My daily run through Prospect Park always brings joy, but today brought a surprise delight. As I reached the Boathouse a sandwich board declared “Ikebana Exhibit”. Inside, the trio of cellist Kirin McElwain and synth artists Serena Stucke/Dan Tesene performed a meditative piece.
Adjacent to the music was an exhibit of Ikebana created from discarded Christmas Trees by the Flower Heart Collective. This was all part of an event called Winter Tea sponsored by Tea Arts & Culture and The Prospect Park Alliance!
Advertisement from Prevention Magazine November 1958
This past summer in Geneva leaders from petrostates squashed attempts by the UN to come to an agreement on limiting plastic pollution. While many European leaders supported limiting production of this ecologically devastating polymer, the petrochemical industry promoted the mythical solution of plastic recycling and rejected any production caps.
I do my best to reduce plastics in everyday life: choosing glass jars at the supermarket, storing food in pyrex, drinking from a stainless steel bottle, even switching to silk dental floss. However, one thing from my plastic free routine has become increasingly difficult: picking my teeth with a wooden stick after eating out.
Stim-U-Dents, the classic matchbook size pack of triangular toothpicks, which used to be found at any chain drugstore, has disappeared from the shelves. Instead, one finds an array of plastic toothpicks–some with one inch pieces of floss, others with micro-brushes at one end. So what happened to my humble Stim-U-Dents?
After some haphazard googling, I decided this mystery might be a good test for an AI tool. I asked Gemini in deep research mode to write an essay on the history of Stim-U-Dents.
An hour later, I checked back to find it had popped out an 8 page paper. To be honest, it wasn’t bad. If Gemini was one of my students, I would give it a solid B. On the one hand, it provided extensive footnotes throughout the essay. On the other hand, these citations had a lot to be desired. First, it cited only the article title, website name and date accessed (which of course means all the articles had the same date!) Without authors or dates of publication, it is hard to know how old or how reliable the sources are. Moreover, many of these sources were very questionable. For example, it cited an Ebay listing for two packs of “Vintage Stim-U-Dent Toothpicks” from the 1940s (6.99 or best offer!) which claimed Stim-U-Dents were Patented in 1937 by Francis Grant of Detroit, Michigan. I contacted the seller to ask where they received this information (something I am not sure Gemini is capable of doing) and received no reply.
Another problem with Gemini’s essay was its vagueness around other dates in Stim-U-Dent history, something which frequently frustrates me when I find it in student papers. In particular, it failed to pin down when Johnson & Johnson acquired the brand. This is where I currently have a significant advantage over Gemini: my ability to search proprietary library databases. My favorite is Proquest, which has great coverage of historical periodicals. Of course, there are many papers, magazines and journals missing from Proquest that one can find through other databases. But as I often remind my students, even with the need to search multiple databases, historical research is still vastly easier than when I started my dissertation in the early nineties using hardbound periodical indexes.
When I searched Proquest, the earliest mention of Stim-U-Dents I could find was in The Detroit Free Press on July 10, 1935, under “Business Notes”:
The Fred M. Randall Co. advertising agents, Book Tower, Detroit is now directing the advertising of five new accounts. They are Stim-U-Dents, Inc., Detroit, manufacturers of a new, medicated tooth-space cleaner and gum stimulator; Michigan Tool Co., Detroit, manufacturers of machines and machine tools and gears: All-American Aircraft Show, to be held in Detroit from July 20 to 28; Banner Brewing Co., Saginaw. Mich., and the Automobile Trailer Division of The Aladdin Co., Bay City, Mich., manufacturers of “readi-cut” homes.
The article seems to confirm the product’s Detroit origins–but it predates by two years the patent date of 1937 claimed by the Ebay seller. Maybe the patent was granted after manufacture of the product began, but my research could find no reference to the patent or the supposed inventor Francis Grant.
The first Stim-U-Dent advertisement that I could find appeared in The Battle Creek Michigan Moon-Journal on May 12 1938, in an ad for Babcock’s Economy Drug Store where Stim-U-Dents are priced at 25 cents. A national campaign emerged in newspapers across the country by the 1940s with the slogan “finish what the toothbrush leaves undone.” In 1958 the brand made its first appearance in a national magazine, Prevention, with the headline “See Magic in Your Mirror” that shows a woman smiling in the mirror at her clean teeth. It goes on to highlight “The Attractiveness of BEAUTIFUL TEETH-GUMS glowing with HEALTH–CLEAN BREATH–Protective aid against DECAY and DISEASE.”
