Not Martha
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Mansize Tissues

I’m back from a trip to England! And Wales! We drove on the other side of the street and walked along the tops of bluffs on footpaths and saw the Dr. Who Experience and had cream tea and got really familiar with a few stops of the Underground and saw Book of Mormon and opened Kinder Eggs and gawked at cheese in Cheddar and watched the path emerge from the water from the top of Saint Michael’s Mount and looked the wrong way for traffic before crossing the street. But mostly our group spent time passing around a bad cold, which I was unlucky enough to have for the days we were in London where it was cold enough to snow and yet there was no way I was going to take a whole precious day to sit and be warm and still indoors.

Since we now have Uniqlo and Lush and Muji shops and Boots aisle in Target here in the US it’s harder to find new and fascinating things in the UK, but we succeeded! Behold something called “Mansize tissues”, shown above next to a regular sized tissue. The Mansize tissues are big, almost hanky sized, and I love them and I wish we had them here in the US. So, who knows somebody in the tissue industry and how quickly can we get these things here in the US and can we rename them something less sexist but still offensive like Texas Tissues or Supersize Tissues? Anyhow, they made having a cold slightly less miserable.

· comments [28] · 03-25-2013 · categories:mumbling ·

28 responses so far ↓

  • 1 HouseofJules // Mar 25, 2013 at 2:08 pm

    They used to have these in the U.S. back in the late 90s. I remember them well because I did a paper on them for my women’s studies class in college! So terribly named.

  • 2 HouseofJules // Mar 25, 2013 at 2:09 pm

    (I should’ve clarified that I wrote a paper ABOUT them. I didn’t literally write a paper on a Kleenex.)

  • 3 megan // Mar 25, 2013 at 2:18 pm

    It being the 90s I think a paper written on the tissue had a chance at being appreciated by the professor.

    I cannot believe I didn’t know about these when they were available here, I think it’s time for some hotshot marketing person to bring these back. Anybody? Anyone?

  • 4 Daria Loginova-Edwards // Mar 25, 2013 at 2:45 pm

    I actually giggled like crazy about your fab discovery of mensized tissues!!
    This post also made me think about the 1st time I came to UK. I went to see Big Ben I was so super excited, jumped up and down for a bit:)

  • 5 Daniela // Mar 25, 2013 at 2:52 pm

    In Germany the “mansized tissues” are the normal, standard-sized tissues. I think people would rebel if anyone tried to sell these tiny, thin things Americans call tissues as tissues ;-). They also come in resealable packets that you can easily stuff in your hand-bag or jacket pocket and carry around with you.

  • 6 Di // Mar 25, 2013 at 2:59 pm

    Finally!! Something that’s not bigger in the US ;-)

    Sounds like you saw a lot during your trip, cold or no cold! It’s been a particularly long cold winter here in the UK and I for one wish it over. If only to move on to our “summer” where it will get to 57 degrees and if we are lucky it won’t rain all the time. That’s why we need mansize tissues – cos we’ve got colds all year.

    I love the idea of Texas Tissues….

  • 7 Meghan // Mar 25, 2013 at 3:17 pm

    They had these in the US even as recently as about five years ago–my grandfather was devoted to them. They went by Kleenex Extra Large (or XL), if I remember correctly. They seem to have disappeared a few years ago, sadly.

  • 8 megan // Mar 25, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    Gah, I have no memory of these tissues here in the US but it’s one of those things I would have socked up on like crazy before they stopped selling them. Do you think I could create a profitable import business based just on these?

  • 9 dawn // Mar 25, 2013 at 4:05 pm

    These are for when you get a Man Cold.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbmbMSrsZVQ

  • 10 Ann // Mar 25, 2013 at 4:21 pm

    I think they still have them here in Canada. Last time I looked at the tissue section they did.

  • 11 KC // Mar 25, 2013 at 4:41 pm

    Well, at least they’re lightweight and not breakable, so shipping would be cheap? :-) I don’t know how import businesses really work, though (and honestly, *whether* they work particularly reliably in these bold new days of internet and international shipping; really easy to get undercut, I suspect). It might be easier to just petition Kleenex to produce Texas Tissues… :-)

    (and I always haul the yummy store-brand British marzipan back. Such good stuff.)

