Brain Droppings: From Oxydol to How to Clean a Skull

When I've heard recordings of conversations I've had (on video, or elsewhere), I'm startled by the way I sound. Not my voice, I'm used to that. What hits me in the face is the way I'll blurt out something that has nothing to do with the conversation at hand. Even more surprising, those around me don't say, "WTF, dude, where did THAT come from?"  The explanation for these out-of-nowhere exclamations is in the way my brain works.  I mentally hopscotch from one topic to the next fairly quickly internally, until I happen upon something that I think others might want to hear, and we go from talking about tennis shoes to me remarking on the Blizzard of '78.

It happened on a different plane this weekend.  I was at Big Lots with The Other Half, and saw that they had Oxydol on sale. I picked the bottle up because a) we needed laundry detergent, b) It had a logo that looked new, and c) my friend and contributor Stupid Monkey Planet has been warning me about using products with animal-testing corporations behind them.  I was looking at the label, sure that this was a product of one of the offending companies.  Instead, I saw that it was made by "CR Products," a company I've never heard of.

So, remembering this, I looked them up.  It turns out that Procter & Gamble started making Oxydol in 1927, but sold the brand to Redox in 2000.  Redox merged with another company called ChemPro, and became CR Products. Which is only mildy interesting, I'll admit.  But as I do, I fell into a Wiki-hole again, and clicked through to see what else CR makes, and found BIZ detergent, also a former P&G product.  And BIZ, it turns out, is an especially good product for cleaning skulls.  I'll bet you didn't know that.

[Excerpt]

How to Clean a Skull

Every year thousands of people hunt and trap in Alaska. One of the small treasurers discarded by many of these outdoor people is the skull of the hunted or trapped animal. A cleaned skull is a source of curiosity and wonder - a mirror of an animal's mode of life - providing insights into the animal's diet, strength of bite and its specially developed senses. In addition to enjoying the natural wonder of skulls, a skull collection can be a great addition to a classroom in a variety of courses, including art, science and social studies. Cleaning a skull is an easy process and can be no more unpleasant than pulling meat off a cooked soup bone. Here is how to clean a skull for display or study. . .

Read more if you have a pressing need to clean a skull, at: Wildlife Conservation