Saturday, September 11, 2010
Random observation
Dodge diesel pickups are smellier and noisier than most big 18-wheeler diesels. Their smell seems to be uniquely bad and uniquely penetrative; after a Dodge diesel goes by my house, the smell remains inside for many minutes. No other smell, good or bad, has such sticking power. Why, I wonder?
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What happened to free samples in the mail? I used to enjoy getting those little one-use packets of soap or shampoo or aspirin, keeping them as 'reserve tanks'.
A habit inspired by the old pre-1961 VW, which had no fuel gauge. You were supposed to be Teutonically disciplined, filling the tank every 200.0 km on the dot. As a concession to sloppy non-Aryans the Bug had a little lever under the dashboard that gave you an extra 'Reserve Tank' to reach the next Official VW Petrol Station. (Actually there wasn't an extra tank; the lever simply switched from a high inlet pipe to a low inlet pipe so you could use the lowest gallon in the tank.) Needless to say, the device worked exactly once for us disorganized non-Aryans because we not only failed to track each kilometer in the Fahrenlogbuch, we also forgot to set the lever back to the normal high-inlet position after filling up.
Still, I liked the principle and formed the household habit of keeping one 'reserve' for necessaries like soap and toilet paper, in a non-obvious location so I won't just unconsciously pick it up and use it. Those samples were ideal for the purpose, and occasionally served their intended purpose of switching me to another brand.
Sometime in the last decade, consumer companies absolutely stopped all free samples, and charities stopped sending those little guilt-inducing free gifts. Those gifts worked: even though I knew the little gadget wasn't really made by the blind crippled orphans at St Sulphura's Home, my old midwestern ethic required me to pay for something received.
Was the loss of samples a result of 9/11? Heimatssicherheitsordnung? Seems like it would have to be a regulation, not just a postal rate hike; higher rates wouldn't cause total cessation.
Google doesn't have an answer to the question, at least with the phrases I can think of. ¶ 12:29 PM
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What happened to free samples in the mail? I used to enjoy getting those little one-use packets of soap or shampoo or aspirin, keeping them as 'reserve tanks'.
A habit inspired by the old pre-1961 VW, which had no fuel gauge. You were supposed to be Teutonically disciplined, filling the tank every 200.0 km on the dot. As a concession to sloppy non-Aryans the Bug had a little lever under the dashboard that gave you an extra 'Reserve Tank' to reach the next Official VW Petrol Station. (Actually there wasn't an extra tank; the lever simply switched from a high inlet pipe to a low inlet pipe so you could use the lowest gallon in the tank.) Needless to say, the device worked exactly once for us disorganized non-Aryans because we not only failed to track each kilometer in the Fahrenlogbuch, we also forgot to set the lever back to the normal high-inlet position after filling up.
Still, I liked the principle and formed the household habit of keeping one 'reserve' for necessaries like soap and toilet paper, in a non-obvious location so I won't just unconsciously pick it up and use it. Those samples were ideal for the purpose, and occasionally served their intended purpose of switching me to another brand.
Sometime in the last decade, consumer companies absolutely stopped all free samples, and charities stopped sending those little guilt-inducing free gifts. Those gifts worked: even though I knew the little gadget wasn't really made by the blind crippled orphans at St Sulphura's Home, my old midwestern ethic required me to pay for something received.
Was the loss of samples a result of 9/11? Heimatssicherheitsordnung? Seems like it would have to be a regulation, not just a postal rate hike; higher rates wouldn't cause total cessation.
Google doesn't have an answer to the question, at least with the phrases I can think of. ¶ 12:29 PM
