Friday, February 17, 2006
The most powerful word in the English language
... is "FREE". Tests have proved it, copy-writers know it, consumers can't resist it, and mail order marketers rely upon it. In Australia we even devote special days to celebrate the consumer concept of FREE.
Where we live in Sydney we have "Clean Up Days" when the Local Council collects any old crap we've got lying around the place. And not just old crap, but practically new stuff as well. All the good cons-umers in the Hills District throw out their no-longer-useful stuff and the good citizens from less fortunate districts cruise our streets pillaging the booty they find on the footpath.
Some of them are obviously profess-ional traders, some of them seem to have a shopping list of stuff. But there's an unwritten rule: if it's out on the footpath, then it's fair game. I have put three old dining room chairs out the front one evening when it was not a "Clean Up Day" and they were gone before I got back in the house, such is the hunger for other people's stuff among the citizenry of Sydney. While we're making room for more stuff, other people are gathering up our crap to fil up their homes with moree stuff! Because it's FREE.
¶ 3:14 PM 
... is "FREE". Tests have proved it, copy-writers know it, consumers can't resist it, and mail order marketers rely upon it. In Australia we even devote special days to celebrate the consumer concept of FREE.
Where we live in Sydney we have "Clean Up Days" when the Local Council collects any old crap we've got lying around the place. And not just old crap, but practically new stuff as well. All the good cons-umers in the Hills District throw out their no-longer-useful stuff and the good citizens from less fortunate districts cruise our streets pillaging the booty they find on the footpath.
Some of them are obviously profess-ional traders, some of them seem to have a shopping list of stuff. But there's an unwritten rule: if it's out on the footpath, then it's fair game. I have put three old dining room chairs out the front one evening when it was not a "Clean Up Day" and they were gone before I got back in the house, such is the hunger for other people's stuff among the citizenry of Sydney. While we're making room for more stuff, other people are gathering up our crap to fil up their homes with moree stuff! Because it's FREE.
¶ 3:14 PM
