One more comment for the day..
I helped P. go shopping to outfit her new apartment, and discovered a few interesting things. First of all, whoever has been designing bookshelf stereo systems for the last year needs to be found and issued a pink slip.
I mean, it was awful. These things looked like the most ghetto ghettoblasters you’ve ever seen. Giant tubes, plastic crosshairs.. and so cheaply made you felt like you might break the demo models..
There were a couple of classy or cool looking systems, but by and large they were things I’d expect to see in the back of a pickup truck behind the gun rack. I mean, these were really awful..
We weren’t the only people who rebelled – the store had about three units that were more or less tastefully designed and well built.. and all three were sold out. 😉 While the ghetto-blasters were piled up, and everyone looking was staying away in droves.
Then there were the alarm clocks. My god.. it’s like everyone who designed alarm clocks studied at the School Of Cryptic Controls. How do these people come up with these things?
Then, in Target, I ran across something that made me snap. I mean, I was about to run out of the store screaming ‘STOP! STOP! You’VE ALL BEEN BRAINWASHED! YOU DONT NEED TIHS CRAP!’.
What was it, you ask?
IT was a electric jar-opener.
not a can-opener, mind you.. although even electrifying those seems a little much, I’ve certainly never had a electric one.. but a JAR opener!
Yes, you lower this thing down on your jar and a little electric motor unscrews the lid, saving you the need to exert a few dozen foot pounds to do so yourself.
I’m sorry, but no. I want off this train *right now*. I know americans are getting lazy, but a ELECTRIC FUCKING JAR OPENER? How often do we open jars? Well, we buy all our food prefab, so I guess pretty often, but.. _come on_ people..
Keep me away from Target. (as I quipped walking in, ‘the Wal-mart of the north’)
August 22nd, 2004 at 2:31 pm
Speaking as a female with small hands and sporadic RSI: I can entirely understand the need for an electric jar opener. And what about people with arthritis, or other such problems?
September 1st, 2004 at 1:03 pm
For the last year? Try for like the last 3 or 4 years. The same disease has afflicted car stereos, too.
October 21st, 2004 at 9:32 am
I’ve seen one of those in Target, as well, and had the same thought. The only people that I think should be allowed to use them are weak people who would otherwise have to ask someone to open the jar for them. Though, in regards to the handheld can opener, I find it endlessly annoying when the damn can opener slips on the metal when I’m attempting to open it. The noise is felt in my ears and makes me cringe.
And, er, yeah. I don’t quite know why I shop at Target, as I rarely find anything of interest to me. I don’t shop at Wal-Mart. I haven’t in years. Probably 5. It may be “small town mentality”… Everything else that’s of any interest closes once it’s dark, so that’s where they flock. Eh well.
Again with the rant. Alright, no more of this comment business for me. Unless it has no potential for ranting. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
October 21st, 2004 at 9:38 am
er, yeah, “weak” wasn’t meant to offend, ahead of anyone reading this. Just a word to imply inability. Arthritis is definitely a reason for having electric openers.