An email appeared yesterday on MNB in which one of our readers talked about people making rugs out of bread bags, and I said that I didn’t even know what a bread bag was.
Dumb. Really dumb.
One MNB user responded:
It's the plastic bag the bread is packaged in, Silly Boy. I can remember the Wonder Bread bag in white plastic with colorful dots. My grandmother also made the throw rugs from the bags. They were good for in front of the kitchen sink because, being plastic, they were not damaged by water. These are not heirloom quality mats we're discussing here, strictly utilitarian.
Another MNB user wrote:
You don’t know what a bread bag is? It’s that plastic thing that the bread comes in that keeps it fresh. It usually has a kwik-lock or twist-tie closure on it to help from getting stale. Something tells me that not knowing what a bread bag is has nothing to do with being raised poorly because it is quite evident that you only do on-line shopping at premium (or as you say “reputable”) retailers. LL Bean? Amazon? Apple?
Not to digress, but if you are suggesting I am a child of privilege you'd be wrong. My dad was a schoolteacher with seven kids (I’m the oldest), and I can remember vividly him buying powdered milk to mix in with the liquid kind so he could make it last longer for less money. We weren’t poor by any means, but hardly wealthy. Maybe my mom made rugs out of bread bags, but I have no memory of it.
Still another MNB user wrote:
Of course you know what a bread bag is (and you've probably already received a hundred notes on this). It's the plastic bag that a loaf of bread comes in. The mental leap you probably had difficulty making was the idea of crocheting rugs out of plastic bags ... which of course was the point of the letter. People don't bother to find creative ways to reuse things any more. Half the time I don't think they bother to get recyclables to a recycling bin if there's a trash can handy.
Well, close to a hundred notes.
And you’re right. I had trouble making the leap from plastic bread bags to rugs. In fact, I’m still having trouble imagining it…but I’ll take your word for it.
In a piece about how the online shopping experience was rated poorly by what I felt was a surprising number of shoppers, I spoke enthusiastically about Amzon.com…which led MNB user Don Brandt to write:
Kevin…it amazes me each time you rave about Amazon.com…I tried to send books to a friend in China earlier this year and it was a nightmare…my requests for information produced inaccurate details and at one point I was double billed for the purchase…in the end the books never arrived and were ultimately “lost!”...I bought the books locally for less money…shipped them to my friend for less money, and my friend actually got the books in a week…the long and short of it is that I’ll never do business with Amazon again…they are expensive, confused, and slow to respond…I did finally get a credit to my credit card for the missing purchase…
What can I say? My experiences with Amazon have been the polar opposite.
Finally, we ran the following email yesterday:
How about companies becoming friendly to those of us that are 55 years old or older. I work for Kelloggs and I have had more than one person ask me when ask me hen I'm going to retire and the possibility of making room for a younger person. Let me assure you that I "my carry my weight."
To which MNB user Shelly Sinclair responded:
I obviously also work at Kellogg and just wanted to quickly respond to the person who commented that they were being asked to retire to make room for a younger person. I felt the need to comment that my experience with the company is completely the opposite. I love working for this company and I truly believe they value their employees and strive hard to make them happy and retain them as long as possible. (And no, I don't work in HR.) Many people do retire 'early' from Kellogg but I think that is in large part because they have such a lucrative 401K and pension plan. Obviously my positive view of the company is so strong that it prompted me to write.
Good for you. And good for Kellogg’s to have someone like you.
Dumb. Really dumb.
One MNB user responded:
It's the plastic bag the bread is packaged in, Silly Boy. I can remember the Wonder Bread bag in white plastic with colorful dots. My grandmother also made the throw rugs from the bags. They were good for in front of the kitchen sink because, being plastic, they were not damaged by water. These are not heirloom quality mats we're discussing here, strictly utilitarian.
Another MNB user wrote:
You don’t know what a bread bag is? It’s that plastic thing that the bread comes in that keeps it fresh. It usually has a kwik-lock or twist-tie closure on it to help from getting stale. Something tells me that not knowing what a bread bag is has nothing to do with being raised poorly because it is quite evident that you only do on-line shopping at premium (or as you say “reputable”) retailers. LL Bean? Amazon? Apple?
Not to digress, but if you are suggesting I am a child of privilege you'd be wrong. My dad was a schoolteacher with seven kids (I’m the oldest), and I can remember vividly him buying powdered milk to mix in with the liquid kind so he could make it last longer for less money. We weren’t poor by any means, but hardly wealthy. Maybe my mom made rugs out of bread bags, but I have no memory of it.
Still another MNB user wrote:
Of course you know what a bread bag is (and you've probably already received a hundred notes on this). It's the plastic bag that a loaf of bread comes in. The mental leap you probably had difficulty making was the idea of crocheting rugs out of plastic bags ... which of course was the point of the letter. People don't bother to find creative ways to reuse things any more. Half the time I don't think they bother to get recyclables to a recycling bin if there's a trash can handy.
Well, close to a hundred notes.
And you’re right. I had trouble making the leap from plastic bread bags to rugs. In fact, I’m still having trouble imagining it…but I’ll take your word for it.
In a piece about how the online shopping experience was rated poorly by what I felt was a surprising number of shoppers, I spoke enthusiastically about Amzon.com…which led MNB user Don Brandt to write:
Kevin…it amazes me each time you rave about Amazon.com…I tried to send books to a friend in China earlier this year and it was a nightmare…my requests for information produced inaccurate details and at one point I was double billed for the purchase…in the end the books never arrived and were ultimately “lost!”...I bought the books locally for less money…shipped them to my friend for less money, and my friend actually got the books in a week…the long and short of it is that I’ll never do business with Amazon again…they are expensive, confused, and slow to respond…I did finally get a credit to my credit card for the missing purchase…
What can I say? My experiences with Amazon have been the polar opposite.
Finally, we ran the following email yesterday:
How about companies becoming friendly to those of us that are 55 years old or older. I work for Kelloggs and I have had more than one person ask me when ask me hen I'm going to retire and the possibility of making room for a younger person. Let me assure you that I "my carry my weight."
To which MNB user Shelly Sinclair responded:
I obviously also work at Kellogg and just wanted to quickly respond to the person who commented that they were being asked to retire to make room for a younger person. I felt the need to comment that my experience with the company is completely the opposite. I love working for this company and I truly believe they value their employees and strive hard to make them happy and retain them as long as possible. (And no, I don't work in HR.) Many people do retire 'early' from Kellogg but I think that is in large part because they have such a lucrative 401K and pension plan. Obviously my positive view of the company is so strong that it prompted me to write.
Good for you. And good for Kellogg’s to have someone like you.
- KC's View:
