Last week I said that I would not talk about our fridge. This week, though, I will. Not because I have nothing else to talk about, but because I have discovered deeper meaning in the story. Deeper meaning into the true spirit of America, which, if anyone even remembers, was the whole point of this blog to begin with.Sometime last week I read some tips on how to make your home more energy efficent, one of which was to make sure the seal on your fridge door is tight so that the cold air wont escape. So, naturally, I go home and check our fridge and discover that the seal on our freezer door was loose enough to allow cold air to seep out. I the hope that the management would care enough about my energy efficiency to perhaps fix my fridge, I called them to my place to check it out. And they did come. The maintenance guys agreed that the seal was loose, so decided to fix it BY GIVING US A NEW FRIDGE! And, looking back, when our dishwasher's door-latch broke, they got us a whole new dishwasher! Is this how you all do things here in America? If any little (and I assume easily fixable/replaceable) part of a machine breaks, scrap the whole thing and buy an new one?! Should I stop washing dishes, and instead buy a new set after every meal? My car is due for an oil change, should I just get a new one instead?
I guess my complex might be trying to replace all the old appliances with new ones (in which case, we should make up some problem with our stove), but I like to think it is America's consumer culture that is fueling this amazing juggernaut of waste.
Oh America...
And in completely unrelated news, as I am writing this post, I'm listening to a live Broken Social Scene concert on npr.com. I mentioned a little while ago about how the Stars Concert we attended was available on the website, and now I will go the next step and recommend you (nay - command you) to subscribe the the "All Songs Considered Concert Series" Podcast, where you can download full concerts from artists like The Arcade Fire, Spoon, The New Pornographers, Animal Collective, as well as the two previously mentioned shows. Pretty Cool, Eh? (I had to throw in that 'Eh' to remind myself that I am still a Canadian)
7 comments:
We had a really old fridge when I was a kid and my dad used a string of three or four bungee cords to keep the door sealed. It always made it look like we were trying to keep a monster locked in there.
And I agree, NPR's All Songs Considered is a great time.
Just the other day I was reading Uncle John's Bathroom Reader and came across this stat:
11% of Americans have thrown out a dish just because they don't want to wash it.
Oh... America...
Oh crap, I am in that 11%. I admit it, I have thrown away a tupperware or 2 or 3 because it had grown the nastiest mold you have ever seen, and I did not want to wash it.
Oh...Jamie
Complaining about our consumer throw-it-away culture is dangerous. If you speak too loudly, the FBI may come and throw you away.
Oh how I wish it were always this way. Sadly, no, even though sometimes we just toss the old and usher in the new, other times we INSIST on fixing something that is obviously broken. Or we continue to try to fix something through the exact same method, over and over, even though the first 21 attempts did not yield success.
I congratulate you for obtaining a new fridge. Now if I could get someone to bring me a new, free furnace, I'd be set.
Of course I realize that not everyone in America throws away perfectly good appliances rather than fixing them - I just thought it was funny that my apartment complex's idea of fixing minor appliance defects is by replacing them. Which, by the way, I am not complaining about
AAAHHHHH, I can't see the fridge? What do I do? Is it my computer? All is lost....
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