Curiosity Strikes!

I love when a small question leads to some interesting answers. Especially when it's something innocuous like a meme.

First, I laughed. Then, I wondered.

Carrie replied, "Seems obvious to me!"

I've learned a lot by being married.

A quick internet search revealed some interesting links. One was a possible myth that tampons had origins as a wound dressing from World War 2 that shifted purpose post-war.

So what did I find?

There was a wound dressing from World War 1 that became Kotex (Snopes link).

Tampons were not forged on the battles of World War 2, but battlefield medics have used them to plug bullet holes in the past! (Also from Snopes, but there are many other sources). It's not a recommended method anymore, but it was useful for a time.

The original patent for a tampon was filed in 1931 according to a brief history I found. Then I stumbled upon a more exhaustive article (I only skimmed), that said the patent was issued in 1933.

Feel free to read the long article if you like, but there was one funny moment I wanted to share.

In 1983, tampons went to space. When Sally Ride became the first American woman in space, NASA engineers asked her whether 100 tampons would be enough for her weeklong journey on the space shuttle Challenger—arguably helping cement the tampon’s reputation as both a fixture of modern womanhood and a complete mystery to men. (The first tampons in space, The American Prospect notes, “were packed with their strings connecting them, like a strip of sausages, so they wouldn’t float away.”)

Not something you'd expect to learn on my blog, but I hope you learned something and laughed anyway!