We know about cycles in a washing machine but nothing about detergent wars. Contribution from Stan.
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I had to do a look up to check that Booth is still alive. He’s in his 90s!
If this is in fact new work … Bravo! So nice to see he’s still got that unmistakeable style!
Why is there a faucet on the opposite wall? And no sink?
The sink has been repossessed?
The sink is oddly built, as a fold-down. We just don’t see the lines.
The sink is detachable and portable, and the head-of-household has moved it over to the other side, to do laundry in.
But basically it must just be part of Booth’s vision of ramshackle living.
When I heard Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (which came out in 1989) for the first time back in the mid-1990’s, I mistook the lyrics:
“Rockin’ roller cola wars”
for:
“Rock & roll and color wars”
(Racial tension had been at the forefront of our news at the time.)
A friend explained that “color wars” wasn’t a common term (that is, it wasn’t “a thing”) back in the 1980s, but “cola wars” sure was (which referred to Coke and Pepsi vying to be the public’s preferred cola brand).
There are plenty of “wars-that-aren’t-really-wars” out there. There’s “cola wars,” “color wars,” and… and… um… well… I’m sure there are others. In this cartoon, the cartoonist is poking fun of the term “detergent wars” (which already might be “a thing”; I’m not quite sure).
And what would a detergent war look like? Here’s where some humor is used; at some point in the detergent war “cycle,” things clearly get out of hand and large soap bubbles are involved. Naturally.
There are plenty of “wars-that-aren’t-really-wars” out there.
There’s “cola wars,” “color wars,” and… and… um… well…
I’m sure there are others
Do you remember the Browser Wars?
I’ve recently been thinking about the Linguistics Wars — maybe from renting and reading this book which takes on the aftermath. (And is by two guys I have known.)
But also I know of a use of “color war” that was not at all racial. I might note that I was not at all a summer-camp child, but have seen enough TV and movie depictions to recognize the tradition of different houses or the like taking team identifications by arbitrary colors, and running all sorts of competitions among the teams over the course of the summer, under the designation color wars.
Speaking of product wars, does anybody else remember gas wars? When gas went down to 18 cents a gallon?
I used to take my mother’s car to ‘go to Mass’ on Sunday mornings, then I’d drive around for an hour. To make up the gas, I’d put a quarter’s worth, and worry that she’d see that it was too much.
This might be dating myself, but I remember when gas went down to 88 cents a gallon.
Before that, I remember thinking one morning while driving to get gas. I thought: They should sell gas at 99 cents a gallon. They might lose some a bit on the promotion, but they’d at least get publicity for being known as “The Gas Station That Sold Gas For Under One Dollar A Gallon!”
Then I arrived at the gas station surprised to see its gasoline being sold for 98 cents a gallon. (Actually, it was 98.9 cents per gallon, but who’s counting?)
I remember something called Star Wars. Was that about feuding celebrities?
There were some Ice Cream Wars in Glasgow, though that was more connected with illicit under the counter drug trading. Also, there was the Betamax/VHS video standard war. And was Hertz and Avis a war or just some competition?
There was an Ice Cream War in Boston, on the flat part of Beacon Hill, in the late 1970’s when a rogue employee of Baskin Robbins Ice Cream firebombed Fred’s Ice Cream.
Fred’s is long gone, but it’s the best ice cream I ever had, even better than Steve’s or Toscanini’s.
The detergent war makes me think of a cartoon I saw in the 1960’s. Two scientists in an Atomic Research Laboratory have evidently just finished building their machine which looks like a giant front-loading washing machine. One says to the other “Nuclear deterrent? I thought they said nuclear detergent!”
That gave me a chuckle. Thanks for sharing, Mark In Boston.
Sometimes there is a water tap on a wall with no sink – one brings whatever one needs to fill to it, fills it and then takes it where it needed – odd inside houses, but common outside of houses.
