. Shake it try to guess. It's probably a big thing of toothpicks. The Victorian man's toothpick was often carried in his vest pocket. Users argued having a toothpick on one's mouth was calming. Okay right. Which I agree with. Yeah well I think

there is the even when I quit smoking like you do have a bit of an oral fixation so yeah I get it. Brett still looked down on American picking. Brett S. Phillips Day wrote quote this and is an amusement equal to whittling and a certain Yankee as has been incisely observed can whittle a toothpick out of a pine log nothing can well be more revolting to sensitive cleanly persons than the habit of picking teeth either at meals or afterwards. And can you imagine the set of chompers that these words were coming out of. I guarantee you in retrospect people would be like let's not shame this let's do this. I mean if you think that the fridges are going to be foolish to live just to sit there and try to pull something from between their teeth. The nerves

if they're disgusting it looks like a ghost. Look at our lovely set of teeth and let me show you which one you should be doing properly you damn Yankees. Sorry that's a shrimp tail that's dangling from my lip. In the 1880s wooden toothpick use increased 8% a year. Now Charles no longer has the patent and he's now one of many who are making toothpicks factories popped up all over. Some restaurants couldn't keep them in stock because people would not just use them after a meal but steal them right. Charles was supposed to be making around three-fifths of all toothpicks in the U.S. Picking ones picking ones teeth was now so common in America that a new San Francisco hotel opening through a party with 1200 guests quote all to be supplied with toothpicks.

That's right everybody come on come on we've got them for your mouths. It's the party favor. Sure. By 1884 women were now commonly picking in public so it came around now women are just picking away and everyone's just loving it is the equal right. It's a fad it's like the thing. New York Times quote the fashion of holding a toothpick in the mouth and chewing it in public has been adopted by ladies only within the last two years. It is said that some ladies have become so addicted to the habit that they cannot feel at ease on rising in the morning unless they consume two or three toothpicks before breakfast. Oh my god consume is a terrible way of putting it. It really is. They're not going down too well. Yeah okay so you're I mean yeah

that's remarkable. So I should say also that speaking of newspapers Forster had actual articles printed he paid to have articles put and I went looking and they're in every fucking newspaper he had. So he really was like in many ways just the head of marketing though. Yes he was just pushing it. I mean there was just articles about news about toothpicks and you're like why am I reading about toothpicks. He's doing like he's doing like like a fake journalist. I mean that's one of the things I always find so funny in the papers today is like how I mean it's pretty clear when there's an ad but oh yeah there are certainly some people who are probably going like well this is a really positive write up about Ford. Yeah that was doing good things. The one now is like 30 things that

are super great to buy for your house on Amazon. Yeah yeah or up whatever you're on Twitter and you're like that's really weird right then you just see the little promoted at the bottom. Oh right I don't follow this person. Well the Buzzfeed and stuff like that they'll just do like 20 great things for your kitchen but you can get on Amazon for cheap. Like wow what if you get a cut of that. 20 horrifying fears that Amazon will find out that you're not doing their bidding and come after you. Please support their unionization. Yes greatly. Oh so this this New York Times editorial goes on and on. It went on for a long time. I took some of it. More quote can it be that women imagined that carrying a toothpick in the mouth is a graceful and fascinating act. This seems hardly

credible. Whatever else the object of publicly carrying toothpicks in the mouth may be it is incredible that any woman does it in order to add to her attractiveness. It's just I mean I like just the depth of toothpick journalism. It's just overwhelming. Imagine getting up in the morning and being like today I'm going to write that fucking toothpick editorial. And but it's not even based in fact. It's just like my opining upon what I believe is behind the toothpick philosophy. It's just like. Well it's it's one it's just right it's just one guy's opinion on whether or not women should should be able to use toothpicks. That's all it is. Yes and then like what is in the head of the woman. Yeah and people never think about this but this remains

true today. You don't know who writes editorials. They never tell you. It's just the Los Angeles Times. Well who the Los Angeles Times is doing that. Generally it's just rich assholes person. No it's I take issue with that. It is the decent person always and it's always really helpful. But yeah people always take they're like oh this editorial said this and you're like really who the fuck wrote it. You don't know. So editorials are just garbage propaganda written by people who get to do it anonymously and that everyone goes oh yeah yeah it's pretty great. So this goes on. It may be suggested that women carry toothpicks in order to protect themselves against unwelcome kisses. It's still that's still a point I guess. Yeah I mean yeah okay. Undoubtedly

