ruminations about architecture and design

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

obsolete, useless, and insane




I can't remember the last wristwatch I owned. When I was young I had a series of Casio digitial watches that I thought were the greatest things in the world. I was proud of the fact that they claimed to be waterproof up to 40 meters. I never had occasion to test that and in retrospect, I'm glad--I have a fear of deep water. I lusted after a watch that had a calculator, but I never owned one. I went cold turkey on a wristwatch after I got a cellphone and now I'm slightly puzzled by people who still own and rely on wristwatches. I'll admit that they're big business, and will probably continue to be big business up until the lights go out.

Now, I'm beginning to lust after a sealed combustion hot water heater. If I'm motivated, I'll have one installed this year. It's satisfying to own and display new and shiny things. A water heater doesn't have much weight as a fetish symbol, but I'll enjoy having one. It's only visible sign for the outside world will be two plastic pipes sticking out the plastic covered wall of my house. 

James Bond had a variety of souped-up, weaponized wristwatches. One of them was a teletype machine. Bond wore his wristwatch to bed--all the time.



4 comments:

  1. Our loyal readers should know that this comes from the man whose wife wears a wristwatch and who constantly asks his wife what time it is. Even before he got his cellphone, his lifestyle made a watch unnecessary. Except during the recent weeks when my watch was broken, and his frequent, plaintive questions of "what time is it?" had to go unanswered.

    I'm in support of a good water heater.
    :)

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  2. That's my watch...Keep in mind that the time on that watch is 5:32 AM! I wake up to my buzzing phone, check my WATCH to see what time it is, see that its a message from David and promptly respond to his predawn request for my watch picture. He sends me a link to the blog, and Bam! Obsolete, useless and Insane..Still, I'm flattered that he though of me..

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  3. So let's reconstruct the story here folks: it's 5:30 a.m., David is blogging, and decides he must have a photo of a watch. Option 1: he can go into the kitchen and photograph my watch. Option 2: he can go on the interwebs and download any of millions of photos of watches online. David goes for Option 3: text Ezra at 5:30 a.m., wake him up, and request that he take a photo of his watch. So that he can criticize it. Are we surprised?

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  4. Close..It was a Face Book instant message. He might not be aware that I have an alarm for that sort of thing on my extremely relevant Samsung Galaxy 4s. He is a complicated man, and I am not one to criticize his process.. He knows that my ego expected to read "Elegant, stylish yet understated"....I appreciate the pattern interruption and reality check..I tend to be complacent after Wednesdays..

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