- Toothpaste-tube keys
These were similar to paint-saver keys, only they were marketing tchotchkes with a local business or political candidate's name printed on it. Time must have been tough if people were worried about the last pea-sized dollop of paste from a $1.29 tube. My parents had several of these around. - Soap-sliver savers
Again, thrift reigned if people were willing to try to eke the last paper-thin wash out of a 50-cent soap bar. You put your leftover soap slivers in a little plastic machine, compress them, and presto!--you have a new, full-sized bar of soap. The ads always showed many different colors of soap merged into the new bar, which I thought was really cool--but also showed how people bought their soap at the time: extremely price-sensitive, no brand loyalties. I think my grandmother had one, but maybe I just saw the ads on TV. Other people also seem to recall this method of saving soap.
Two things I remember from the recession in the 80s
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Minneapolis Bike Tour
Reading over the Star Tribune, I found an article describing all the traffic woes for this weekend, including numerous road closures for the…
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Bell-to-Bell
On Friday night, a thought occurred to me: beautiful weather, and just a couple weeks left in Philadelphia. It's time to ride bell-to-bell.…
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Personalization on the Web: Ads and Content
This is a story about how much the Internet knows about you. Tuesday, on GMail, I saw a sponsor message for "Burning Man Boots." Clearly, GMail has…
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