  • 12 Christine // Mar 25, 2013 at 4:50 pm

    I wish you had blogged about your travels. Your Paris entries were fabulous! Then again, I suppose it isn’t much of a vacation if you have to spend so much time working on your site…

  • 13 CitricSugar // Mar 25, 2013 at 6:21 pm

    I heard that the US border and customs agents are cracking down (no pun intended) on Kinder Eggs… Something about them being a choking hazard. Makes me wonder if one could mail them from Canada without committing a “smuggling” offense.

  • 14 Amy in StL // Mar 26, 2013 at 10:20 am

    I will never use another tissue (no matter how large) when I have a cold that isn’t a Kleenex cool touch. I’ve long been a Puffs with lotion devotee; but I had a weeks long cold this yera and these saved my nose. No dry skin, no redness – the Kleenex folks are genius for this invention

  • 15 julie // Mar 26, 2013 at 10:24 am

    CitricSugar- I read a thread about the “crack”down :p on Kinder Eggs at Ask Metafilter. In fact, there’s an excellent chance I was led there from notmartha! | I wonder if an Amazon.co.uk search would yield Mansize Kleenex. Drugstore.com tends to sell discont’d products and even boasts of its “Uncommon Products”. In the midst of typing this, I googled man sized Kleenex : look at these imgs! http://www.alleewillis.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/kleenex-man-sized-tissues-pillow_2369.jpg A flea mkt turned up a Mansize “Mansize Kleenex” Pillow: (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1Vb9-FtQl0A/TNF0AHIa8hI/AAAAAAAAAf0/9O6b3AVUKVU/s1600/Kleenex+Man-Size+Tissues.jpg)

  • 16 Ellen // Mar 26, 2013 at 10:30 am

    A’ight I just put this on twitter b/c I was battling a killer cold at Craftcation and these would have made it so much less awful. Needs to happen in the US. And for the record, Texas Tissues works.

  • 17 megan // Mar 28, 2013 at 5:21 pm

    Christine – Who said I wasn’t going to blog about my trip? Posts are coming up!

  • 18 megan // Mar 28, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    I’ve also heard about the Kinder Egg crackdown, but I also hear rumors that they might be made not-illegal here. Let’s hope, they’re fun little things.

  • 19 Seanna Lea // Mar 29, 2013 at 5:48 am

    I think about half of the people in Texas would find Texas Tissues hilarious. So, while obviously it might still be offensive it is a lot less offensive than mansized.

    Of course, if the Kleenex manufacturers saw my sneezes, they probably would have called it woman sized.

  • 20 Mary // Mar 29, 2013 at 10:38 am

    Come on over to Toronto, Canada. We’ve got the tissues and the Kinder eggs. In face we have giant Easter egg-sized and mini sized Kinder as well as the regular “fun” sized ones!

  • 21 scrapper al // Mar 30, 2013 at 8:52 am

    See if you can find “Tempo” tissues. I don’t think they are that much larger than regular tissues, but they are much thicker. I have friends who love them so much, they buy them by the caseload on ebay. (And I have friends who think they are like wiping your nose with a paper towel, so your milage will vary.)

  • 22 julie // Mar 31, 2013 at 10:06 am

    I can’t stop thinking of the Seinfeld episode w/”Man Hands”! These would’ve been right up her alley :D

  • 23 Kate // Mar 31, 2013 at 6:04 pm

    As a brit living in NYC, mansize tissues are on my must-have list for stocking up when I’m back in the old country, along with chocolate hobnobs and jelly babies. I bring back several boxes each time I visit.

  • 24 megan // Apr 3, 2013 at 1:00 pm

    Seanna Lea – Hee! I go through so so many tissues when I have a cold, I don’t get sinus pressure because I think it all leaks out right away, eeek.

  • 25 megan // Apr 3, 2013 at 1:01 pm

    Scrapper Al – I will look for those. The Mansize tissues weren’t as soft as the ones I’m used to in the US but they also didn’t make my nose raw so there is something right going on with them.

  • 26 megan // Apr 3, 2013 at 1:01 pm

    Julie – Yes!

  • 27 mel // Apr 14, 2013 at 7:36 pm

    Here in NZ, they’re just called large though I think they may have been called man-size back in the day. My fave when I have a cold = large with eucalyptus or aloe, no sandpaper nose feeling.

  • 28 Becky Lockwood // Feb 2, 2017 at 7:04 am

    My husband likes those cloth hankies……they are gross and I hate to even have those in my washing machine. He says the kleenex are too small and thin. I googled this today and love the idea of someone to start making them…..I would buy them by the case for the remainder of my life and I am sure my husband would be happy with them also.

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