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Rubik's Cube Lube
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Found
- Hits: 210
The Treasure of the day:
Found at the Thrift Shop with a bunch of Paraphernalia that suggests that someone took this all a bit too seriously.
Why Not? Mr. Tickles has his KY Jelly (or Jam, as I imagine it), some like their three-in-one, and for the Sapiophile, well, add this to the bedside table with my copy of James Joyce's "Ulysses", I mean, really, it can't hurt...
The Adventures of a Bric-A-Brac Hunter - Major H. Byng Hall
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 207
A rather period read - out of fashion, but still as relevant, recommended to me by Mark Twain in his "A Tramp Abroad".
The plot, well, nonexistent, rather a recounting of the fine treasures found by Major H. Byng Hall on his sojourns to the Continent in search of the perfect pieces of Bric-A-Brac, largely (in his eyes) fancy porcelain China and various other ornaments.
I do as much the same today, not to the continent, true, and rarely after fancy China, but other treasures...
Now, his notes are timeless, for example his comments on how fashion determines the value of items - how often it's much better it’s valued in it’s own country, how one year it may be a treasure, the next worthless, how - as with art, all attributions of value are spurious, and his perpetual recommendation to always start the bargaining at 1/3rd of the asked price...
His enthusiasm is contagious, and I find myself strangely sympathetic - especially volunteering at the thrift shop, where one sees no end to fine manufacturers of porcelain, fine china, cups, saucers, plate and dinnerware, fine bits of bric-a-brac that will never again fetch a price even close to their value, or that reflects the workmanship that went into them.
I go the extra yard, look up some of the bits of China he enthusiastically recommends, bits of Sevres, Wedgewood, Dresden, and I have to say that in this I haven't the eye, a fine 18th century piece could easily pass through my hands into the rubbish, the tastes of another era most definitely not my own...my knowledge needs some improvement, most of this would escape my taste, gaudy, garish, but - well, looking up current prices, some very definitely valuable...
He talks of vendors in Marseilles, Constantinople, Madrid, St. Petersberg, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, Italy, Paris, London, he's travelling all of Europe looking for knick-knacks, lamenting the golden era (long past) of phenomenal bargains to be had, when not everyone knew what they owned, and he praises the critical eye, the collector's secret appreciation of what others would not be able to recognize, regional tastes and valuations that allow for profit, and I enjoy it, certainly, because in this he's a temperament similar mine own...
This, a curious, dated read, but the sentiment remains the same.
Grey and Snowing
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 159
Today, grey and snowing. Maybe 20% daylight, low clouds, rain turning to snow.
Wake up, have some coffee, breakfast, get a few groceries, go back to bed.
Dream that I'm ...
Strange dreams, anyways, filled with unlikely and unwanted personages.
Wake up, go and search for cigarettes, the lowering grey sky and weather, the shop, cash only, interac down, and so I'll just smoke a little less. The day, outside, so dismal, another brief nap, and while I should make some lunch I'm not starving or inspired, and with the windows pulled full wide it's still a dark apartment, dark day, work will be a brief relief from this, there are things to be done but I'm not getting started, not now anyways, time to get changed and head to work where - if I'm unproductive at least I'm making money...
Everything needs a deposit...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 123
And this, the realization a little late, all the garbage that I sort through and throw away at the thrift shop. Tons, daily, and this - one of tens of thousands across the country. Perfectly good glassware, only we have a hundred more of the same on the shelves that aren't selling, the same with clothes, pots, pans, everything you can imagine we get 10X, 100X more than we can process or ever hope to sell, however discounted it is.
Everything is made to be thrown away.
Some things - aluminum cans, glass - well, they're not such a problem.
Plastics, electronics, synthetic fabrics, that's another story.
Everything needs a deposit. I mean everything. Nothing should be sold that can not be returned for a deposit. A wine or drink glass, maybe 10 cents. A plastic cup, 25 cents. A stove, fridge, TV - anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars - depending on the cost of recycling it. Cars? Deposit required.
And all the deposit money, paid back to the companies that manufacture it, when they've successfully re or upcycled it.
The landfills, they'll be the next gold mines. I mean, even in the gilt edged plates and china that i throw away daily there's grams per tonne, enough to make it commercially viable, let alone the other precious metals and rare earths.
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