Worse News for Maytag Repairmen

In nine months since it acquired the Maytag Corporation, Whirlpool Corp. has sold manufacturing facilities in Galesburg and Herrin, Illinois; Searcy, Arkansas; Ranson, West Virginia; and Florence, South Carolina.

Yesterday, Whirlpool announced that it has also gutted Maytag's former headquarters in Newton, Iowa.

Presumably, the always-idle Maytag repairman, an advertising theme for decades which grew into a cultural cliche, is now a faded soldier -- something that will have to be explained to the grandchildren.