A UP is anything mass-produced and sold, for which either the consumer need, or the appeal of commercial means of addressing it, is artificial.

Today I offer my readers two examples of UPs.

The need for plastic garbage liner bags is as surely manufactured as the product itself. Before mass advertising, did housewives "know" they needed special bags for the trash? I doubt it. It can only be that advertisers began to move their product once they devised a need for it, on the sketch-boards of Madison Avenue, and promulgated that "need" via radio, print ads, and television.

I have done without liner bags for years. They are a waste of money, they clog the landfill, and they offer no labor savings. Until such time as someone knowledgeable about waste collection points out to me that bagging trash makes the work of trash collectors easier, or is environmentally protective in a way that offsets the waste they cause, I'll continue not to use them.

For my indoor trash, I use ordinary plastic bins designed for the purpose. I throw the waste directly in. Each time I empty the trash, or less frequently, as needed, I rinse out the receptacle and dust the damp insides with baking soda. It works great.

My second UP today is underarm "deodorant" or "antiperspirant." You could get into a whole cultural analysis here. You could say Americans are unhealthily preoccupied with bodily hygiene, anyway.

If you already don't buy "roll-on," good for you.

If you DO buy "roll-on," and don't see any alternative for not smelling between showers, I'm here to tell you baking soda is all you need. No bottles, no aluminum chlorohydrate "crystals," no sprays.

Just dust on baking soda after you take your shower. If your underarms become irritated, dust on less. This home remedy may not be suitable for someone who's exceptionally sweaty, since baking soda stops the bacteria that cause the smell--not the perspiration. But you probably wouldn't be using "roll-on" in that case, anyway.

I have been amazed, over the decade or more I've used baking soda, that I used to buy "roll-on." Baking soda under the arms has no down-side at all, that I can see. It's a well-kept secret, one the players in the lucrative "roll-on" market don't want you to know.
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