Close to Home by John McPherson for September 25, 2023

I doubt Martin would last an hour, at anything!

Bleeb’s hooked on getting dry cleaned!

Muahahaha  hehehe

Isn’t that Larry and his other brother Larry’s cousin Martin? No, wait. The Martin I’m thinking about doesn’t have hairy gorilla arms. By the way, the pattern on that woman’s dress looks like the symbol for toxic waste.

https://tinyurl.Com/rh9m5ux9

After it’s been Martinized, will she be able to sing “That’s Amore”?

Martinize, Simonize, Parkerize … I guess all three of those guys are creepy.

not sure I even want to know what this is suppose to mean. :/

I LOL’d at the sight of Martin

I think once Martin gets hold of the clothing it will be “martinized” and not in a good way.

Hi, Bleeb. That’s not a very good “observation” post. Maybe you actually HAVE turned over a new leaf. Let’s hope not.

This shouldn’t be all that funny, but as soon as I saw the look and pose on “Martin” I started cracking up like I haven’t in a long time! “Muah ha ha haaaa! A new customer? Excellent!”

What will Martin do to that coat? Who wants to know!

Shouldn’t “Martinizing®” have that little registered trademark symbol?

Not creepy. Just disturbing. …whatever that means.

Looks like someone hit Martin in the face with a bush axe!

Martinizing Dry Cleaning is a dry cleaning franchise founded in 1949. Martin Franchises, Inc., the parent company, is the largest dry cleaning franchise in the United States, with over 450 franchised stores worldwide. The company is based in Berkley, Michigan.

The concept of One Hour Martinizing was pioneered by a New York chemist named Henry Martin in 1949. At the time, dry cleaning was done with flammable solvents, so the plants were located remotely from the storefronts. A customer would drop off cleaning “in town”, the garments would travel to the production facility to be cleaned and pressed, then they would return to the store several days later for pickup. By using a non-flammable solvent, the use of which was discovered by Martin, dry cleaning plants could now be located much more conveniently, and the process could be carried out in a much more timely manner. The use of this non-flammable solvent was adopted throughout the industry and revolutionized the business in that facilities could better serve their customers and provide much faster turn-around on the orders, if need be. Operationally this has been termed “on-site cleaning” (as opposed to the “remote” cleaning of the past).

HistoryThe company was originally known as One Hour Martinizing, because customers could get their garments in as little time as an hour. Martin Equipment Company was founded to produce special equipment to clean garments. Later, Martin Equipment Company became part of American Laundry Machinery in Ohio. The number of Martinizing franchises grew quite large during the 1950s and the 1960s. At that time, there was a flat annual fee that the franchisee would pay. A Martinizing franchisee had to have a certain brand of equipment, and had to follow certain procedures. Phrases such as “Fresh as a Flower in Just one Hour” and “the Most in Drycleaning” were part of the trademarks. In the 1950s and 1960s, two colors, red and green, were part of the OHM scheme. The concept was that by having consistent equipment at each franchisee along with the use of similar methods, the result would be consistency as is seen today with the various food franchisees.

The Huntington Company of Berkley, Michigan, acquired Martinizing on November 7, 2014.

“Borrowed” from Wikipedia.

If you really want to know, Martinizing was a process developed in 1949 to make dry cleaning local and faster. At the time, dry cleaners used very flammable solvents instead of water. Because of the fire danger, dry cleaning establishments had to be way out of town. For example, acetone, which was an effective solvent, has a flash point of 17 degrees F. By using either high flash point solvents (like glycol ethers, Stoddard solvents or other isoparaffins) or better yet, halogenated hydrocarbons, you could make the process safe enough to be used in small, local stores, thus offering a much quicker turnaround for dry cleaning (such as “one hour Martinizing”) that was done nearby at a neighborhood store. Again, if you are interested, halogens are hydrocarbons in which one or more of the hydrogen atoms are replaced with chlorine atoms. The added chlorine does two things: makes the solvent non-flammable (Halogens are used in fire extinguishers); and two, it turns it into an even better degreasing agent, thus making it an efficient cleaner. PERC (perchloroethylene) is probably still the most common non-flammable dry cleaning agent used, at least in Europe, but is has come under fire as being potentially dangerous when humans and animals are exposed to it. The search for safer alternatives continues, and currently includes a number of options, but I will spare you any further chemical confusion, at least until everyone has had their coffee.

I used to want a Martin guitar, but after 51 years I’m content to stick with my constant companion Yamaha guitar.

Feels like Martin is in some other devious business that’s using this one as a front

Martin’s creepy, especially his Martin eyes.

Do we really want to know what Martin is doing to our dry cleaning back there?

Maybe it’s just the way this was drawn, but the guy on the left seems to be side-eyeing ol’ Martin there.

Umm, is he planning to lick it clean? UGH!

Yes lady you should be concerned, very concerned.

A new take on the term—- “DRIP dry”???

No good can come from this. But, Martin is a great name and should be mentioned more often in comics. Little Britain had a character named Martin, we didn’t actually see Martin, he was probably too busy Martinizing.

Very nice John, been having trouble with the dry cleaners lately, as all of us do?…

Going to look that up.

…think I’ll go for next day pickup…

I’m sure only they have that name for a dry cleaners.