TIMES CHANGE, MOSTLY.

Blog number 128                                               Nov. 13, 2007

Monday nights, Jay Leno has a section called, "Headlines" where he shows funny and weird things - malaprops mostly, from various publications around the country.  One Monday he showed toys he had bought at a dollar store.  He said the toys are there usually because something is wrong with them and he showed a toy car that had the windshield on the rear window.

I like to give toys to children I meet, so we - Teresa and I, bought several packages of toy cars called "Turbo Wheels."  Four to a package for one dollar.  Pretty cheap, but I didn't think much about it until I tried one out this morning.  They wouldn't go forward - only backward.  Racing cars that could only back up.  Made in China.  Naturally.

Speaking of which, several years ago I bought a two way hose connection and it leaked.  So I took it back and bought another one.  It leaked too.  So I tried again.  Leaked.  Made in China.  I don't remember how I solved the problem.

Two years ago I bought a water cutoff.  Leaked.  Another one.  Leaked.  Made in China.  I finally solved the problem by buying a plastic one.  Made in the USA

Before the good war, anything made in Japan had the reputation for being crap.  Now made-in-China has that reputation, while Japanese-made usually means quality.

During that war, I remember one Sunday in a comic strip called, "Bringing Up Father", Jiggs (male protagonist) was caught by Maggie (his wife) breaking all the dishes in the house.  When she got on him about it, he pointed out that on the bottom of the dishes it said, "Made In Japan."  This didn't seem odd to me at the time, and evidently it didn't seem odd to the cartoonist.  Because we hated the Japs so badly, you see.  We called them Japs back then.