the presence of a toothpick between lips is presumably undoubtedly the presence of a toothpick between lips. Presumably fair is admirably adapted to drive all thoughts of kissing from the minds of all but the most reckless men. Still the fact that among women addicted to the toothpick habit are those who are ready to remove their toothpicks at the slightest prospect of a display of art and affection forbids us to believe that toothpicks are carried in self-defense. Uh women aren't beings. Women say they use toothpicks to keep men from kissing them but when a man wants to kiss them they take the toothpick out of their mouths and allow it. It's just like an animal. I like that you got a little Bill Cosby-ish at the end because it

but yeah it's like at no point are you considering any like it's just like if a toothpick is in a woman's mouth it's an object with an object. Yeah yeah. Surely the women are ready to be kissed whenever you know. But look it was a fad for women. It came a couple years and then by 18 a couple years before and by 1890 it fell out amongst younger women and no longer cool. Toothix became a symbol of people's class and future and they were judged on it. Like a young newspaper boy with a toothpick in his mouth was looked as forever being relegated to his low status. Like they would they would they would they would see a kid with a toothpick in his mouth and the paper would write like he's never

going to rise above his father. Well he doesn't want to do anything with his life. What is he? Nine and has a toothpick in his mouth? Well enjoy your life as being a popper lad. You chose the wrong lane early. I'll come back in 20 years and hire you to move a pile of shit somewhere. Yeah that's right you're a shit shifter. But for the wealthy a gold plated toothpick was still part of a gentleman's equipment. They were symbols of affluence and status and quote snobbishness. Great. As it as it had with women the public display of picking fell out of favor with most good housekeeping good housekeeping had an article about toothpicks in 1894 that said amongst women it was quote steadily falling into disuse except in private. The New York star called public

toothpick use an ugly habit and the LA Times said only to do it in private. Sure there I mean yeah you're right to some extent you know. I don't I yeah I'm really I I I don't feel that way I feel like it doesn't fucking matter like if someone's walking over the toothpick in their mouth I don't know. The only thing that I come back to is the idea of like digging in and flinging food out like that. No you don't have to fling food out. Yeah but having a toothpick who gives a shit. Yeah naturally in 1887 a toothpick trust was formed the National Toothpick Association so now they're getting worried there's so many toothpick makers that someone's going to you know undermine the other ones and and cut down the create a monopoly. Well just cut cut down the the profit so the other

ones couldn't make money you know start selling them too cheap or whatever. But Dave that's uh that's our whole okay but I just it feels very no just okay. No okay. It quote controlled the trade there were two small mills one in Massachusetts and another one in Maine that were not part of the trust but everyone else was. The trust tried to drive those two out of business but the main factory came up with a faster way to make toothpicks and survived. Okay stop sharpening them. That that factory had like orders like two years ahead of time that's how well they were doing. Okay so the production of toothpicks continued at pace in America what we considered the modern day toothpick round with the point it ends was patented by Charles Freeman in 1891.

I put something in the chat for you with a picture of the patent yeah the page. You want to describe that? Just tell people. I'm again not I'm not a patent man so I've not seen a ton of patents but I will say uh it feels like it's an an inadequate patent. There's not a lot written on the page the top it just says the toothpick then there's some names like C.C. Freeman toothpick and there's a number and the patent number then there's middle of the page is blank and there's just a line in the middle just like a guy was like I'll just draw oh he drew he's drew a toothpick. That's it. So that is the drawing of a toothpick I'm realizing it. Yes it you would recognize that hopefully nobody has a patent on splinters because that guy has a

case and uh that it's just signed and the patent drawing for Freeman's improved toothpick was stark. That is uh that is Freeman's toothpick yes. Great good really good stuff. Just I mean drawing the toothpick on the paper. Charles had already started working with this guy Freeman so it was not a threat so I think this guy I think Charles worked as a machinist in some in some factory so he knew him and when he had the idea I think that it's a little bit murky as to what happened but it sounds like maybe Charles gave him money to come up with it and then he patented I think he wanted to have his wife Charlotte put the patent under her name but for some reason it wouldn't work but anyway the guy was in business with Charles from day one so when

