Jason Toon
@jasontoon.bsky.social
Color TV owner
shoddygoods.meh.com
shoddygoods.meh.com
Merry Christmas to anyone who, as a kid, was invested in the question of whether Rudolph was one of Santa’s “real” reindeer.
December 24, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Merry Christmas to anyone who, as a kid, was invested in the question of whether Rudolph was one of Santa’s “real” reindeer.
The decline of broadcast TV, and commercials, means kids are growing up without knowing the names of their local mattress stores, carpet outlets, heating & cooling installers, and other boring businesses.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axto...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axto...
1987 Royal Waterbeds commercial
YouTube video by oisfsehgfusd
www.youtube.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:58 AM
The decline of broadcast TV, and commercials, means kids are growing up without knowing the names of their local mattress stores, carpet outlets, heating & cooling installers, and other boring businesses.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axto...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axto...
One ‘90s thing I miss is hardcore punk shows at random normal bars. Let’s go see System Necrosis and Forcefeed at TJ Quackers while hockey plays on the TVs.
November 25, 2025 at 7:46 AM
One ‘90s thing I miss is hardcore punk shows at random normal bars. Let’s go see System Necrosis and Forcefeed at TJ Quackers while hockey plays on the TVs.
These freaking things have been with us for over a century, and they'll probably outlive us all substack.com/home/post/p-...
Halloween's Least Wanted: Shoddy Goods 068
The mystery of peanut butter kisses: an investigation
substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 8:49 AM
These freaking things have been with us for over a century, and they'll probably outlive us all substack.com/home/post/p-...
I'm not proud of it, but I probably tried vaping before anybody else you know - before it was even called "vaping".
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/look-back-...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/look-back-...
Look back in vapor: Shoddy Goods 067
When I tried the first e-cigs at CES 2008
shoddygoods.meh.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:10 AM
I'm not proud of it, but I probably tried vaping before anybody else you know - before it was even called "vaping".
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/look-back-...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/look-back-...
Reposted by Jason Toon
America! Your expats and your friends are *always* with you! Sending you love and courage and #NoKings solidarity and frog costumes from Melbourne, Australia. Make fascism history again!
October 18, 2025 at 4:24 AM
America! Your expats and your friends are *always* with you! Sending you love and courage and #NoKings solidarity and frog costumes from Melbourne, Australia. Make fascism history again!
Little Persons: Shoddy Goods 064
3D printing brings classic toys back to life
shoddygoods.meh.com
October 2, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Fellow old folks: remember how every 5-10 years there'd be a new physical media? Audio cassettes, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray? Yeah, looks like that's over. We've probably seen all the kinds of physical media we're ever going to see. 😐
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/disc-conti...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/disc-conti...
Disc-continued: Shoddy Goods 060
Will there ever be a new physical media format?
shoddygoods.meh.com
September 5, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Fellow old folks: remember how every 5-10 years there'd be a new physical media? Audio cassettes, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray? Yeah, looks like that's over. We've probably seen all the kinds of physical media we're ever going to see. 😐
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/disc-conti...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/disc-conti...
The real color of the '80s wasn't aqua, or purple, or hot pink. It was brown.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-80s-we...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-80s-we...
The '80s were brown: Shoddy Goods 056
That wood-grained, nicotine-stained, chocolate-brained decade
shoddygoods.meh.com
August 5, 2025 at 11:07 PM
The real color of the '80s wasn't aqua, or purple, or hot pink. It was brown.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-80s-we...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-80s-we...
As an English word, "maven" is younger than Michael J. Fox. Here's how it made the jump from Yiddish to English, with a little help from an oddball adman and some pickled herring.
The maven maven: Shoddy Goods 054
A rogue adman puts a Yiddish word in the English dictionary
shoddygoods.meh.com
July 28, 2025 at 11:36 AM
As an English word, "maven" is younger than Michael J. Fox. Here's how it made the jump from Yiddish to English, with a little help from an oddball adman and some pickled herring.
When I was in 9th grade, our social studies teacher played us a Tom Lehrer album and blew my mind. (A lot of it was still relevant - the Cold War was still going on!) I still sing this one in the shower. RIP.
youtu.be/pklr0UD9eSo?...
youtu.be/pklr0UD9eSo?...
Tom Lehrer - So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)
YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel
youtu.be
July 27, 2025 at 11:57 PM
When I was in 9th grade, our social studies teacher played us a Tom Lehrer album and blew my mind. (A lot of it was still relevant - the Cold War was still going on!) I still sing this one in the shower. RIP.
youtu.be/pklr0UD9eSo?...
youtu.be/pklr0UD9eSo?...
