I was thinking that this might belong in GQ, but then I thought that inevitably, someone there would get ticked off at me on account of the bad day they were having and grumble about how this was not serious enough for the brilliance on that part of the SD boards, but I MUST raise this as a serious issue SOMEWHERE as I currently feel inadequate in light of what the Brazilians seem to use as toothpaste containers that I have difficulty operating. Anyway, here’s the thing:
I got this tube of Colgate toothpaste (90 grams) from a 99cent store in New York, though the box is in Portuguese, with some Spanish, and mentions something about being from Brazil. So when I try squeezing the toothpaste out in the proper manner (from the back of the tube, of course!), the paste just won’t budge. The only way to squeeze the stuff out is to squeeze from near the top of the tube, and I really have to squeeze really really hard just to get a quarter of an inch of paste out. While I’m not exactly a weightlifter or anything, I’m not such a weakling either. The way I have to squeeze this thing, I’m worried the tube just might explode one of these times.
So, I’m wondering if folks in Brazil are just so much stronger than the rest of us that Colgate has to make extra strong toothepaste tubes for them, or if there’s just some sort of manufacturing issue here that has to do with pressuring the tube or something, and how the heck did this tube get into this 99cent store in NYC, anyway? Was it produced nearby, and then it got highjacked on the way to Brazil? Is it the faulty manufacturing that landed it in the 99cent store? Or am I just getting old and weak (sigh)?
When I lived in Brazil (this was 3-5 years ago) I don’t remember noticing anything weird about the toothpaste. And I think I used Colgate a time or two.
I’ll check the date and get back to you on this hypothesis tomorrow. But the paste isn’t unusually hard when it comes out though. Once, I had this Cogate tube (bought from the same 99cent store) that was real liquid-like. That tube wasn’t from Brazil, though. Maybe I should spend a little money when buyng toothpaste… then I won’t keep getting these weird tubes!
…and you put that crap in your mouth even though the effort involved was telling you that there was probably something funky about that tube of toothpaste?.. [[[shudder]]]. :eek:
Why did you buy Brazilian toothpaste? Maybe it’s like Dutch cheese or French cigarettes; if I were a true connoisseur of international dentifrice, would I not have to ask this question?
Maybe the hole is small, and the toothpaste is too thick for it to come out readily. Maybe there’s some dried up toothpaste in the hole, making it smaller. Stick a toothpick down in there or something and see what’s up.
Now that I’ve been using it for a week, it’s starting to soften up. Or maybe I’m just getting stronger with big rippling toothepaste tube-squeezing muscles!
Well, I can tell you that the skin on the tooth past tubes here is a bit more beefy than in the states, I don’t know why - but certainly nothing like you describe, I bet that was a defective lot, or was just getting old, that’s how it ended up at the 99 cent grave yard. If it was made here it should also have the manufacture date, not just the Exp. Date. I’m thinking it probably has a hard part around the hole as well.