Frazz by Jef Mallett for June 22, 2021

Since time immemorial, people have felt they needed what they actually merely want. Time was, it didn’t matter because nobody but the nobles had the free time or resources to get what they wanted. Now we pretty much all do. For instance, I wanted a laptop to read GoComics on…

That theme definitely fits with cars. People buy humongous SUVs when they have a little baby, pickups when they don’t haul anything and sports cars when they drive slow.

It all parallels with HS proms (hand made Kleenex carnations anyone?), which lead to wedding plans (church basement & cake?), addition of kindergarten graduation parties, etc.

Some folks just can’t imagine a “need” for a big, shiny truck. My big, shiny Dodge Ram overheated coming back home from a 4600 foot mountaintop transmitter site because of all the snow (4’ – 5’ drifts) packed into the radiator. Saved my life and two others that day. A little inclement weather can redefine what “excess” means.

I’m with Caulfied’s last comment. The vagaries of the buying public are totally amazing in the range of things one sees people buy or sell. But one area has not changed much over the decades. The goal of advertising has always been to convince a person who just ate a full meal that he/she is still hungry. It still works very well.

The rare times I need a pick-up truck, I ask my neighbour or a good friend if I can drop $20 worth of gas in their tank… Everyone is happy and I just saved $70,000. I just can’t see firing up an 8-cyl. HEMI to pick up a loaf of bread.

RE: Grilling. I watch some of the cooking channels on You Tube. Simple grilling has turned into food porn.

I am thinking it would be a Thesis in Gender Studies

Does anyone else remember when you could actually reach over the side of the bed of a pickup to put stuff in it, or get something out…WITHOUT having to use a ladder????

Dystopian novels….

I guess I’m bucking the trend with barbeques. My old aluminum barbie will never rust out. The grill and burners have been replaced twice, and when the steel legs gave out, I replaced them with leftover bricks that match the house.

The 94 inch is my Grill…I use it at least twice a week all year long….https://grillcollection.com/collections/napoleon-prestige-pro-825-grills?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj-PJjKar8QIVJj6tBh0QGQmSEAAYAyAAEgI0NPD_BwEAnother Go Comics user wants to upgrade to this….https://kalamazoogourmet.com/products/k1000-freestanding-hybrid-fire-grill/ I feel so inferior! :(

What about portable coolers? What was once $30 is now $300.

It’s called TDS (Tiny D*** Syndrome).

I tend to think everyone has something “shiny” which other people, who don’t have that preference, find pretentious or wasteful. Teslas are a classic, but it could also be the latest cell phone, or trinkets and knick knacks from travel or clothes or whatever. I have tons of books. Literally more than 1 ton of books based on the last move. Printed, on paper, textbooks, references for a bunch of subjects, it’s my thing. People give me a hard time about not having a Kindle or other such device, or have I heard of Google or whatever. However, with my books, I have post its and margin notes for key things I need to remember, I know where they are – it works for me and dare I say provides a certain comfort. In realizing that about myself, I try to be less judgmental of others about their “things”.

A full discussion of that concept would be worthy of a PhD in some disciplines.

Actually, barbecues and grills are separate devices. Real barbecue is not made on a grill, and grilling is not barbecuing.

You could get several master’s theses out of it, in different disciplines. Sociology, psychology, marketing….

Isn’t it amazing that a $20 charcoal grill cooks just as well as a $300 monster grill, but you can’t hardly find the cheap ones any more. Just goes to prove that Americans aren’t really that smart.

While I personally do not own a “Huge-o” grill or one of those gargantuan pickup trucks…. it is fine for folks to have them if they wish.

Truth-be-told….. what I miss are the SMALL pickup trucks they used to sell (think VW Pickup, original Ford Ranger, Chevy S-10). Those were trucks that were useful to me, as an average, non-construction worker, home-owner. I had a used VW Pickup and a used Chevy S-10 for a while (not at the same time)…. and both had wonderful utility and function for the various projects and hauling needs I had… and for their time, they had decent gas mileage (especially the VW Pickup, which was a diesel).

Boys and their toys. Always looking for the latest model with the latest gadgets.

Allow me to change the dialogue.

“At some point, bicycles went from a utilitarian tool to an utralight, shiny, luxury item.”

“Whenever it was, it seemed to coincide with the same thing in running shoes.”

Exact same level of consumerism, exact same level of critique.

Not sure.. explore that.

Change the utilitarian name to a luxxy-sounding one and you can charge more. Example: Spaghetti $5.00. Same serving called Pasta: $10.00. And so it goes.

The same thing happened to sewing machines.   One of my machines is sixty years old, the other is over a hundred.   But try to find a still-working model from 1999.

Everything to excess…that’s our motto.