You probably don’t realize it, but I have self appointed myself as your consumer advisor. I will look at products that have fortunately fallen into my hands and will report on them. Everybody would like to make a contribution to our society and this is mine.
The product I am evaluating today is Gillette Fusion ProSeries Thermal Face Scrub. I never buy that kind of stuff, so you can be sure that it came as a free sample when I bought the razor or some blades or something. I know it’s a sample because it is such a tiny tube. It’s so tiny that you can’t read the directions on the tube. But who needs directions, especially when the name of the stuff is six words long. It’s a face scrub and it deals with shaving and thermal means hot.
So I squirted a little on my hands. Part of it was solid and part of it was liquid (not good). I rubbed my hands together and it started getting hot. Strange (I wonder if a boy scout could start a fire with this stuff). Then I rubbed it on my face. Face felt warm. Good sign. I wasn’t sure whether it was supposed to take the place of the shaving soap. I tried to shave. Not a good plan. I got out a magnifying glass and the directions said to rinse it off. Then shave as normal.
OK, I rinsed it off. Then I applied my shaving soap. The thermal scrub must have still been there, because as I was applying my shaving soap, something was killing my foam! I applied twice as much shaving soap and had one-tenth of the foam. I found out you can get by with one-tenth of the foam, but it still seemed crazy.
Then I decided that maybe my problem was that I wasn’t using a Gillette shaving soap. I was using Medicated Noxema for sensitive skin in a red can. The can said, “THICK RICH LATHER.” They had never seen what a thermal face scrub could do to their thick rich lather.
I finally decided that maybe this was some ingenious plan by Gillette to ensure the use of Gillette shaving gel. I am the proud owner of one can of Gillette Fusion Hydra Gel moisturizing shaving cream with Aloe and Cocoa Butter. I don’t care for the gel, but the can was only $1.80 at the Commissary and Carole had a $2.00 coupon (We’ll never get rich, but what the hell).
So in my ever-vigilant quest for knowledge, I applied the Gillette gel after applying the thermal face scrub. I am here to report that there are no devious chemists at Gillette. Gillette’s shaving gel failed to make foam when confronted with the face scrub.
I decided to go on Google and Youtube to see if I was overlooking something by not reading the directions. I seemed to be using the product correctly. I watched a couple of guys on Youtube and they applied the thermal face scrub just like I did. Of course, I didn’t see anyone apply shaving cream after the fact. So, I am giving the product a C- because it is a foam killer.
One of the things that frosts me is when a product I am using disappears or changes its appearance so that I can’t find it. I use a Head and Shoulders shampoo. I think Head and Shoulders must have 40 different shampoos. Different names, different color containers. Sometime back, my particular shampoo went to purple writing on a white container. That was neat. All I had to do was scan through the H & S section until I found purple. I wonder if they have thought about their customers who are color blind.
The last time I looked, purple had disappeared. So I looked for the magic words. My magic H & S words are “extra volume.” I looked at all the bottles for the magic words. No luck. Fortunately, I have one more bottle stashed away, so we are not in crises mode yet. But, I do need that extra volume!
I’ve used Old Spice stick deodorant forever. It too has gone through a number of iterations. I think I was around when stick deodorant first came on the market. I was a little kid and my eccentric Aunt Marie showed up at our house with a stick deodorant. She had me and my brother unbutton our shirts and she rubbed the stick deodorant on our chests. I thought it stunk. I was eight years old and I decided that Aunt Marie wasn’t eccentric, she was crazy. She drove around in a big new Cadillac and her license plate was attached with chicken wire. She also was convinced that fluoride in the drinking water was a Communist plot. I thought it was stick deodorant.
Anyway, the last time I looked for my Old Spice High Endurance deodorant, they had changed the label. But, when I found what I thought was the right one, it said at the top of the container (I’m serious), “High Endurance. SAME STUFF! DIFFERENT LABEL.” Now there’s a company after my heart.
Written by PJ Rice on www.ricequips.com
Monthly Archives: September 2011
The Judge Says – Cutting a Deal
June 12, 1981
In 1969, Uncle Sam sent me to Chicago (Northwestern University) to further my education. Not a great time for an Army major to be on a university campus. I joined up with a bunch of graduate law students to take some courses that would prepare us to defend serious criminal law cases. Our professor was Bill Martin (he was the lead prosecutor in the Richard Speck case). Sure, you remember Speck. He was the one who killed all the Filipino nurses in Chicago. The jury was out for 32 minutes before coming in with a death sentence. Anyway, for two hours credit each semester, we defended indigent (no money) clients from the Cook County jail.
One of the things I learned how to do was “deal a case” – to cop a plea, to squeal for a deal, to “plead to a lesser and walk” (you think the Army has buzz words). What I am trying to say is that I learned how to enter into an agreement with the prosecution so that my client would plead guilty to something (my clients usually were guilty of something) and receive something in return. Sometimes my client would receive a lesser sentence or, perhaps, probation.
