Always changing
June 3, 2008 (Tuesday)
What’s in a name? Remember when we said, “Kodak” instead of “camera?” We called it a “Frigidaire” and not a “refrigerator.” Later on, if we wanted a document copied, we had it “Xeroxed.” Brand names were substituted for correct words. Those three I mentioned are rarely, if ever, heard anymore, mainly because there are so many brand names now.
Today’s brand names would surprise a modern “Rip Van Winkle,” who, you doubtless recall, fell asleep for twenty years only to awaken to a strange new post-revolution country. If old Rip had gone to sleep 40 years ago, he would awaken today to Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Hyundai. Wouldn’t he be surprised!
We would take his picture with our Canon or Nikon camera, and treat him to a shopping trip where many of the items have little tags that say, “Made in China.” If this is too much for him, he can relax in front of a Sony T.V., or maybe a Sanyo or Toshiba.
Then we could sit down with him and explain that we now have a new situation with a “world economy.” I don’t know about you, but that’s about as far as I could go in my explanation; I wouldn’t be able to tell him how it works.
Like Rip Van W., I’ll go to sleep tonight. I’ll dream .. about G.M., Ford, Chrysler, G.E., Eastman, R.C.A., Zenith, and Sears. They stand behind their warranties, and when I call them with a problem, a nice person in Calcutta explains it to me.
Jacob bought his grain in a foreign country, and nothing has been the same since.