Fatter Toothbrushes?

[MiddleRiverRefugee]

At last, a journalist with the courage to speak out on this issue.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45778-2004Mar10.html

Paddy Bowman is having a minor, albeit irksome, design crisis at her Alexandria bungalow, and it involves the common toothbrush.

The classic Oral-B brush with a straight, plastic handle -- which she has used faithfully for decades and which slips so neatly into her bathroom holder -- has been shoved off store shelves by bulkier brushes sporting what Bowman calls "big, fat, rubber handles."

<snip>

She first noticed the trend several years back when daughter Katie Michaels, now 20, brought home a "Humvee-size toothbrush that made her feel like she was doing a better job of cleaning her teeth."

It would not fit in the holder under the family medicine chest. So they put it in a cup, only to discover that "the toothbrush goop that accumulates in the bottom becomes a primordial soup that could give birth to new life forms." Eventually, a big-handled brush belonging to a beau -- who prefers not to append his name to discussions of oral hygiene -- joined the sink-side clutter.

"It's like when Coke changed," laments Bowman, 56, a folklorist who studies cultural traditions. "I never thought Oral-B would betray me."

[grannylib]

1. *lol* trivial issue to be sure, but I have noticed it too. Newer

toothbrushes with their goofy handles do not fit well into standard holders.
I use glass flower frogs as toothbrush holders; haven't found one yet that would not fit...