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This post will make Jazz shout "J'accuse!". A jaccuzi? Anyway.
I don't know how widely distributed it was, but there used to be (still is?) a drink on the market called "Claytons". Claytons was an alcohol substitute which was supposed to taste like whisky/whiskey/vodka/gin etc., etc. Naturally enough, it tasted not quite but exactly like Claytons, and nothing else.
It was awful. And non-alcoholic, so there were two strikes against it.
In New Zealand, anyway, it became something of a joke. Everyone tried it once, and as soon as they had a sip they surreptitiously looked around for somewhere to spit it out without being too obvious.
The drink itself died the death commercially, but the name lingered on as a synonym for anything which was a bad substitute. You'd say, "Oh that's the Claytons version" or words to that effect. It's still used quite a bit.
FWIW
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
And the slogan was "The drink you have when you're not having a drink". This too passed into common currency as a parenthetic explanation: people would say of some X, "It's a Claytons X: the X you have when you're not having an X".
My 1958 dictionary describes a Thermos...but makes it clear it is a trademark. Named for the greek word meaning hot. My 1983 dictionary only lists Thermos as a trademark. Sends you to vacuum bottle for description. (I worked for ad agency for Thermos...years ago!) (I know I need a new dictionary!)
Dear des: Was the problem that the Thermos job cooled off, or that it stayed too hot? Or did you shake it and break it?
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