"... why can't we do public ChapStick stations?"
"(I'm picturing a 2 ft. log of ChapStick, that any citizen could walk up and rub their face against.)"
In Wisconsin, we call drinking fountains "bubblers," so I guess that would be a rubbler.
January 19, 2012
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As a child growing up Wisconsin, I had perpetually chapped lips in the winter. My whole mouth would crust over. Like an animal, I would salve them with saliva, only to worsen the problem. Some of my grade school photos are pretty funny as I look like I'm wearing overly applied lipstick.
But it wasn't funny and it hurt like hell. Chapstick hadn't been invented yet. There was only vasoline but that was in too big of a jar to carry around.
I was surprised to see Wiki ascribe the use of the term "bubbler" so specifically to Wisconsin, because I had always heard the term used since I was a kid. Then I read...
It is also commonly used in New England, especially in the state of Rhode Island and in the cities of Worcester, MA and Lowell, MA. [Huh? Now that's being way too specific.]
Despite its widespread usage in the aforementioned areas, the term "water fountain" is much more commonly used than "bubbler" throughout the remainder of North America.
Perhaps, as it should be...
Genericide! The improper use of trade mark. Cease and desist letters and SOPA shut-downs imminent.
ChapStick is a trade mark owned by Pfizer. Lip balm is the non-offending, non-diluting term.
"Bubbler is a trademarked name that refers to what some may call a drinking fountain. Bubbler' was developed in 1889 by the then-small Kohler Water Works (now Kohler Company) in Kohler, Wisconsin."
Sounds like somebody wants to bring back the community dipper.
Ick.
I haven't lived in WI for 20 years, and I still call 'em bubblers (cuz that's what they are). Annoys the bejeezus out of my kids.
@Patrick: Pop or soda?
Of course, a real Wisconsin man will say "beer"
Chapstick must be an acquired taste. The really cold air seldom reaches us down here in Georgia, but the northern immigrants here still paste it on their mouths like an addiction.
@scottsimpson drinking fountains: ur doin it rong
I'll second the "ick" on the communal chapstick. I think there's a place for sharing chapstick and property -- I'm happy to share both with my wife -- but a definite limit. The family seems like the right level for both kinds of communism to start and end.
Also, I had thought "bubbler" was Connecticutese. I spent a bunch of years in central Iowa and then a bunch of years a stone's throw from Boston and only heard "bubbler" rarely, and only in New England. I'm not sure where I got "Connecticut" from. I wonder how it got to New England from Wisconsin.
Also, I could see http://popvssoda.com/ taking over this thread. When I was near Boston (having grown up in Iowa) I once upped a waitress's tip for her having offered to refill my "pop". Now I live three counties west of my in-laws, but I am in "pop" territory (allegedly - I hear a good mix) and her family is solidly "soda".
Also, I don't think "bortabla" is a word, at least not in English. "Word verification" is a misnomer unless it's speaking European, like Sarah Palin is (in a nearby Althouse thread).
When you're done with a drinking fountain *(bubbler)*, the water that touched your lips, but that you did not drink, falls down the drain. I don't see that happening with communal chapstick.
OK. Now you're just being silly.
Go to bed.
(The Uncredentialed, Crypto Jew)
In Wisconsin, we call drinking fountains "bubblers," so I guess that would be a rubbler
I believe the “rubbler” is the B-61 Thermonuclear weapon or a 3 plane cell of B-52D’s…Trooper York would have made an slightly risqué reference to the Flintstones, involving Barney and Betty…..
Yawn. Lemme know when there's a public Sybian.
I grew up in Nebraska, as dry and cold as Wisconsin most of the winter, and I never really needed chapstik, although my sister used it constantly. Boy/girl thing?
We called it "pop", never heard of a bubbler before, though.
"In Wisconsin, we call drinking fountains "bubblers," so I guess that would be a rubbler."
And if you had public baths, you could call those "tubblers".
Yukka yukka yukka...
My understanding is that only people in the Madison area use the term "bubbler."
When I was about 13, I had a neighbor girl move in from Madison, and she asked me (at school) where the bubbler was. I had no idea what she meant.
I said "bubbler?" She said, "Yes, you know, you turn the handle and drink from it?" I said "Ohhhh, the water fountain! Over there."
This was highly traumatic since a) I had a huge crush on the girl, and b) I was a young boy whose first conversation with her started with not understanding her. Alas, my crush was forever unfulfilled.
However, I do use it as a test to see if someone is *really* from Wisconsin, or is an alien or spy pretending to be from Wisconsin. "What do you call the thing you drink water from in public?"
But, as I never got Heather, all i can say is "Damn you, bubbler-people!"
chapstick must be an acquired taste. The really cold air seldom reaches us down here in Georgia, but the northern immigrants here still paste it on their mouths like an addiction.
I rub it behind my ears, which get kind of peely and crusty in the winter time. Works like freekin' magic. Miracle cure of the century, Chapstick and Blistex, un-medicated, un-scented bog-standard variety.
It's gotta be in the stick form, though. The stuff they sell in little squeeze bottles is a lie.
A DAMN LIE!
You know this idea has a huge- OOoo-icky- factor, right?
I'm with traditional guy. Must be a yankee thang. My mom, not from the south, called chicks "peeps". Took me thirty years to figger out what the hell she was saying. I had the epiphany when I bought some traditional "Peeps" for Halloween.
Regardless, chapstick is nasty, and public chapstick sounds nastier. Whats next, the public toothbrush?
Ps. How do you know the toothbrush was invented in Tennessee? Because if it were invented anywhere else, it would be called a teethbrush.
I grew up in Rhode Island and we called drinking fountains bubblers too. Of course we pronounced it "bubbla."
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