Ex-Lax - Creating a wartime log.

Apparently, constipation can have effects on your mood - doubly so if you're a sociopath by default average child, as demonstrated in today's 1943 ad. "Be a little soldier and take your laxative!" the ad reads. As any veteran will tell you, basic training is pretty much six weeks of eating laxatives. Huh? If soldiers are so regular, then how do they keep their aggression up?

"If you need a laxative when you have a cold"? What? Since when does having a cold "keep the train in the station", as it were? Man, The Forties were weird.

Ex-Lax was trying to win customers over from the more traditional household super pooper mover, castor oil. Everything I know about castor oil I learned from old cartoons, where it's mostly used as a punishment for naughty children, as seen in the brilliant Tom & Jerry cartoon, Baby Puss. The link takes you straight to the castor oil part, but the whole cartoon is a classic. Do yourself a favor and just watch it. FaceTube is full of truncated and backwards copies of this cartoon, so this link goes to some weird hole-in-the wall hosting service that will probably stop working in a week.

http://tune.pk/video/77009/tom-amp-jerry-baby-puss-1943?wide=no&offset=07:15

Did someone say "gimme that constipated kid clip art"? No? Okay! Here it comes! We're giving you a Graphic Gift with and without the slightly odd "anger lines" floating in the air around the kid's head. You're welcome!