Aim (available for viewing in the TV Commercials 1970-1975 section of TVParty).

Dorky 70s commercial for Aim toothpaste, in which a father forgets the toothpaste on a camping trip and asks a neighboring family to borrow theirs. When the mom hands him a tube of Aim, he turns it down, saying his daughter needs to use a fluoride toothpaste, despite the fact that one day of brushing without fluoride will hardly make a difference, and the word “FLUORIDE” is printed in huge letters on the toothpaste tube. Fortunately, the mom sets him straight, and the little girl decides that she likes it. Hey, Mikey! He won’t brush with it, he hates everything!…Sorry, a 70s flashback hit me, and it wasn’t pretty.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: ****.

Fools of Fate (film #12 on The Origins of Cinema, Volume 4: The Arrival of D. W. Griffith (Video Yesteryear, 1995)).

Fools is right. Our hero starts things off by shooting a gun from a standing position in a canoe, so you know he's not exactly Harvard material. Of course, he can't swim, but a bystander rescues him despite what this would do to the gene pool. Little does our hero know, though, that his benefactor has been having an affair with his wife. He eventually finds out the truth when his wife leaves him, leaving behind a "Dear John" letter. He follows his errant spouse to the home of his rival, but when he finds out it is the same guy who saved his life, he goes home and kills himself, and the gene pool is saved. Ah, cruel fate! I guess you could say, though, that it has to be cruel to be kind. A 1909 D. W. Griffith film.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.

Better Reading

Better Reading . Teenager Harold Wilson has a problem—he can’t read for (expletive deleted). So he has to spend all his free time studying ...