The base story about the ice man was in a picture book, and when plllog's Dad took her to an ice house to get ice (for their ice-box, I presume), he told her how ice men hauled ice from door to door in a small, covered wagon pulled by one horse, who knew to pull the wagon to a house or two down the street while the ice man made a delivery to one house. On the way back to the icehouse at the end of the day, it was O.K. if the ice man fell asleep ... for the horse knew the way and got there safely.

I've said for some time that there were three kinds of such one-horse drawn small covered wagons going down the streets of almost all cities in the industrializing world, 80 years or so ago: one carried bread, one carried milk and the third carried ice. The ice man would break a chunk from the large block and carry it to a house with large tongs, then put it into the top compartment of a large wood covered box in the kitchen, the family would dump the water gathered in a pan at the bottom occasionally, and in a few days the ice man would bring another chunk.

Something over 70 years ago they began to build refrigerators.

Of the refrigerators built 60 years or so ago ... many of them lasted for 40 years or more.

Many/(most?) of the refrigerators built today last for about 10 years.

I've told this story many times over several years, and at that point, about a quarter of the listeners step into the conversation, and about a quarter of them make the same three-word observation ... "If ... you're ... lucky!"

I continue to ask whether the engineers, who were able to send a man to the moon something like 40 years ago (and bring him back safely), have grown so much stupider in the intervening years?

And, of course, everyone agrees that is not the problem.

The corporations who built the refrigerators (of which there are fewer in recent years, so each holds more power in the marketplace) have decided that it's way more profitable for them if almost every household must buy a new fridge every 10 years rather than after 20, 30 or 40 years.

It takes a good deal of precious energy to dig iron ore out of the ground: it took millions of years to make petroleum and we've been using it for, what, only about 125 years or so?

More energy to haul it to smelters, which are fuel hogs, then to cut and shape the parts, then to haul them to the factory that builds fridges.

Modern fridges use a good deal of plastic, also sourced from petroleum. The new fridge is hauled to a store, then to a home ...

... and, when it dies, to a recycling plant or garbage dump.

A number of products built with recycled materials are of lower quality and utility than were the original uses.

All of that energy used adds to global warming and pollution, as well.

But - rather than merely complaining to one another, let's do it where it may achieve some results, by going on social media to ask hundreds ... thousands ... millions to contact the manufacturers to shame them into building higher quality into their products.

Plus ... let's talk to our legislators along the same line.

Sometimes carrots can be effective, alone.

Sometimes sticks can be effective, used alone.

But ... use 'em together ... and worthwhile results can be achieved more often.

(Ole joyful lives within a couple of miles of the newly-acquired [for something like 220 million] garbage "dump" [4-letter word] that serves Canada's largest city).

("Landfill" ... appears to me to be more or less a double four-letter word).

Rant finished (for now).

ole joyfuelled ... by non-costly, non-warming or -polluting fuel