Quote of the day:

To every problem, there is a most simple solution.
—Agatha Christie

There was an underground newspaper that was published for a time while I was at Penn State. I forget the name of it, but it had a regular record review column that I think was called Mental Floss, if I recall correctly. I remember the guy that wrote it, although I didn’t know him personally, but I’d often see him walking around campus with a bag full of newly purchased LPs. I remember seeing some of his “friends”, or maybe I should call them his acquaintances, razzing him about all the records he used to buy.

Anyway, this post is really about dental floss, the stuff that one uses to clean between one’s teeth.

For years, decades, I’ve been using a brand called Glide. It was originally an independent company, then it got bought by Crest, who eventually sold it to Oral-B.

Through all those years the product remained the same. It did what its name claimed. It would glide between my teeth.

Until the most recent batch.

And now it glides no more. The product changed completely. The material is totally different and about twice as thick. It no longer glides and is very difficult to force it between my teeth.

Something else didn’t change, however. In about one out of every four or five packs, the floss sticks. That is, the wheel in the mechanism doesn’t turn easily, making it very difficult to pull out the floss. This used to be a problem with the old, good product, but I put up with it because I liked the product itself so much. But since it’s clear that Oral-B with all its years of experience doesn’t know how to make a free-turning floss wheel (or whatever those things are called), in my search for a replacement, I wouldn’t be looking at Oral-B products. I’m through with that incompetent company.

I’m happy to report that I found a suitable replacement. It’s called Reach.

So far it fills all my flossing needs and the flossing wheel hasn’t let me down once.

So now when I need to floss, I reach for Reach.