War on Junk - Day 19

After a Christmas hiatus, during which a lot of future junk made its way into our house and the war on junk was temporarily suspended, I'm back in the trenches. There are entire stores full of garbage that people foolishly flock to. They're called Dollar Stores and they sell exclusively stuff which will be in the garbage within two weeks of purchase. The only attraction they seem to have is price. However it's not restricted to the dollar stores - my mother-in-law, who is not mechanically inclined, purchased a flashlight this week. She brought it over and handed it to me, because she couldn't get it to work. Thats' not unusual, however this time, there was good reason for her difficulties - it was an unalloyed piece of junk - poorly made, poorly designed, instant garbage, all manufactured in China, blister packed, shipped overseas, stocked in the hardware store, purchased and then discarded. A total waste of resources, energy, time and money.

Today's Junk.

1. A Macanudo Cigar box
2. A cigar cutter - cheap and nasty
3. An aluminum cigar tube
4. A Macadamia Royals chocolate-covered nut tin
5. A lighter
6. A Cortland Fly Line Cleaner - never used and not needed
7. A blade from a sword-shaped letter opener
8. A plastice vial containing iron pyrite flakes
9. A glass jar
10. My Abu-matic reel, given to me by my dad on my 10th birthday. A few years back I disassembled it, then couldn't figure out how to put it back together. Not junk but no longer useful.

War on Junk - Day 18

One of the side benefits of declaring war on junk is that in the 5 minutes I spend selecting the days 10 pieces, I will occaisonally come across something useful. Like today I found my Nikon Coolpix 4500 Guide. I have been looking for it for a couple of years! That's one of the insidious things about junk - it obscures the useful.

Today's Junkorama

1. A Japanese fan box - empty
2. A box containing lacquered paper bows
3. A Kenwood Portable CD player
4. An empty film canister
5. A charging device for something
6. A booklet - Growing Children: A Parent's Guide
7. A bag containing coin tubes.
8. A set of Sony headphones
9. A cord for a computer or printer
10. A plastic round box top

War on Junk - Day 17

Will it never end! There is a lot of this stuff and it's everywhere - in drawers in cupboards, on shelves and in closets.

Todays junk:

1. A Halloween 'hockey mask' - scared the bejesus out of my wife with it yesterday.
2. A cheap flashlight - it would never work if you really needed it
3. A Sony Digicube radio
4. A Gillette Mach 3 Turbo razor handle
5. A pair of earbuds.
6. A pait of Halo Heel shoe inserts
7. A role of Kodak 24 exposures 200 ASA film - expiry date Oct 2004
8. A really cheap and tacky wristwatch
9. An electric razor cleaning brush
10. A plastic monocular

War on Junk - Day 16

Today I emptied the turquoise tote, which was full to the brim. We are now 150 items lighter in the junk department. Another wave of junk is about to come ashore however so we will start to re-fill the tote.

Junk Menu for Today:

1. An unexposed role of Kodak 200 ASA film. Kodak couldn't dodge the digital bullet.
2. A car cell phone charger
3. An ex-mouse
4. A battery charger unsued for many years
5. A plastic electronic device
6. Nick Manoloff's Spanish Guitar Method instructional book- copyright 1935
7. A congratulation for for being Today's Sparkler given to our eldest son in elementary school
8. A drawing of a snowman by one of our kids
9. CD stomper Jewel case insert set
10. A charger for an unknown electronic device

War on Junk - Day 15

One hundred and fifty pieces of junk are now captured and being held prisoner in the turquoise tote. There is no end in sight!

More Junk:

1. An obsolete charger for a cell phone
2, A broken plastice salad server
3. An old tooth brush
4. A lady's razor handle
5. A cork form a bottle of Graham's Port
6. A plastic bag with 4 pennies
7. Half a pen
8. A cord for some electronic device - unknown
9. A sachet of flower food
10. A pewter bob with a west coast native image (Bear?) and the word strength on the back

A Tribute to Paul McCartney

Buy Buy
Says the Sign in the Shop Window
Why Why
Says the Junk in the Yard

Paul McCartney

I have always found that there is a Beatle song for every topic and although "Junk" by Paul McCartney was not a Beatle song, it was written by a Beatle, so close enough. Anyway, to take break from junk to the sublime, I wanted to pay homage to Paul McCartney, a musical genius of incandescent brilliance who has performed a large part of the soundtrack to my life. I just watched "Good Evening New York City" - a DVD about a concert Sir Paul did in Citi Field in the summer of 2009. It included 33 songs, 31 by Paul, one by John Lennon and one by Geaorge Harrison. What is staggering to contemplate is that he could have performed an entirely different collection of 33 Lennon/McCartney or McCartney songs and it would have been just as amazing. I cannot think of another living soul who has such a vast, global reservoir of love and good will among people throughout the world.

Thank you Paul, for creating so much joy and pleasure In My Life. And thanks too to the other 3 Beatles, the dearly departed John Lennon, George Harrison and the indispensible Ringo. You'll Never Know How Much We Really Love You.

War on Junk - Day 14

The banality of this blog is starting to annoy me. Seeking out mundane and useless objects is not as much fun as say - looking for lost treasure. In fact this is pretty much the opposite. We'll see how long I can keep it up.

Junk du jour:

1. A flyer from the municipality
2. A hand-made birthday card
3. A tourist's map of Vancouver
4. The handle to a Schick razor
5. A plastic top for a round container
6. A set of unknown keys on a ring
7. A moustache comb
8. A cleaning brush for a non-existant electric razor
9. A plastic tweezer
10. A nail file