Gemini’s essay claims that the date Johnson & Johnson acquired the brand is “not specified in the available records” but says ads as early as 1959 included the J&J name. Here my student essay would definitely be given multiple question and exclamation marks because the citation for this fact links to an Etsy search for “Vintage Johnson & Johnson advertising.” Browsing through these ads, I could not find a single one for Stim-U-Dent, let alone one indicating a publication date of 1959. My own research found a 1963 Johnson & Johnson Annual Report announcing the acquisition of Stim-U-Dents, so even if Gemini had found a vintage J&J Stim-U-Dent ad, clearly it could not have been from 1959.
The first advertisement I could find linking J&J to the product came from a 1967 recruitment ad in the New York Times with the title “Sales Management Creed” that begins: “To seek and attract to our organization the highest type of young men who have the qualities for a Johnson & Johnson career” at the bottom of which a list of companies includes “Stim-U-Dents, Inc.”
It was not until 1984 that Stim-U-Dents showed up as a Johnson & Johnson product in a national magazine ad, in this case Newsweek with the headline “HELP PREVENT GUM PROBLEMS.” This ad even included a coupon for 50 cents off! Over the next several years ads appeared in Prevention, Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Day, and Better Homes and Gardens. The last magazine ad I could find was from the September 1988 issue of Redbook.
References to Stim-U-Dent as a Johnson & Johnson product continued at least until 2009 when a column in Men’s Health responded to the question “Is brushing my teeth after every meal a good idea” by recommending, “If your mouth feels funky between meals, keep a pack of Johnson & Johnson Stim-U-Dent Plaque Removers on hand.” However, by that time, there is evidence that J & J had already sold the brand.
The question of when exactly Johnson & Johnson sold Stim-U-Dent is something I could not do much better answering than Gemini. The best I could do using Proquest was a 2009 news release announcing “The former Caldwell Consumer Health, LLC has been relaunched as Revive Personal Products Company” whose “oral care line includes Stim-U-Dent Interdental Cleaners.” This suggests at some point before 2009 J & J divested from the product.
Gemini described J & J’s sale of Stim-U-Dent in prose I would label vague fluff if a student turned it in:
The corporate history of Stim-U-Dents after its tenure with Johnson & Johnson is a complex, multi-stage narrative that requires careful deconstruction. The provided materials indicate a series of transitions that led to the brand’s current identity. An initial acquisition is documented in 2010, when Revive Personal Products Co. acquired The Natural Dentist, an oral care company. At the time of this transaction, the press releases noted that Stim-U-Dent was already a brand within Revive’s existing portfolio.
At the same time Gemini’s biggest blindspot comes when it describes Stim-U-Dent’s “Current Market Position” stating “It has maintained its dedicated user base by offering a product that is both familiar and effective.”
If you only look online, as Gemini was doing, Stim-U-Dents appear to still be widely available, but a closer inspection of the packaging at any website that sells the toothpicks reveals a problem. They read “Manufactured for Revive Personal Products Company Madison, NJ” with the website “www.stim-u-dent.com”–a website that is dead. Moreover, according to Gemini’s timeline, Revive was acquired by “The Natural Dentist” of Buena Park, CA in 2024, but the packets online say Madison, NJ.
Indeed, the expired domain name is the best indication of why the product has disappeared from physical drug store shelves. It suggests either they are no longer being made or the company in Buena Park, CA that supposedly purchased the brand has yet to start manufacturing them. What’s for sale online is just leftover stock.
However, I do have to give Google props in one area. When I searched for Stim-U-Dents in “nearby” stores on Google it told me there was a pharmacy in Park Slope that had it in stock. I called, and sure enough they had one left! I CitiBiked over in a hurry. On arrival, the cashier told me that they had been on back order for months, and she wasn’t sure if more were coming.
Another place where Google/Gemini deserves credit is in recognizing the environmental upside of the original wooden Stim-U-Dents. Gemini writes:
The product’s original choice of soft Basswood or American Linden is now a significant marketing advantage, as it is promoted as a “biodegradable wood from managed forests”. This inherent sustainability, likely a practical choice in the 1930s, now resonates with eco-conscious consumers, distinguishing the product from plastic floss picks and other synthetic alternatives.
Unfortunately, Gemini’s optimism doesn’t match today’s market reality. The U.S. has elected a leadership that is deeply antagonistic toward anything “eco-conscious,” rolling back incentives to improve the environment whether for purchasing electric vehicles or solar panels.
Several years ago a Methodist pastor friend of mine from Minnesota came to visit NYC. After a meal one evening, I pulled out my handy pack of picks and offered him one. “Are those Stim-U-Dents?” he asked. “My father used to always have those.” His father was also a pastor, and this led me to ask my mom, whose father was a Presbyterian pastor in Michigan, if she remembered grandpa using Stim-U-Dents. “I’m sure he did,” she confirmed.
