Tossing It Out Tuesday: Out With the Old, In With the Next Idea

         The fall television season of 2009 saw the debut of a new television show that I immediately became hooked on.    FlashForward had all of the qualities that I like to see in a story--apocalyptic visions, time travel, action adventure, cerebral crimes, and mysterious conspiracies.  I faithfully watched every episode until the season conclusion in May.  I was anxious for the show to resume this fall.

         As fall approached I was seeing no promos on television for the show.  I checked it out online and discovered that FlashForward would not be returning.  That's one of the reasons I don't usually watch too much television anymore.  It seems like when I get caught up in a show, the network will unceremoniously dump it without ending it or with an unsatisfactory conclusion.

         It's probably mainly an issue of money and ratings.  From a business standpoint it makes sense for a network to toss out a show that lacks the potential of paying for itself.  Business will typically do this. If a product is not selling, the line will get dumped.  If an author or another artist is no longer popular, they might lose their contract.  It's disappointing to the fans who have remained loyal, but most companies don't stay in business catering to the few.

         I ran into this situation yesterday at the supermarket.  My favorite Colgate toothpaste flavor, Cinnamint, was nowhere to be seen--not even an empty space.  I hope Colgate hasn't discontinued the line and it was only a decision by this particular supermarket.  I guess I could complain to the store manager, but I buy maybe three tubes per year.  I'm not really a consumer with clout.  This is probably the wrong attitude.  I should be the squeaky wheel more often.

          The point that I guess I'm trying to make in this post is that if my daily blog were rated according to viewers and marketability, then the days that I've "tossed out" are the posts that would be less appealing to advertisers and be the least revenue producing.

           I know that's a heck of a way to look at my blogging activity, especially considering that there is actually no advertising invloved,  but as they say "Time is money" and I have to think about what the best investment of my time is.  Today's post is merely a variation on a theme.  This explanation, complete with examples, gets to the gist of why I am tossing out blogging days.  

           Are there any favorite television shows that you have followed that were canned, much to your disappointment?   Have you had a favorite artist (author, musician, actor, etc) who was tossed by the wayside due to lack of sales or commercial appeal?   Has there ever been a product that you liked that a company stopped producing?   What have you tossed out of your life because it was taking too much of your time, costing too much money, or not being worth your effort to keep doing it?

         

         

Getting a Bit Long in the Tooth Paste Aisle

                Things have gotten so much more complicated than they used to be.  It used to be that when you needed toothpaste you'd just go to the toothpaste section of the store and grab a tube.  There would be just a few choices. If you needed to get rid of the yellow on your teeth and had their advertising jingle in  your head,  you'd grab a tube of Pepsodent.  Or there was Ipana with the cute Bucky Beaver commercials like you might have seen in the movie GREASE.  All in all the choices were few.

                                  

                Why I can recall when you could find tooth powder in the store. Tooth powder was the precursor to toothpaste.  It was basically something like baking soda, salt, and some flavoring and it came in a can.  It was the next best thing to brushing your teeth with Ajax because it tasted better.

         But when it came right down to it, back then the toothpastes were all pretty similar in that they all had that "minty fresh taste".  They were all white at first.  Then they started making toothpaste in shades of blue and green and even making them come out striped. There were more brands and more gimmicks.  Still it was all pretty simple for a while.  You might have been swayed by reports of which ones four out of five dentists recommended or which ones prevented cavities, but I don't think you could tell that much of a difference if you were doing blind taste test.

           Then something happened.  Each brand name started adding more and more flavors, colors, functions, and formats.  There were new kinds dispensers that went beyond the traditional tubes.  There were pastes that did different things for different users. Now beyond mint there was an array of mint--peppermint, spearmint, cool mint, arctic mint, fresh mint and all other kinds of mint.  New flavors such as bubblegum, tuttifrutti, and cinnamon were added .  I'm waiting for food in a tube that you can eat and clean your teeth at the same time. Hey!  How about lasagna or kung pao chicken flavored toothpaste for your next time saving meal with teeth cleaning included. Yuk!

           So which toothpaste is best?  Well, no scientifically backed opinion from me.  I go by what's on sale as the first criterion for my purchase.  And the winner is usually Colgate.  It seems like whenever I'm ready for new toothpaste, more often than not the grocery chain where I usually shop, Ralph's Supermarket, owned by Krogers, has Colgate on sale. Sometimes it's Aquafresh, and more rarely Crest-- but usually it's Colgate that's on sale when I'm buying.  That's fine with me because I have become mighty partial towards the Colgate Cinnamint and Luminous Paradise Fresh.

       The Colgate flavor that I usually have on hand is Cinnamint.  I've always preferred cinnamon to mint.  One bad thing about the Cinnamint is that it looks like your gums are bleeding when you rinse after brushing, but the toothpaste is red so what do you expect.  The Colgate Luminous Paradise Fresh is a sparkly paste that looks like it must be filled with some kind of radioactive substance.  The taste reminds me of some sort of candy I used to eat when I was younger, but I can't quite place what the flavor is.  Looking at the paste I'm thinking that I might glow in the dark, and the name might seem to suggest that it glows in the dark, but I haven't checked yet.

       Yes things have changed.  I don't know why we would need all those different kinds of toothpaste.  Sometimes it seems like we Americans just have too much time on our hands.

        What kinds of silly little things do you find yourself making decisions about? 

         Don't forget to make the decision to read my post tomorrow.  Up-and-coming artist Ada Jackson will be featured.  She will be telling us about her work and her art business.  I think you might enjoy hearing about Ada.