this new which is the modern day toothpick the pointed on both ends round this is this is when it came about and from then on that's what it's been. So he kept Charles kept making toothpicks and selling them in 1900 he became ill and he applied to the patent office for 10 trademarks some he'd been using for 25 years so he's trying to he's trying to get control of his fortune so he could dole it out to his family over years he sort of created the toothpick empire yeah he created this trust and this fortune for his he was just like I obviously can't predict where the future technology will take the toothpick but the sky is the limit. I built a toothpick castle for my family he died on march 9th 1901 toothpicks reached their peak of popularity by world war two

world war two strong world war tooth strong main was the center of toothpick production but then after world war two came nylon floss and cheap toothpicks from china and southeast asia also came and by the 1980s sales plummeted the toothpick mills in main slowly began to close down the forester manufacturing company's mill was the last to close and it closed in 2003 not one toothpick is made in strong main today wow wow we'll get right back to talking about toothpicks in a sec first I want to say we are also brought to you by helix sleep I have slept in my share of really terrible mattresses in my time I used to sleep in comedy condos I don't know if you guys know what that is but it's like the

apartment that the comedy club owns and it's like sleeping on a bag full of beavers basically the mattresses they had so I can appreciate a really really sweet mattress and that's what helix is now I sleep like a baby I never take it for granted like helix makes personalized mattresses they make them right here in the usa they're shipped straight to your door in a box with free no contact delivery free returns 100 night sleep trial and the way you choose a mattress with helix is you go to their website you take a quiz takes like two minutes and you complete it and then it matches your body type with your sleep preferences finds the exact mattress for you and if you like a mattress it's really soft or firm you sleep on your side or your face or you

sleep on your head like me you sleep really hot with helix there's a mattress that matches up for you I took the quiz I was matched with the dusk luxe which is the supreme of head sleeper one and I wanted something that was like medium and like I said I sleep on my head and it's amazing I am sleeping so awesome and you can't say enough about how comfortable this thing is it's crazy like I never want to get out of bed anymore I'd rather just stay there all the time which I can now because I live at home all the time look I love helix but you don't need to take my word for it look I love helix but you don't have to take my word for it helix was awarded the number one best overall mattress pick of 2020 by gq wired magazine and apartment therapy just go to helix.com

slash dollop take the two-minute sleep quiz and they'll match you with a customized mattress that will give you the best sleep of your life you got a 10-year warranty so you can try it out for 100 nights risk-free and then they'll even pick it up and give you refund if you don't love it but you're gonna so don't worry about that helix is offering up to 200 off all mattress orders for our listeners at helix sleep dot com slash dollop that's helix sleep dot com slash dollop for 200 dollars off seriously the best mattress ever uh most of this came from henry patrosky's the toothpick god he must have been like when he was writing that book he's like look am i in or am i out it is so crazy how in depth he goes into it it's crazy it is it is an amazing it is amazing it

reminds me of the mince pie stuff it's just amazing just these little things you never think of well it's such a different it's such a different it's so alien to us because everything has changed so much and and you forget like i mean even then even in the 1850s or whatever 1880s how much a toothpick yeah changes everything things well and how like yeah i mean really when you think about i mean we are now at the point where you are really spoiled obviously with all the things you can do to to have self-care but yeah i mean the feeling like i there are times where i'll go oh i have something in my teeth and i'll be like i can't wait to get home and get it out and the idea that there was a time when you would just be like it lives in there it's just like you know people are

you're dying for that sensation or you go out to the forest and and take a twig down and whittle it and then yeah like at that point you'd be like god damn it i don't have my knife on me so i can't whittle a toothpick and and even in that time there was a guy saying to another person just like can you imagine what we did before we sharpened twigs you know buddy you are nowhere on the evolution of this yet but teeth are i just i had a root canal um uh welcome last month i'd never had one i'd never had one before i'd gotten pretty lucky i think but he said that back in the dentist the the guy who did it he wasn't a dentist he's oral surgeon i guess but he said that that they found the chinese way back when we're doing root canals wow like teeth are such a