The way it worked in the civilian world (or at least in Chicago) was that the court didn’t start until 10:00 AM, but the prosecutor would be there before nine. Defense counsels would wait their turn to see him. I would huddle with the prosecutor in a corner and I would tell him about my case and he would tell me what he had. We would look at my client’s record and see if we could work out a deal. If my client had previously been clean, I could usually work something out. Then I go back to the cage (oh, I’m very sorry – back to the holding cell) and see what my client thought. If he bought it we were golden because the judge went along with whatever the prosecutor recommended. If he didn’t the system wouldn’t work.
Boy, I’ve taken a long time to get there. What I have been getting ready to say for three long paragraphs is we do the same thing in the Army. Only, I think we do it better.
First, why do we do it? If a soldier knows he is guilty and knows the prosecutor has the goods on him, why shouldn’t he try to get something for a guilty plea? On the other hand, it costs time and sometimes big bucks to prosecute a case. If the Government can save time and money and still be assured a fair sentence for the crime, then what’s the harm?
Here are some of the safeguards the Army has built into the system. First the offer must be submitted in writing by the accused and his counsel (no hashing it out in the corner of the room). Second, it has to be approved by the general court-martial convening authority. That’s the commanding general. He will look over the offer and decide if it is fair to the Army. Then, if all agree, the military judge will look the deal over during the trial. But, he won’t just rubber stamp it. The judge will satisfy himself that the accused is only pleading guilty to what he really did. The judge will also make sure that the accused fully understands the terms of the agreement. Only then will the judge accept the agreement.
So when you read somewhere that the accused pleaded guilty for no apparent reason, the answer most likely is that he had a deal.
Written by PJ Rice on www.ricequips.com
Nikki – The Remarkable Creature
We are dog people. So we have had the yappers and the chewers. Replacing furniture is no fun, especially when you are just starting out and money is tight. Then there was the time when the two leather straps on my briefcase disappeared. They were there when we went out to eat. Ah yes, the adolescent years.
We lost Holly, our lovable Sheltie, at the age of 12. She could identify a dozen of her toys and when I would ask her to go get a particular one, she would race to the hall closet and come back with the requested toy. She had all kinds of energy and when I would raise the weights on the grandfather clock, would come tearing to assist. The weights would end up with nose prints on them. They were brass and I would have to polish out the nose prints. We finally negotiated a deal where she could chew on the end of the chains, but hands (nose) off the weights.
Holly ended up with kidney problems and died in 2005. At that time we were over 65 and unwilling to replace our beloved Holly. With no children or pets at home, we were free to do something spontaneous (not that we ever did). But after about two years we weighed the pros and cons and decided to find another Sheltie. One of the cons was did we have the energy to keep up with a puppy, especially a Sheltie?
We located the woman up in Colesville, Maryland where we had purchased Holly, but she was no longer breeding dogs. She recommended a woman near Clifton, Virginia. The woman had one puppy that was going to be too big to show and she would sell it to us if we didn’t mind an oversize Sheltie. It turned out that Holly had also been too big to show, so that was fine with us. We saw Nikki in the pen with her two sisters. She was already a lot bigger than them. A gigantic ball of fluff.
From the time we brought her home, she very seldom barked and never in the house. I’m not sure she had any accidents in the house, but that may be more to our credit than hers. There were certain rooms she was not permitted to enter. One time when I caught her in the living room, I shouted at her. She leaped sideways and then scampered out of the room. Shelties can leap sideways back and forth to control the direction of sheep. We have no sheep. She did it because she was startled, but she never returned to the living room.
One of the remarkable things about Nikki is her understanding of things around her. She is a quiet, friendly dog that is not demanding. When it is time for her meal or evening treat, she will appear and start staring at us. She usually starts 15 minutes early. Daylight savings time will screw her up for a short time. But she seems to understand that she has entered a subdued environment and does nothing to change it.
I like to putt on the family room rug, but I couldn’t do it with Holly in the house. As soon as the white ball started rolling, Holly had it in her mouth. Nikki, however, understands that the ball in not one of her toys (it was never given to her with much ceremony). So she gets comfortable and watches me putt. I can putt with in an inch of her nose and she never moves it. I wish I didn’t move my nose when I putt.
A few blogs back (“A Summer on the Road”), I mentioned that this summer was going to be an ordeal. We were traveling for 45 days in a three-month period. Well, it was even worse for Nikki. She was boarded five separate times for a total of 52 days. It never phased her. Each time when I picked her up and brought her home, she would come in the house, look around and then look around the fenced-in back yard. With that done, everything was back to normal. No pouting, no destructive gestures, like making my briefcase straps disappear. Just back to her comfortable routine.
Maybe other dogs do this, but this is our first. Nikki sleeps on her back with all four legs in the air. With her hind legs spread apart I would start humming, “Some day my prince with come.” Carole would stare daggers at me.
I just reread this blog and I am not sure how convincing a case I have made that Nikki is so remarkable. I guess it is the day to day things like when I’m putting on my socks and she is putting the sock and my foot in her mouth. And doing it so gently that is doesn’t cause any discomfort.
Written by PJ Rice on www.ricequips.com