Markets in Everything: The Dagenham Smile

Kottke tells me that “plumber’s butt” is also known as the “Dagenham smile,” I assume due to the prevalence of building trades in the London East End.

The reference prompts me to remember a novelty shop—I think it was near Eighth Avenue and 36^th Street in Manhattan, but the NY Crank tells me I am wrong—where you could buy as it were a “prosthetic Dagenham smile,” to delight your friends at parties. Manufactured, I assume, by the same guys who produced those weird and wonderful fake abs for the fight scene at the end of Branagh’s Hamlet.

Now my friend Anon advises me that you can also buy this.

[Consider yourself lucky that I do not have a graphics-friendly broadband connection this morning.]