today's fun
So today at work one of the girls really didn't agree with the tomato soup that she had for lunch, and afterwards she needed an unused toothbrush and toothpaste to remove the taste from her mouth. She half-jokingly asked me for such a thing, as I have in the past been known to produce rare and obscure toys and tools in a boy scout-like fashion from my desk. And of course I had both toothpaste and brush, second drawer on the left towards the back behind the burlap sack and underneath the bubble-wrap.
It was an old American Airlines travel kit from one of the long hauls between Buenos Aires and Miami.
Probably from 1992 or '93.
The brush was fine - hermetically sealed and all, but the toothpaste apparently had an expiration date on the back - for January of 1995. Jules took the brush, and went in search of someone with 'good' toothpaste to use. Lacking anything more important to do... well... maybe just lacking anything else with such high entertainment value, I called the 1-800 number on the back of the tube. Not only was I surprised to find that the line was still active, I was doubly surprised to find a human being on the other end of only four or five short robot-based menu decisions. I then learned that Colgate-Palmolive only gaurantees their products eighteen months beyond the expiration date, at which point the "consistancy or flavor" of the toothpaste may be subject to change - but the active ingredients should remain effective, although my 'brushing experience' may be subject to change.
So later tonight I will be faced with a dilemma: use this "collector's edition Classic Colgate travel toothpaste" for entertainment value and the hope of possible fluoride poisoning - or save it for posterity and possibly later sale on eBay?