Schick Hydro 5 razors

Fully Schick shavers

The Onion had a bit of a laugh at Gillette’s expense back in 2004, with a satirical article featuring Gillette’s CEO bemoaning how competitor Schick released a razor with 4 blades to edge out (har har) their flagship Mach 3 product line, and how they were going to retaliate with… 5 blades! which the company actually did the following year. Then in 2006 The Economist picked up the joke and ran with it, graphing the trajectory of blade one-upmanship to show that by 2100 a typical razor would have no less than 14 blades. I was actually a happy Mach […]

KFC fried chicken drumsticks

Pull a fast one on fast food

This is probably a very silly post, but I’m in a silly mood. I had KFC for lunch yesterday (maybe that’s why), and was struck by how insidious the menu is at the Carlingford branch – if you actually want to have their chicken and not a burger, you can either choose from the ~$3 snack options, or else you have to order a ~$10 combo box that could easily feed 2-3 people. I couldn’t see any other “in between” options (nor most of the other options listed on their Web site menu). I would’ve been happy with a piece […]

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Clearing the air

A couple of weeks ago my air filter died, and since then I have gone through unspeakable suffering with my sinuses. This is why I’m going to extol the virtues of good, clean air, and share with you how I’ve been getting it. Air filters / air purifiers It all started several years ago when a guy on an Internet forum offered to give away a supposedly dead Honeywell air filter. I nabbed it on a lark, and turns out that it was an American machine designed to run on 120V at 60Hz, and the only thing wrong with it […]