I listened via ipod while painting a new baby room and I think in part thanks to the show, the new configuration will have less furniture in it.

I also had an odd sense of pleasure in that this was the last of the unlistened to Open Source shows on my ipod. I had finally caught up.

Regarding Cheese and the flowbee, I would argue that Safety Can and Safety Jar have come in handy from time to time.

In referring to my comment on the show (thanks), you mentioned that people in Japan are anti-wal-mart. That is not exactly what I said. While it is probably true of smaller supermarket and department store operators, who fear Wal-mart’s corporate power, for the most part Japanese people are not even familiar with the name “Wal-mart”. This in itself reflects that company’s inability to make waves in this “small-cart and shopping basket” market.

Really enjoyed this show.

When I moved to the South End and then Roxbury, in the late 1960′s, I lived communally with very few possessions and little money. We used to go through the alleys on the trash day in Boston reserved for furniture, rugs, matresses etc. We found some beautiful antiques- stuff you would pay a lot for even then. It’s amazing what good stuff people throw out and probably replace with crap/ poorly made stuff. We also foraged araound Haymarket for the fresh produce that was on the verge of going bad that we got wither for free or very little.

Nikos– that was the ethic that I was brought up with. Save it…. you might need it for something. And it has to be on sale. So you wind up buying your winter clothes in the spring. Yesterday I bought jeans for $7.50 at Filene’s (now Macy’s). Unbelievable. When the lady rang them up I thought I was going to pay $40- but she said that “will be $7.50″. My eyes bugged out. I said “wait a minute , I take another pair”.

(Out here in the “burbs” a lot of folks keep their cars in the driveway and load up there garages. My neighbor just built an additional garage ostensibly to put his stuff in so he could put his cars under cover but I notice the cars are still sitting in the driveway.)

As I get older, I notice I acquire less and throw out more though. What motivates me is not wanting to leave a mess behind for others when I go.

I’m working on it. I’m working on it.

This thought occured to me the other day as I was brooding on my cluttered life.

These days the poor and the middle class are fat and the rich are thin.

In the future you’ll be able to tell the rich by their austere uncluttered lives, while the rest of us sit in middens surrounded by the stuff that we were brainwashed into buiying.

Indeed. My Flowbee Precision Haircutting System purchase was an unmitigated disaster!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00020F9TK/103-6492913-0023857?v=glance&n=284507

I was thinking about jazzman’s post on divesting outmoded beliefs. Maybe it came to me as a metaphor but I was reminded of when I was retrieving old stuff from a garage, stuff that had been there for years. I found a basket of wool wound into balls. It looked OK. It smelled OK. But when I reached in to it I felt something crunchy. EEK! a mummified mouse! Maybe I have some outmoded beliefs that at one time burrowed into my consciousness just looking for a warm place to pass a winter’s night but have since then died and turned into mummies.

thank you jazzman

After a brief hesitiation, I started humming You got to know when to fold em, know when to hold em, know when to walk away, know when to run.

It ALL went into the trash. Whew. I carry my history within me, don’t need these dusty choking artifacts.

Now if I can apply this in my own home.