In “olden” days I am guessing one might have same and bring the dish washing tubs (one for soapy water, one for rinse water – on a bicycle hosteling trip while in junior high the staff at the hostel taught us to fill a dish pan or side of a 2 sided sink that way – to wash the dishes and conserve water – I sort of still do this – I fill dishpan with hot soapy water, but then have no room for a second one and run the water very slightly to rinse dishes) to the tap and fill with water. It does seem to only have one tap – so the water would have to be heated to use for dish washing or laundry.
Of course in the 1700s (my period of expertise) the two tubs would be wooden and filled by the bucket – water heated over the fire to use – and yes, I have used this method at reenactments to clean up after cooking and/or eating. I have avoided suggested a laundry demo as it is very involved, but have seen it done at events with other groups – and the clean laundry is spread on the grass and over bushes to dry – no line.
Old New York tenements have a number of now-unusual features, including a bathtub in the kitchen.
Mark M wrote:
I remember something called Star Wars. Was that about feuding celebrities?
No, it wasn’t about feuding celebrities — though I could see why you millennials might think that. Star Wars was a theme used to paint pictures on Burger King drinking glasses back in 1977.
It was an artistic style that was used to decorate cups in the late 1970s. Nothing more.
Pay no attention to that Droid…
Before the 3rd movie – “Return of the Jedi” we had bought a box of Star Wars paper bathroom cups which were labeled as “Revenge of the Jedi”. Now, I am not sure if that was a misprint or if someone realized that there is a comment of some sort along the lines of they cannot take revenge or they just changed the name of the movie – or it the cups/package never should have said that – but it was an odd thing. We kept the package unopened due to this apparent error for some years afterwards and then one day were in need of paper bathroom cups and used them – of course.
Meryl A, I read somewhere on the internets that the working title of the third Star Wars movie (Episode VI) was “Revenge of the Jedi”, but George Lucas decided to go with “Return of the Jedi” sometime before the movie was released.
Episode III (which came out in 2005) paralleled Episode VI in many ways, so George Lucas found it fitting to name that movie “Revenge of the Sith”. So after 22 years, the word “Revenge” finally got to be included in its own Star Wars episode title.
I had figured that someone realized since it was mentioned in some episode that Jedi cannot take revenge – it was a bad title.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I had to do a look up to check that Booth is still alive. He’s in his 90s!
If this is in fact new work … Bravo! So nice to see he’s still got that unmistakeable style!
Why is there a faucet on the opposite wall? And no sink?
The sink has been repossessed?
The sink is oddly built, as a fold-down. We just don’t see the lines.
The sink is detachable and portable, and the head-of-household has moved it over to the other side, to do laundry in.
But basically it must just be part of Booth’s vision of ramshackle living.
When I heard Billy Joel’s song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (which came out in 1989) for the first time back in the mid-1990’s, I mistook the lyrics:
“Rockin’ roller cola wars”
for:
“Rock & roll and color wars”
(Racial tension had been at the forefront of our news at the time.)
A friend explained that “color wars” wasn’t a common term (that is, it wasn’t “a thing”) back in the 1980s, but “cola wars” sure was (which referred to Coke and Pepsi vying to be the public’s preferred cola brand).
There are plenty of “wars-that-aren’t-really-wars” out there. There’s “cola wars,” “color wars,” and… and… um… well… I’m sure there are others. In this cartoon, the cartoonist is poking fun of the term “detergent wars” (which already might be “a thing”; I’m not quite sure).
And what would a detergent war look like? Here’s where some humor is used; at some point in the detergent war “cycle,” things clearly get out of hand and large soap bubbles are involved. Naturally.
There are plenty of “wars-that-aren’t-really-wars” out there.There’s “cola wars,” “color wars,” and… and… um… well…
I’m sure there are others
Do you remember the Browser Wars?
I’ve recently been thinking about the Linguistics Wars — maybe from renting and reading this book which takes on the aftermath. (And is by two guys I have known.)
But also I know of a use of “color war” that was not at all racial. I might note that I was not at all a summer-camp child, but have seen enough TV and movie depictions to recognize the tradition of different houses or the like taking team identifications by arbitrary colors, and running all sorts of competitions among the teams over the course of the summer, under the designation color wars.
