Musings

I fell victim today to an absolutely ingenious marketing ploy today. I say ingenious because, well, I certainly fell for it. But really, I don't think I'm the only one who fell for it. I bet plenty of people will say they didn't fall for it, that they had intended to make a purchase all along. See on the baskets at Stoppen und Schoppen they have cupholders attached right to the handle. And it very conspicuously says Dunkin' Donuts right on it. Needless to say I decided that coffee was actually a pretty good idea.

But think about it. They really have you by the nuts at that point. If you didn't walk in with a coffee, and you're even remotely drowsy, you're gonna decide that that little cupholder is just too convenient to leave under-utilized. I mean these cupholders are really diesel cupholders. They're solid metal, and they're bolted onto the cart.

But enough of my musings.

I performed a random good act today, it made me feel special. I was pulling out of Stoppen und Schoppen, and there was a guy throwing a bunch of plywood into the back of a pickup. Right in the middle of the intersection. I was going continue on my way, when I realized that he had a lot of plywood to pick up. It had slipped right out the back I guess. So I stopped and helped him.

End

Archaic

Today I was looking through a lighting book I had lent a friend; he had found an interesting section called "Archaic Dimmers." I've seen more than a few of the dimmers pictured in the book still in use in active theaters. In fact I've seen some of them at URI. I saw some of the really old ones today. They're actually resistance dimmers.

More than just the dimmers though, this theater was quite possibly very illegal. There were so many things that I had heard about in an "in the old days" fashion in this place that it was kind if scary. There were actually things about this theater that really truly scared me. It's been a while since I was actually afraid of something at work.