These were the practical sensibilities of Midwestern country folk who raised backyard chickens, preserved garden vegetables and maintained household appliances for a lifetime–conservation was common sense. It’s tragic that their descendants, whose exurban lifestyles now carelessly consume rural America, have been convinced by so-called “conservatives” that environmentalism is a leftist conspiracy.
Another friend of mine who relocated from L.A. to Berlin told me that on a recent trip back to SoCal her biggest culture shock was the ubiquitous use of plastic utensils at restaurants. In Germany, apparently even the corner Döner Kebab shops use steel forks and knives. I hope to visit her sometime, and when I dine out, I will be sure to have my pack of Stim-U-Dents at hand.
Among the NYC holidays countless joys are the seasonal exhibits held at certain museums. Vintage toys are found at The New York Historical Society.The New York Botanical Garden has their fantastical Train Show–where artisans spend months transforming twigs, leaves and grasses into area monuments. And The Museum of the City of New York hosts the enticing Gingerbread NYC, which I had the pleasure of visiting today. The first thing you notice upon entering the gallery is the sweet aroma of confectionery wonders that could easily crush any TV Baking Competition. My favorites included an apartment building with an iconic water tank, a wreath covered Sheridan Square subway station and a majestic Statue of Liberty. Visiting children were enthralled. The pieces must be made of edible material, but the cake and icing inevitably gets a little moldy. So while they look delicious, eating would likely mean a tummy ache!
Barriers meant to prevent turnstile hopping at Union Square Station
Back when I was living in L.A. I was active in an organization called the Bus Rider’s Union. At demonstrations we had an amazing array of chants in English, Spanish and Korean backed by a superb drum crew. One of my favorites contained the lines “We want fifty cent fares and twenty dollar passes, ’cause mass transportation is made for the masses!” I thought of this chant recently when Andrew Cuomo, in order to counter Mamdani’s plan for free buses, proposed free buses exclusively for low income New Yorkers.
Cuomo criticized Mamdani’s plan as a giveaway to the rich, but this is absurd on multiple levels. First, I am guessing that Cuomo doesn’t take the bus that often because it’s likely few residents in his luxury Sutton Place apartments rely on public transit. In fact, a 2017 study found the median income of bus riders was less than 30,000 and about 12,000 less than subway riders. But the larger problem with Cuomo’s proposal is its reliance on means testing for what should be a universal public good–like health care, education or housing. In the book Viking Economics George Lakey argues that a key reason for the success of the Scandinavian system is the principle of universality. High income earners support a relatively high tax burden because they benefit from the same quality services as low income individuals.
Of course, this doesn’t mean everyone should have access to a Range Rover for transportation. In fact, the automobile is perhaps the best example of social inequities when it comes to accessing basic needs. While Wall Street executives might ride around in giant black SUVs, working class New Yorkers stuff themselves onto the subway. And in almost every city outside of New York, the working poor rely on ancient sedans whose repair costs may cause sacrificing food or housing. Consider the thousands living out of their cars from the edge of Walmart parking lots.
In contrast to the automobile, mass transportation provides the same quality service to everyone who relies on it. Therefore, the wider the income group that uses it, the broader will be support for its proper funding. Yes, technically the rich can easily afford the cost of a subway fare, but a free fare might also encourage more wealthy people to take it and therefore use their political influence to get government funding for its improvement.
At the other end of the economic spectrum, there are many New Yorkers who struggle financially but who earn too much to qualify for a discounted subway fare. This gets to another problem with means testing for public services. It fails to benefit a large segment of the city just scraping by but not defined as poor. In contrast to the popular description of frequent turnstile hopping as a sign of “urban disorder” a better explanation is simply that the nearly three dollar fare is too expensive for the average commuter. At the same time, many fare evaders likely qualify for a discounted fare but the bureaucratic hoops are too cumbersome.
If the city does provide free transit, the question of course becomes how could it be funded? Well a good start is congestion pricing which, after many delays, was finally implemented this year. Some complain that this is a regressive tax that hurts poor people who rely on their cars. But the vast majority of low income New Yorkers do not own cars, and an even smaller portion take a car into Manhattan.
Another way to fund transit that has not received enough attention is to start charging for parking on New York streets. It is absurd that in a city with some of the most expensive real estate in the world we give free homes to private cars. Back in 2019, economist Howard Yaruss wrote an essay showing that “if the city metered each of its 3 million free parking spots and collected an average of $6 per spot per day, it could replace the approximately $6.5 billion per year in revenue lost from ending all fare collection.”
Like congestion pricing, metered parking would also make streets more convenient for buses and bikes and improve overall safety. It would also reduce the plague of double parking by encouraging more people to pay for off street parking or dump their cars altogether. The city recently added 500 new loading zones, which is vital since delivery trucks are so often forced to park in bike lanes, but I am afraid because drivers are so accustomed to free parking these zones are often ignored.
