![]() “We use the finest ingredients, work with one of the last mills in Canada that still makes toothpicks, and plant a hundred trees for every one we use.” Needless to say, Daneson’s toothpicks are not cheap. The name’s an amalgam and homage to his grandmothers, and the wood is milled from A-grade white birch. “George Clooney, Paul Newman, Drake, Puff Daddy-you name it, there’s an iconic photo of them looking cool chewing a toothpick,” says Smith, who’s hoping to capitalize with Daneson, his business of small-batch flavoured toothpicks. Tough guys, rednecks, and rappers all adopted the toothpick. “Dear Abby” condemned the habit as “crude, inconsiderate, and a show of bad manners,” which immediately transformed it into an act of rebellion. The toothpick was patented in the 1860s and mass-produced shortly afterwards. “It implied you just finished a great meal,” says Petroski. ![]() In North America in the late 19th century, the very fashionable toothpick was an important signifier. (Lower classes followed suit, using twigs and porcupine quills instead.) Emperor Nero roamed his banquet hall with a silver toothpick, and by Victorian times, fancy toothpicks were firmly in vogue with nobility. In 17th-century China, toothpicks were incorporated into jewellery made of bone or ivory and inlaid with precious stones. Hominoid jaws show toothpicks have been cleaning teeth for 1.8 million years bronze varieties have been found in prehistoric graves. “Certainly having something stuck in your teeth is a universal experience,” he says, but whether it’s fashionable to pick in public depends on where you are in the world and when. They were once a universal status symbol in every bar, restaurant, hotel and home in the world.”įor Henry Petroski, Duke engineering professor and author of The Toothpick: Technology and Culture, the toothpick’s pervasiveness isn’t so straightforward. “I remember my grandma finished every night with a toothpick and the crossword puzzle. Moreover, they’re due for a style comeback. “They’re everywhere, they’ve been around forever, they’re universal,” he says. Smith can’t tell you exactly why, but toothpicks popped into his head. “They took water, which was free, and made a fortune.” “That guy essentially invented the hundred-dollar pair of jeans,” says Smith. Founder Renzo Rosso had taken a ubiquitous product-blue jeans, which retailed for less than $20 in the 1970s-and sold it at a premium. “I wanted a business that actually makes something.”īut what? For inspiration, Smith looked to friends who worked at Diesel Jeans. “I said there’s got to be something better to do with our lives,” Smith says. He called back, rethinking his entire career trajectory. “I literally walked out of the interview and looked at my BlackBerry to see the crash,” says the 40-year-old Torontonian. On the same day the market crashed in 2008, Peter Smith was offered a dream job in finance.
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