Reposted by Jason Toon
Stop calling them "mainstream media." Stop calling them "legacy media." Both terms connotate a shared viewpoint with the public. Call them what they are: corporate media. Then ask whose viewpoint such entities will espouse.
The legacy media is not the Democratic Party establishment
June 26, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Stop calling them "mainstream media." Stop calling them "legacy media." Both terms connotate a shared viewpoint with the public. Call them what they are: corporate media. Then ask whose viewpoint such entities will espouse.
Candy or medicine?: Shoddy Goods 047
Just what are cough drops, anyway?
shoddygoods.meh.com
June 11, 2025 at 2:18 AM
The only scarier than an Alar-laced apple was a grape from Chile. Part 2 of my story about the 1989 fruit panic...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/fright-coc...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/fright-coc...
Fright cocktail, part 2: Shoddy Goods 045
The 1989 produce panic becomes an international incident
shoddygoods.meh.com
June 2, 2025 at 7:59 AM
The only scarier than an Alar-laced apple was a grape from Chile. Part 2 of my story about the 1989 fruit panic...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/fright-coc...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/fright-coc...
Of course on Amazon there are AI-slop versions of those fake books from that AI-hallucinated "summer reading guide". What I wasn't expecting was an erotic novel by Chuck Tingle where one of the fake books takes physical form and, uh, gets intimate with the author. Some times we live in, huh?
May 26, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Of course on Amazon there are AI-slop versions of those fake books from that AI-hallucinated "summer reading guide". What I wasn't expecting was an erotic novel by Chuck Tingle where one of the fake books takes physical form and, uh, gets intimate with the author. Some times we live in, huh?
It was March 1989 and we were all afraid of fruit. Here’s part 1 of the story…
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/fright-coc...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/fright-coc...
Fright cocktail, part 1: Shoddy Goods 045
1989 was a scary year to eat fruit
shoddygoods.meh.com
May 24, 2025 at 1:38 AM
It was March 1989 and we were all afraid of fruit. Here’s part 1 of the story…
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/fright-coc...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/fright-coc...
Apropos of nothing, please enjoy some engraved Elizabethan shoehorns.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-shakes...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-shakes...
The Shakespeare of shoehorns: Shoddy Goods 044
Who was Robart Mindum, Elizabethan master of the mundane?
shoddygoods.meh.com
May 15, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Apropos of nothing, please enjoy some engraved Elizabethan shoehorns.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-shakes...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-shakes...
Voted for the first time as an Australian citizen, thus earning my first democracy sausage 🇦🇺🌭
May 3, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Voted for the first time as an Australian citizen, thus earning my first democracy sausage 🇦🇺🌭
Every Easter song is at least 70 years old. The music industry went hard trying to make it a thing, then realized it wasn’t going to catch on.
April 20, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Every Easter song is at least 70 years old. The music industry went hard trying to make it a thing, then realized it wasn’t going to catch on.
The looser gender roles get, the louder men's products scream about how masculine they are.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-speed-...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-speed-...
The Speed Stick theory: Shoddy Goods 037
What the evolution of a deodorant brand can tell us
shoddygoods.meh.com
April 1, 2025 at 8:38 AM
The looser gender roles get, the louder men's products scream about how masculine they are.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-speed-...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/the-speed-...
My high-school band turned this poem into a “reggae” song. Happily no recordings exist.
March 18, 2025 at 9:36 PM
My high-school band turned this poem into a “reggae” song. Happily no recordings exist.
Is the greatest-hits album a thing of the past? I asked @anniezaleski.bsky.social and @dockfidrych.bsky.social for their take - and their personal best of the best-ofs.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/best-in-pe...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/best-in-pe...
Best in peace: Shoddy Goods 035
What happened to the greatest-hits album?
shoddygoods.meh.com
March 14, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Is the greatest-hits album a thing of the past? I asked @anniezaleski.bsky.social and @dockfidrych.bsky.social for their take - and their personal best of the best-ofs.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/best-in-pe...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/best-in-pe...
The smallest interval of time known to modern science is between when you pay off your student loans, and when Sallie Mae starts spamming you to take out more student loans.
February 15, 2025 at 10:07 PM
The smallest interval of time known to modern science is between when you pay off your student loans, and when Sallie Mae starts spamming you to take out more student loans.
Sammy Hagar’s Kabul Wabul
February 12, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Sammy Hagar’s Kabul Wabul
Seems like a good day to share this story about repulsive cartoon villains.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/famous-mon...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/famous-mon...
Famous monsters of adland: Shoddy Goods 030
The Grime Gang meets Mr. Mucus
shoddygoods.meh.com
February 5, 2025 at 4:51 AM
Seems like a good day to share this story about repulsive cartoon villains.
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/famous-mon...
shoddygoods.meh.com/p/famous-mon...