# Do You Know What "Powders" Are? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 23, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555 "2010-03-23T23:58:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/21 "2010-03-24T03:16:04Z")
I do BC and Goody powders all the times. Means I don’t have to chew my aspirin/tylenol/whatever. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/22 "2010-03-24T03:20:54Z")
They’re generally only available in the South. I brought some back when my daughter was young because she sometimes needed aspirin but couldn’t take pills. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/23 "2010-03-24T03:22:31Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > Unless, you know, it’s _powdered_. That’d be Disprin then, wouldn’t it? And even that’s usually in a tablet form (not entirely unlike Berocca), IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/24 "2010-03-24T03:28:30Z")
Coming up next on the Straight Dope: “Could you pick me up a bag of homo, eh?” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/25 "2010-03-24T03:33:28Z")
Never heard of it as an aspirin. I’d only heard of powders from Godfather I where it refers to illicit drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/26 "2010-03-24T03:41:22Z")
They sell them in the vending machines where I work. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/27 "2010-03-24T03:49:43Z")
To “take a powder” is an old idiom meaning to leave, or also to die. A quick Google shows early usage in the 1930s but I’m guessing it predates that to a time when medicine wasn’t mass manufactured in pill form. Since the term was associated with death it is reasonable to assume that often the powders were something stronger than aspirin. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/28 "2010-03-24T04:12:46Z")
No. After reading the thread I did remember the time when my great aunt, who was visiting from out of town had someone take her to all the local stores trying to find BC powder. I didn’t know what it was, and didn’t ask. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/29 "2010-03-24T04:17:25Z")
Is that the same thing as in all those British mystery novels where people take sachets of headache powders? And usually someone fills the sachet with poison or something. Anyway, I always assumed it was like Alka-Seltzer, only powdered, and you’d put it in a drink and take it. Have never seen it IRL, until recently when my husband brought home some Bayer’s aspirin in little packets–you open it up and pour it in your mouth like a Pixy Stick. Works great. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/30 "2010-03-24T04:25:05Z")
I should ask around in Toronto. I’m curious whether the stuff is available in Canada. But I prefer 2% to homo. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/31 "2010-03-24T05:07:42Z")
I would assume meth or coke as well. ---
**Author:** ![Monkey\_Chews](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@Monkey\_Chews](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monkey_Chews)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/32 "2010-03-24T05:52:50Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > That’d be Disprin then, wouldn’t it? And even that’s usually in a tablet form (not entirely unlike Berocca), IIRC. Disprin is just a brand name of aspirin (and usually comes in pill form - are you thinking of Aspro-Clear, another brand which also comes in pill form but dissolves in water?). Aspirin can also come in powder form, sold in little packets. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/33 "2010-03-24T11:25:52Z")
> [@Monkey\_Chews](#): > > Disprin is just a brand name of aspirin (and usually comes in pill form - are you thinking of Aspro-Clear, another brand which also comes in pill form but dissolves in water?). > > Aspirin can also come in powder form, sold in little packets. For you non-USians, we’re not talking about Aspirin the brand name drug, we’re talking about acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). Aspirin’s a generic name here. And I guess I have to say yes, since I’ve seen [them](http://www.bcpowder.com/products_original.aspx), but, in context, I probably wouldn’t have known what she was talking about. I would not think you would refer to something being near the aspirin if it was itself aspirin. Oh, and here’s a [picture](http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/HWY_cDx6NxhCXLUiErSyBA) of it in use. You can see why the kid thought it was drugs. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/34 "2010-03-24T11:36:02Z")
We have powders in the Midwest, too, though they’re certainly not as popular as in the south. AFAIK, Walmart carries BC and Goody nationwide, and they’re now marketed by GlaxoSmithKline, rather than the smaller firms that used to sell them. Bayer recently began marketing Bayer Aspirin and Alka-Seltzer Plus cold medicine in powder form, though they are trying to market them as something new and modern: “Quick Release Crystals.” ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/35 "2010-03-24T11:40:30Z")
Goody powders came to mind when I looked at the title of this thread. I’d never heard of “powders” until I moved down here to NC. ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/36 "2010-03-24T12:06:52Z")
> [@PandaBear77](#): > > I’d never heard of “powders” until I moved down here to NC. This damn Yankee had never heard of them either. ---
**Author:** ![Neverender](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/848f3c/32.png) [@Neverender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neverender)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/37 "2010-03-24T12:18:21Z")
In the UK you can get them made by Beechams that have a decongestant (I think) and possibly caffeine as well as the aspirin, for cold/flu relief. I’ve never seen them purely as aspirin though. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/38 "2010-03-24T13:05:45Z")
I answered No, because if someone asked me to “go pick me up some of my powders” I wouldn’t have known WTF they meant. But I have, vaguely, heard of headache powders, as something that was old-fashioned and/or Southern. (And thought, “Powdered aspirin that you drink? Ewww, wouldn’t that taste _nasty_?”) ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Onimous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/39 "2010-03-24T13:19:57Z")
Yup. I keep a box of BC Powder in my desk. They’re fantastic when I feel a migraine coming on. And I take them straight: no liquid chaser. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555/40 "2010-03-24T13:42:16Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > For you non-USians, we’re not talking about Aspirin the brand name drug, we’re talking about acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). Aspirin’s a generic name here. It’s generic here in the U.S. as well. Never heard of Aspirin as a brand name, though it might have been 150 years or so ago when it was first produced. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-powders-are/533555.md?page=3)