Remember the cabbage patch craze of 10 or 15 years ago? The cute dolls with birth certificates and individual characteristics were the hottest things since bread in slices. The local insanity culminated in a riot at the now defunct Zayres in Wilkes-Barre. Grandmothers and Mommies pushing and shoving each other, body checking with vicious elbows to kick and claw their way into the store to get one of the plastic Pollyanna’s. I must admit that I bought into the stupidity myself, buying one from the classified ads for more than I would care to admit. I would be willing to be the little girl who I bought it for (my Daughter) has no idea where it is today.
What reminded me of this was a recent sale of used laptops in Richmond Virginia that turned big time ugly. The Henrico County schools decided to unload 1,000 4 year old Apple I books for $50 each. A crowd estimated at 5,500 showed up, some as early as 1:30am for a 7am opening. A 20 year old guy who probably is not smart enough to own a laptop used a metal folding chair to beat back people who cut in front of him. He said “I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought it was just.” You have to hope if he got the laptop that he uses it to study ethics.
The chaos began when they opened the doors and the crowd surged forward. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd. One woman reportedly urinated herself because she didn’t want to lose her place in line.
In Henrico county Virginia where their Motto is “Proud of our progress, excited about our future” Paul Proto director of general services for Henrico County said "It's rather strange that we would have such a tremendous response for the purchase of a laptop computer -- and laptop computers that probably have less-than- desirable attributes, but I think that people tend to get caught up in the excitement of the event. It almost has an entertainment value."
Obviously entertainment has a somewhat different meaning in Virginia.
But then again I could be wrong.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Computers have become the cabbage patch kids of today.
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4 comments:
They were Apple's...this explains everything.
They have been over advertised lately between macbook air and iPhone so all of the degenerates who want one but cant afford one see a "deal" like this and flip out.
The same type of thing happened with the Playstation 3 a year ago, the company overhyped the product and under delivered on stock...one person actually got shot over cutting someone in line here.
Another incident i remember was a manager of a certain red neck super store, told the customers they could race for a chance to be able to buy one of the ten ps3's they had in stock.
The ensuing stampede cause old people and handicapped alike to be thrown to the ground and one younger person to run headlong into a pole...here is the video of the incident: http://www.wisn.com/video/10339676/index.html
If you watch to the end they show the doofus in slow motion running headlong into the flag pole....very amusing.
Just remember, none of us is as dumb as all of us.
Uhhh, Jim, I hate to say this, but you've got some missing time on your hands(or maybe NOT on your hands). The Cabbage Patch insanity was more like 25 years ago. It was 1983. I looked it up. Sympathy only from this end, I do the same thing. I was just telling some other 50-somethings yesterday that I now get decades confused, not just years.
Enjoy your musings, check them daily. Thanks for the link!
Sweeney
Oh my gosh...but then again YOU had to look it up!
Always and forever the good radio/TV type, I had to verify before opening my big mouth. Actually, I would have placed it more like 79/80. It was back in my WARM days, back when WARM had days. Hey, as a good friend said to me not long ago, "I didn't leave radio, radio left me."
Be well, and my guess is that you are, sir!
Sweeney
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