Skip to main content

Don't Give Me Any Lip (Part 1)

I recently bought some Lanolips lip balm on my wife's suggestion to help protect me while I'm out walking the dog in the cold and, in doing so, I noticed the smallprint on the side of the tube say the product has 101 uses.

Now, while it's fair to say I'm very pleased with my purchase, I can still smell hyperbole a mile off, and can't help but feel they may have plucked that figure out of thin air just to please themselves. So consequently, in an occasional series, I'm going to try and count the amount of uses that spring to mind, to find out if they're lying or telling the truth.

So here goes:

1) Lip salve.
2) Skin moisturiser.
3) Teeth polisher (horrible noise).
4) Stamp sticker-downer.
5) Moustache wax.
6) Eyebrow wax.
7)Nail varnish.
8)Vick's vaporub substitute.
9).Shoe polish (you'd need a lot).
10) Coin polish.
11) Brass polish.
13) POLISH.
14) WD40 substitute.
15) Elbow grease.
16) Blutack substitute (will grease up posters)
17) Finger moistener for wine glass rim-playing.
18) Mouse sex lube (will also suit other small mammals).
19) Invisible ink.
20) Jewelry loosener.
21) Keyhole maintainer.
22) Soft focus lens adapter (when filming Robert Redford).
23) Prostate examination-enabler (doesn't bear much thought).
24) Frosted glass-creator.
25) Replacement for the apricot jam when icing a cake.
26) Page-turning aid.
27) Candlemaking material.
28) Earwax substitute.
29) Baking tray / tin greaser.
30) Doorknob slippy-maker (when you want to prevent people getting in).
31) Decadent Prittstick.

And with that last comment, 'decadent Prittstick' (which sounds like some kind of slightly poncy 1970s pop group) I shall pause my little tally for the moment; all I can say is I hope I can actually prove the people at Lanolips right; I'd much rather get to that grand total by honest means than believe they're out-and-out searching for it.

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera...

Comedy That's Worth a Letch.

Today, I nipped to Letchworth to meet with illustrator (and one-time - two-time - comedy poet) Mushybees, to discuss an event Mostly Comedy will act as surrogate parents to as part of Letchworth’s Arts Takeover in a couple of weeks. Months ago he got into contact to see if we’d be up for co-organising a comedy stage as part of Letchworth’s weekend of arts-based attractions in July; something I’d provisionally said yes to, before things got hectic in the lead-up to Edinburgh and we didn’t take it any further. Despite not getting down to the nitty-gritty straight away, we managed to pull a line-up together in a back-and-forth of emails yesterday, leading to me getting Glyn’s blessing and us deciding we’d officially go ahead with it (whatever ‘officially’ means in this context). In reality, it’s not complicated: from 12pm until 6pm-ish on the 22 nd July, Glyn, Mushybees and I will host four Edinburgh previews from four acts (including me), before Nor...

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce...