The Thin Red Line

Several years ago I read Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, an expose on just how badly low level employees of major companies are treated and an examination of just how challenging it is to actually survive on what these companies pay.   While it was mildly interesting to learn a few more details about just how bad it is down here in the trenches, being myself one of those over-worked and underpaid front line employees I was greatly offended by Ehrenreich’s rather condescending approach to the workers whose plight she examined and by the pains she took to establish that she was somehow different from and better than these people.

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Thank you to  blog reader PB for suggesting today’s title.  Steve Greenberg’s Gadget Nation is a lavishly illustrated over-sized hard cover filled with two page spreads about hundreds of inventions and the inventors behind them.  I was particularly intrigued by the "Clocky"– a rugged alarm clock designed by an MIT student with a bad habit of hitting the snooze button and sleeping in.   The Clocky is outfitted with large rubber wheels and when you press its snooze button, the Clocky rolls itself off of the night table and onto the floor, forcing the sleeper out of bed to hunt down and turn off the loud alarm.

Other especially interesting gadgets include a toddler’s food dish that you store in the freezer so that it will quickly cool down foods that are too hot for a young child,  supposedly saving Mom from hours and hours of blowing on forkfulls of food and comforting a child with mouth burns and something called the "Head Blade" a bizzare looking contraption with wheels and a squeegee-protected oversized razor blade which supposedly makes it a lot easier to shave your head if you are going for the chrome dome look.   I have to confess that none of the features products inspired me to rush to a web site and place an order, though the toilet tank aquarium (the fish and plants go in a transparent lucite box that surrounds the holding tank for flushing) and the "conedom" ice cream cone holder did intrigue me.

For anyone who is tinkering away in a garage or basement trying to invent the next big thing Gadget Nation would be an excellent resource for learning more about successful inventions and the people behind them.   Non-inventors will probably find enough that is interesting and unusual to enjoy the book as well.   Recommended.   Thanks again to PB for suggesting this one.

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If you’ve ever felt royally ripped off by a big company chances are Bob Sullivan has some useful advice.   Gotcha Capitalism chronicles the ways that big corporations from hotel chains and airlines to supermarkets and cell phone providers use hidden charges and fees in order to advertise lower prices than can realistically be offered.   Sullivan, author of msnbc.com’s Red Tape Chronicles, provides clear and specific advice about what types of additional charges to watch out for as well as when and how to complain in order to maximize your chances of having extra charges waived or refunded.

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I have to confess, right off, that there is no theme, no connection no rhyme or reason behind today’s book selections.   These are five that just caught my eye and found their way home with me and each is just so unusual and interesting that I just had to share it.    Ranging from a huge 10 inches tall by 14 inches wide to a squat and chunky 6 inches square, from the Duba plains in Botswana (Africa) to the foot, err feet  of Texas, from the islands of the South Pacific to the crayon factory, these five books are just All over the map.

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So I finished re-reading Half Blood Prince and am immersed in the story and ready to continue. And log in to check and find that I am now 113th in line for Deathly Hallows. I have resisted the temptation to break down and buy it but really haven’t been paying much attention to other books.

Moon Pies and RC Cola evoke the rural south like nothing else and David Magee has written a worshipful history of the marshmallow/graham cookie snack. Originally just one of over two hundred varieties of baked goods marketed by the Chatanooga Baking Company, the Moon Pie came to be its most successful and only product. Much ink is devoted to paeans to eating moon pies as a child and intense discussion of the variations (single or double decker, chocolate, vanilla or banana coating) worthy of Bon Appetit. It was something amusing to peruse over a lunch hour, though Ron loved it.

Doing nothing constructive on my day off and anxiously waiting for Harry…

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My three days off passed all too quickly and mostly all I did was catch up on sleep. Did not make it to the museum or any where else, though I did go over to Kathi’s and sat out on the deck with Staci and Kathi one evening. Was a very nice visit.

Staci was supposed to fly home to Boise this evening, but last night she started having stomach pain and nausea and ended up going to the hospital. She is at St. Joseph’s in Tacoma and they believe she may have a new hernia. She may have to be transferred back to UW in Seattle and possibly have another surgery, but they are still doing tests and figuring it out. Her husband, Clint has made arrangements to fly over on Sunday to be with her. It will be great to see him, though I am So sorry she is having another complication.

The most interesting check-in today was Travel By Pullman, a 2004 book on the history of the Pullman sleeping car company. With lots of photos and illustrations and detailed look at what was once America’s standard of first class travel from the earliest days of passenger rail service in the 1850’s to the hey-day of luxury service in the 1920’s–1940’s, the effects of World Wars I & II and finally the decline of passenger rail service as airplanes and freeways became dominant in the 50’s and 60’s. I have traveled long distance by rain a number of times and always enjoy taking the train, though sadly I’ve never been in a Pullman (or any other sleeping car). I did enjoy reading about this unique company and the glory days of rail travel.

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I first read about Paco Underhill in The Naked Consumer a 1992 book by Erik Larson. As a retail anthropologist, Underhill works with large retail companies to help them improve their stores and procedures by learning how customers actually use them. Most of his work entails in hanging out in stores and malls and watching people shop. In Call of the Mall, Underhill takes us on a 200 page shopping trip and shares many insights into how malls are designed and managed, how stores are designed to keep out unwanted shoppers as well as to lure the particular types of customers the store wants and how people actually use their malls. Entertaining enough, but not particularly recommended.

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