Speaking of product wars, does anybody else remember gas wars? When gas went down to 18 cents a gallon?
I used to take my mother’s car to ‘go to Mass’ on Sunday mornings, then I’d drive around for an hour. To make up the gas, I’d put a quarter’s worth, and worry that she’d see that it was too much.
This might be dating myself, but I remember when gas went down to 88 cents a gallon.
Before that, I remember thinking one morning while driving to get gas. I thought: They should sell gas at 99 cents a gallon. They might lose some a bit on the promotion, but they’d at least get publicity for being known as “The Gas Station That Sold Gas For Under One Dollar A Gallon!”
Then I arrived at the gas station surprised to see its gasoline being sold for 98 cents a gallon. (Actually, it was 98.9 cents per gallon, but who’s counting?)
I remember something called Star Wars. Was that about feuding celebrities?
There were some Ice Cream Wars in Glasgow, though that was more connected with illicit under the counter drug trading. Also, there was the Betamax/VHS video standard war. And was Hertz and Avis a war or just some competition?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Ice_Cream_Wars
There was an Ice Cream War in Boston, on the flat part of Beacon Hill, in the late 1970’s when a rogue employee of Baskin Robbins Ice Cream firebombed Fred’s Ice Cream.
Fred’s is long gone, but it’s the best ice cream I ever had, even better than Steve’s or Toscanini’s.
The detergent war makes me think of a cartoon I saw in the 1960’s. Two scientists in an Atomic Research Laboratory have evidently just finished building their machine which looks like a giant front-loading washing machine. One says to the other “Nuclear deterrent? I thought they said nuclear detergent!”
That gave me a chuckle. Thanks for sharing, Mark In Boston.
Sometimes there is a water tap on a wall with no sink – one brings whatever one needs to fill to it, fills it and then takes it where it needed – odd inside houses, but common outside of houses.
In “olden” days I am guessing one might have same and bring the dish washing tubs (one for soapy water, one for rinse water – on a bicycle hosteling trip while in junior high the staff at the hostel taught us to fill a dish pan or side of a 2 sided sink that way – to wash the dishes and conserve water – I sort of still do this – I fill dishpan with hot soapy water, but then have no room for a second one and run the water very slightly to rinse dishes) to the tap and fill with water. It does seem to only have one tap – so the water would have to be heated to use for dish washing or laundry.
Of course in the 1700s (my period of expertise) the two tubs would be wooden and filled by the bucket – water heated over the fire to use – and yes, I have used this method at reenactments to clean up after cooking and/or eating. I have avoided suggested a laundry demo as it is very involved, but have seen it done at events with other groups – and the clean laundry is spread on the grass and over bushes to dry – no line.
Old New York tenements have a number of now-unusual features, including a bathtub in the kitchen.
Mark M wrote:
No, it wasn’t about feuding celebrities — though I could see why you millennials might think that. Star Wars was a theme used to paint pictures on Burger King drinking glasses back in 1977.
It was an artistic style that was used to decorate cups in the late 1970s. Nothing more.
Pay no attention to that Droid…
Before the 3rd movie – “Return of the Jedi” we had bought a box of Star Wars paper bathroom cups which were labeled as “Revenge of the Jedi”. Now, I am not sure if that was a misprint or if someone realized that there is a comment of some sort along the lines of they cannot take revenge or they just changed the name of the movie – or it the cups/package never should have said that – but it was an odd thing. We kept the package unopened due to this apparent error for some years afterwards and then one day were in need of paper bathroom cups and used them – of course.
Meryl A, I read somewhere on the internets that the working title of the third Star Wars movie (Episode VI) was “Revenge of the Jedi”, but George Lucas decided to go with “Return of the Jedi” sometime before the movie was released.
Episode III (which came out in 2005) paralleled Episode VI in many ways, so George Lucas found it fitting to name that movie “Revenge of the Sith”. So after 22 years, the word “Revenge” finally got to be included in its own Star Wars episode title.
I had figured that someone realized since it was mentioned in some episode that Jedi cannot take revenge – it was a bad title.