It’s the birthday of Allen G. Odell (1904ish-1994), the Burma Shave executive who developed and wrote the rhyming jingles for Burma Shave displayed on small signs 100 feet apart, an advertising stunt that became hugely popular on rural American roads in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.

(No, it’s not the Great American Novel. But probably better than 95% of the texts flying around out there that pass for communication these days. Said in my best crotchety old lady voice.)

Odell went to work for Burma Vita Inc. right out of college in 1925; the Minneapolis company happened to be owned by Odell’s daddy, Clinton. Clinton invented a brushless shave cream and gave Odell permission to try out his new campaign idea: signs posted 100 feet apart each carried one line of a rhyme, sometimes funny or nutty, sometimes good-natured or cynical, and culminated in a kind of punchline. Puns were utilized with a heavy hand. The campaign worked in part because drivers were going about 35 miles an hour back in those days. The first signs went up near Red Wing, Minnesota (U.S. 61), and near Albert Lea, Minnesota (U.S. 65), but eventually there would be 7,000 sets of signs spread out in 45 states.

An example:

Henry the Eighth

Sure Had Trouble

Short-Term Wives

Long-Term Stubble

Burma Shave

Allen’s father and a brother also wrote the jingles, but eventually the company held contests nationwide, awarding $100 to the best 25 jingles submitted and receiving 50,000 entries a year. As travel sped up and billboard restrictions increased, the Burma Shave campaign eventually died out. Allen died at 90 in Edina, Minnesota.

It’s also the birthday of Laurel Decher, who can never remember how old she is but who was definitely born on this day. Decher is the author of the middle grade novel Trouble with Parsnips: A Seven Kingdoms Fairy Tale (2018), about a nameless princess desperately trying to make a name for herself while navigating a royal set of disasters in the fantastically funny kingdom of Cochem. (Good news: there is a sequel on the way!) Decher is an American living in Germany and has a PhD in epidemiology, two brilliant daughters, and inside connections to the world of zoology.

Have a brilliantly sunny Monday, take some time off if it just happens to be your birthday too, and stay scrupulously honest to the data, remembering that the truth shall set you free.