massive part of your life yes particularly if they go wrong yes like the pain that is involved like because when you have a when you have a toothache like that my first thought is always like what did they do i always think of uh i think i even told you this i like when i because i've had over the past couple years i've really come into my britishness and really had some major teeth problems but i always think of that scene in castaway when tom cruise takes an ice skate blade and pops the tooth out of his head i mean i get to the point where i'll be like i just like i'm literally like how much is a figure skate i'll do i'll pop it out of my like you get to that point yeah i also remember like you know hygienic healthy teeth they can unhealthy teeth can kill you

you know yeah whereas healthy teeth can extend your life and yeah and it's not just teeth i think that you know we're talking about the plaque and the there's been a lot of i don't know if it's been affirmed but for a long time there was a belief that um that plaque you know causes all kinds of problems like heart problems and like it's in it's in your mouth and then it goes to other parts of your body and it shouldn't be there and so toothpicks would have literally been you know saving lives and stuff like it's a really crazy important thing yeah yeah it's weird though it is weird because you know yeah i mean it's just amazing like it's just amazing to be like i'm gonna hone in on the toothpick yeah right yeah did your did your did your dad use toothpicks

yeah i mean i i was kind of thinking during that like it definitely felt like toothpicks were way more prevalent when i was a child then now but yeah i i even think we had a um i think we even had like a a cup with like toothpicks in it like for people to yeah we had we and yeah and they they still have my restaurants and stuff but yeah i know yeah everybody had toothpicks in their house when i was growing up and every all my uncles and my dad always had toothpicks now my dad was a crazy alcoholic so one time i came back from college and i was like i need to go see a dentist can i have some money to see a dentist and he was like you don't need to see a dentist i mean you know forget about all the crazy how bad of a story this is about but he was like you don't

need a dentist i don't go to the i've been to this in five years you know why and he pulled out a toothpick he said because i got these as his mouth is bleeding these boy yeah but i think there is i think there is something to that i mean as crazy as he was and as horrible person as he was like there is something to the fact that you can really get your teeth pretty fucking clean if you're just always working around with a toothpick yeah i also like how now we've wrapped toothpicks in plastic where you're like perfect let's just just wait a minute what do they yeah oh the little oh the little that's for restaurants right yeah but you're like good let's just wherever we can but maybe we should put but what if people touch that should we put plastic around the plastic

but this is the these are the same people who then go and and dig their hand into a peanut bowl on a bar that's been like touched by everybody's dirty hand you know it's the same we haven't even begun to think i mean we're so beaten and bludgeoned by the past year we haven't even started to think about what bar snacking is going to be like postcode it's just gonna be like it's just gonna be like i mean there's not going to be any peanuts on the bar anymore that's tough no they really won't be anymore yeah crazy though very crazy what a crazy what a crazy little dive i know right i just love that we have a regular relationship outside of this and then once a week you are gonna surprise the shit out of me like we're talking like yet you're probably thinking in your head

like i'm gonna tell this fucking idiot about toothpicks tomorrow he's got no idea he's like all right sounds good yeah um there's a couple other things i have there's a couple other things that are not people that are coming down the pike okay well that's interesting but one of them gets really dark so i haven't done it oh good well i'm sure that sounds pretty fitting for this um all right well listen good work dave i think we both did really great stuff today yep a lot of research on both of our parts it's interesting it's cool uh join me thursday for my uh stand-up show it's talked we're doing a lot of toothpick stuff and then we have announced another live one um may 14th uh this time it's

on a friday a live live dollop it's on a friday so people in australia can uh watch it live live and then the 48 hours i guess is a pretty uh yeah it's hard it's a hard 48 it's a hard 48 because apparently someone was watching and it ended right in the middle i didn't know that would happen but that's apparently the thing so yeah if you watch it afterwards there is a yeah got two days they're not fucking around it all loops not kidding around loops not like yeah we mean 49 loops like 48 get it out she's watching it right now looped pull the plug and that's it we're really we said it before that they're not um they're not something they're going to be around so yeah yeah and that last one was actually very crazy people really enjoyed that

one it's about bull island uh the bull festival yeah it was crazy crazy yeah who knew woodstock was the tame one right anyway yeah all right gobble gobble uh gobble gobble