New bad-taste milestone

[Garson O'Toole]

 Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> But that's not the bad-taste milestone I was thinking of.

Jon, I think that the product you are pointing to as a bad taste
milestone may not be a new milestone. (I encourage individuals who
dislike this theme to stop reading.)

Back in 1986 the auteur of bad taste John Waters was a guest on David
Letterman's late night show. He displayed a candy product called
"Dingleberries". Youtube has a video of the appearance:

John Waters Crackpot Interview Letterman 1986
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU0yJ3benb4

Starting around 6:45 the discussion of the product begins. Admittedly,
the companies making Schweddy Balls and Dingleberries may have had
different levels of awareness.

Wiktionary has an entry for dingleberry.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dingleberry

I had not heard of dingleberries until a friend raised near Chicago
told me about this incident in the 1980s. When I was in Tokyo in the
late 1980s I saw a bottle of Pocari Sweat. But I think this product is
one of many "Engrish" type cross-cultural oddities.

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