Sideswipe: Handle the Jandal

Global Joe Bloggs, more anonymous opinions, a homage to Edvard Munch and chauvinism is hilarious.

Rainbow jandals were the bomb

Summer is coming and I was hunting out my pair of this kiwi classic. The jandal was trademarked in New Zealand fifity-six years ago, *cough* yesterday. This from NZHistory:

“Inspired by footwear he had seen in Japan, businessman Morris Yock and his son Anthony began manufacturing this simple rubber footwear in their garage in 1957. The name ‘jandal’ combined the words ‘Japanese’ and ‘sandal’.

There is disagreement about whether Yock invented the jandal. The family of John Cowie claim that he introduced the footwear from Japan in the late 1940s, coining the name ‘jandal’ in the process. They believe Yock only imported the jandals and applied for the trademark. Yock’s son disputes this.

Jandals Ltd initially manufactured jandals using rubber imported from Hong Kong; J. Yock & Co. arranged distribution. Skellerup took over the supply of raw materials and eventually bought the business in 1987.

During the 1980s and 1990s the brand came under threat from cheap imported imitations. In response, the owners threatened legal action to protect the ‘Jandal’ trademark. A fresh stoush over the name broke out in 2014, when trademark owners Gentex (NZ) Ltd asked a Hamilton-based retailer to stop using the term ‘jandal’ to advertise their footwear.”

Ordinary Blokes

What other countries call Joe Bloggses 7. Joe Little Carrot (Slovak) 6. Average Svensson (Swedish) 5. Wang Number Five (Mandarin) 4. Otto Normalconsumer (German) 3. Name Nameson (Danish) 2. Mid-range Vasya (Russian) 1. Statistical Kowalski (Polish)

(By Adam Sharp (@AdamCSharp). He has a book out too.)

Edvard did it better

”This one screamed "don't buy me" to me from the St Vincent de Paul Op Shop in Wonthaggi, Australia.” writes Andrew Orr. Another winner from Terrible Art in Charity Shops.

Ten More Anonymous Opinions

1. Going to bed at 7.30pm is actually a very rock and roll thing to do. What better way to express your sheer disdain for the world than by checking out for 10 hours?

2. Selling a tent, caravan or camper on Facebook Marketplace? It's BERTH not BIRTH you fucking morons.

3. They should have stopped Hey Jude after 3 minutes 9 seconds.

4. Outside of immediate family, we over-estimate death and how much we miss people. Once the funeral has happened, people move on very quickly. It's quite sad when you think about it.

5. Absolutely no-one believes that 48 hour or 72 hour deodorants will last that long. If you put it on a Monday morning and genuinely believe that's all you need until Wednesday or Thursday, there's got to be something wrong with you.

6. School teachers being addressed as 'Sir' and 'Miss' is as clear an example of everyday sexism as you could wish for. Referring to a 55-year-old professional as if she's a flighty debutante in a Victorian novel, temporarily wage-earning with an eye out for eligible bachelors.

7. Dog poobag rolls should colour code the last 3 bags with a pink stripe to warn you they are running low, like till-receipt rolls do.

8. The problem with democracy is those in power aren't willing to make the difficult decisions required to save society. They know they will get voted out.

9. Anyone voting for Winston Peters needs to be put on a register.

10. There is probably about 10-15 people on this planet who can stop global warming by making decisions that would benefit humankind not their pockets. You or me taking a our own bags to the supermarket ain't one of them.

(Via @anon_opin)

Chauvinism in 1990