Will and Ben: Renaissance Men – ‘Codpiece Shinola™️ (or ‘Something of a Poisoned Chalice’)
One day (in the Tudor Merchants ™️Ltd. workshop):
Ben: Hey, Will, I’ve just invented a special new product: ‘Codpiece Shinola™️’.
Will: I’ll be over right away, Ben, this could be our big break.
Will soon agreed that the product was special. The marketing boys were put on the case, and, within a week, the sales team had started receiving orders.
The English Mercurie ran an article on the
‘Miracle Polish for Tarnished Codpieces!’,
with the tag-line,
‘There’s The Rub!
…and sales boomed.
Then the bubble burst.
Not enough testing had gone into the product. Complaints started coming in thick and fast; law-suits were raised and Ben and Will, and their ‘Codpiece Shinola™️’, found themselves dumped by Tudor Merchants™️ Ltd.
It seems that, although ‘Codpiece Shinola™️’ gave a fine shine to tarnished codpieces, after an initial positive response from the users, the lustrous codpieces had started to shrink – some people had to be taken to hospital for surgical removal of the offending items!
Ben and Will sank into something of a decline and waited for their Golden Age to begin again.
©️graemesandford
Graeme Sandford 