Brother, Can you Spare a Cup

This is really puzzling to me. Something must have happened when I wasn’t paying attention to the waves of cultural changes affecting every day life.  I am too busy focusing on newspapers barely clinging to life, books and music finding their way to the internet’s instant cost-free availability, wondering what to do with my Webster’s all print dictionary. Probably I’ll keep it for old times’ sake, as I did my Selectric typewriter gathering dust for years before I moved and threw it on the truck of “1-800 Junk” along with an old black and white tv set. There is a fine line between Junk and retro-ware status. I’m sure I always pick the moment before my junk would have become a valuable piece of memorabilia to discard it.  But that’s water over the dam, and not my focus today.

What I want to know now is whatever happened to the plain plastic bathroom cup. I have been searching the vast canyons of mini-malls, the big chain pharmacies, the rare independent drug stores, the “we have everything for the home” chains, even the going out of business novelty stores that always answered “Yes” to any question that began with “Do you carry…?”.  What has happened that I missed? Have Americans given up on rinsing their teeth after brushing?  Are they sucking mouthwash directly from the bottle?  How do they take their plethora of pills, vitamins and cure or prevent-alls?

Confession: I did find a plastic bathroom cup in one large home styles store; but it was made in China and labeled “not safe for the dishwasher”.  Couldn’t risk that one.   Well, anyway, whatever cultural force has crushed the market for bathroom cups in America, it has yet to hit China. When Chinese plastic cups disappear entirely from our marketplace, we will know another mysterious, yet very bad blow has befallen the world economy.