As another attempt to attack Mamdani, Cuomo has also called for means testing on rent stabilized apartments. Mamdani pays 2300 for a one bedroom apartment in Astoria, which Cuomo claims is unfair and should be going to someone who does not earn a 142,000 state assembly salary. Cuomo’s plan once again fails to account for the large number of New Yorkers who cannot afford market rate apartments but would not qualify for his income requirements.
Solving NYC’s affordable housing crisis might be even more difficult than providing free transit. After World War II the federal government provided enormous subsidies to suburban home buyers, helping to build the automobile centered development that dominates the U.S. In contrast, public housing in central cities was historically underfunded and became centers of concentrated poverty–especially for African Americans excluded from suburban homeownership. A very different model was revealed in a 2023 New York Times article by Francesca Mari examining the social housing of Vienna.
Dating back to the 1920s, Vienna has financed the construction of high quality public housing, which today 80% of residents qualify for. Thus, rather than including only the very poor, the Gemeindebauten, as they are called, welcome the middle class. Equally important, the superior design and amenities such as pools and saunas, make the buildings attractive to live in. Moreover, once you gain access to an apartment–the average wait is two years–you cannot be removed if your income goes beyond a certain level. This ensures the community remains economically diverse, and it can be seen as broadening political support for continued financing of social housing.
The New York state legislature is currently considering creating a Social Housing Development Authority that would finance housing in a way similar to Vienna. This new agency would issue tax exempt bonds to build permanently affordable apartments. A similar program called Mitchell Lama housing was established in the 1950s. Mitchell Lama financed coop buildings limited owners profit at resale thus keeping the apartments affordable.
In the United States, government funded services, including for transit and housing, have an image of being unattractive and something only the very desperate would choose to use. But this does not have to be the case in New York. If we create free public transit and affordable public housing for people of all income levels, we can build political support for maintaining these services at such a high standard that they will be sources of civic pride.
Patti Smith, Robert DiNero, Martin Scorsese et al–the very definition of limousine liberals–have helped kill a Habitat for the Humanity project that would have provided 100% low income housing to seniors. Meanwhile, according to one source , there are 200,000 seniors waiting for up to 10 years for HUD 202 housing in NYC.
Through gross historical erasure, a misinformation campaign worthy of Roy Cohn halted what would have been a beautiful haven within yuppified “NoLita.” Proponents of saving the “garden” erase how the neighborhood became unaffordable for many, with its trendy collection of upscale boutique shops in the 1990s, when the cultural cache of SoHo spilled across Lafayette. The private appropriation of public space by an art gallery that caters to the uber-rich embodies this transformation.
Let’s be clear. This space is owned by the city and was the historic location of Public School 21. As the city declined in the 1960s, due to well documented racist policies at the federal level, the school was closed and eventually demolished. In the 1980s, LIRA built a section 8 apartment building, which now sits facing Spring Street, on part of the former school lot. Gallery owner Allan Reiver moved into a loft on Elizabeth Street in 1989, taking advantage of the bargain real estate and personifying the eastward art biz drift of what Sharon Zukin described in her 1982 classic Loft Living.
Not surprisingly, post NYC financial crisis, the remainder of the public school lot had not yet been developed, so Reiver received permission to lease the space for the outdoor expansion of his gallery.
In 2012, councilwoman Margaret Chin finally secured a commitment from the city to build affordable housing on the lot. It was at this point that Reiver opened the space up to the public, and celebs like Gabriel Byrne, who owned a $3.4 million condo on the street, picked up the fight.
Opponents to the housing project say there can be both affordable housing and green space, but that is exactly what the Haven Green design contained! And rather than a pottery barn for billionaires, it would have been a truly public garden. The supposed “win-win” that Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro and Councilmember Chris Marte tout is a rezoning that could yield apartments in the future. Of course, the key word here is “could.” This will again involve a long process of review and very well never get built. In contrast, the Haven Green project was ready to begin construction in December. Moreover, this rezoning that Mastro and Marte “won” might have happened anyway.
The coalition that defeated this project are the same privileged NIMBYs who fought loudly against the City of Yes: reactionaries who already have a secure slice of the housing pie and don’t want to share. (Councilmember Chris Marte also opposed City of Yes!) Sometimes they claim to fear “gentrification”, but clearly 100% low income senior housing doesn’t fit this complaint. Other times they claim a desire to preserve the “historical character” of a neighborhood. But whose history? The history of this block is a public school created for the mass immigrant wave that began in the late nineteenth century. Now we need housing for the elderly children and grandchildren descended from that generation—not another gated gallery for tourists, while the un-housed beg for change down the block.
Paul Mason Fotsch 