by Kim Pederson…….

Today (September 16) is National Play-Doh Day. Somehow it slipped my mind, perhaps because this information byte was never there in the first place. This is just further evidence that I am falling further and further behind the times, specifically, The New York Times, which thought NPDD was important enough to include a story about it in today’s Morning Briefing.

Play-Doh consists of flour, water, salt, boric acid, and mineral oil. You might already know this if you, like me, thought “doh” must mean “dough” as in cookie makings and acted accordingly. It, in case you are wondering, does not taste like chicken.

Play-Doh began its life as a compound to clean wallpaper. Back in the first half of the 20th century, most Americans heated with coal, which besooted their walls to no end. They needed something to take the grime off without damaging the decor. Enter Noah McVicker of Kutol Products in Cincinnati. His nontoxic, nonstaining, reusable cleaning compound sold like gangbusters until natural gas heating and washable vinyl wallpaper killed it. (Yes, vinyl wallpaper. Very clever, us Yanks.)

Long story short, another McVicker, Joe, discovered that some nursery school students were using the compound to make Christmas ornaments. The light bulb went on. Kutol added color to it, took it to educational conferences, and the Play-Doh of today was born. It has since, according to current owner Hasbro, sold over 950 million pounds.

In honor of NPDD, the Mental Floss website put up “10 Fun Facts for National Play-Doh Day.” Here are just a couple. The product got kickstarted on TV because Captain Kangaroo thought it was treool (tres cool) and used it three times a week on his show (for a cut of the profits, of course). If you love (and now miss) the smell of Play-Doh in the morning, you can just dab on Demeter’s Play-Doh fragrance. And finally, if your mom told you “son, be a dentist” and you ignored her, you can now get the joy of inflicting pain you missed out on using Play-Doh’s Dr. Drill ‘N Fill set.

I am jealous of the McVickers. (It’s probably no accident that their name falls very close to Macgyver.) I would welcome such genius, even if it’s of the accidental variety, in transforming one thing into another as a form of play that makes dough. Wait! Eureka! I’ve just had what may be a bonainastorm (bonanza-making brainstorm). What if you combined whitening toothpaste with tomato soup and then froze it in a popsicle form? Kids could eat a healthy lunch (relatively), have a dessert snack, and clean, protect, and brighten their teeth all at the same time. I even have a name for this product: the Dentato Pop. Brilliant! Excuse me while I go look up George Foreman‘s phone number.

*”Play-Doh Original Canister” by source (Hasbro). Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia .

Visit Kim Pederson’s blog RatBlurt: Mostly Random Short-Attention-Span  Musings.