
 |
|
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Feb. 15, 2008
/ 9 Adar I 5768
Marketing garbage
By
Lori Borgman
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It is a luxury I will die without: the $18 Rachael Ray garbage bowl.
Rachel Ray is the cute-as-a-button girl-next-door with the wildly successful "30-Minute Meals" shows. She also has a daytime talk show, a slug of cookbooks, cookware galore and now, her very own garbage bowl.
Who knew that the pinnacle of success would be having your name attached to a garbage bowl?
I'm pretty sure we've lost it.
It's a bowl, right? Plastic, even. You could get four big plastic bowls at any mega-mart for the same price, but because this is like the one Rachel Ray throws garbage in on her cooking show, it goes for 18 smackers.
The bowl doesn't have any special features. It doesn't have a suction bottom to anchor it to the counter, no pour spout and it's not rated for 1,200 degrees heat. It doesn't roll over, bark or play dead.
It's a bowl. A bowl for garbage.
Seems to me there might be some intermediate steps to try before buying a designer bowl to hold eggshells and banana peels. Here's a golden oldie: pull the trash can out from beneath the sink and put it by your feet when you work.
Or try this one: dump kitchen scraps in an old Cool Whip container. Or in an empty sour cream container. Or in an empty deli container.
My personal favorite is having a brown grocery sack by my feet when I cook. There's nothing like the satisfaction of making a hook shot with an empty tomato sauce can and hearing that glorious hollow "thud."
Or here's one - and, granted it's a little out there - hang an actual trash bag from a cupboard knob and use it for garbage.
But none of those solutions is marketable. You don't have to buy a single thing, you're using what you already have. You're being resourceful. What a dud.
I'm not knocking the garbage bowl, it's a good bowl. It does everything a bowl should do - it sits there without giving you any sass, holds things and looks very bowl-like.
I'm just wondering when we became so affluent, coddled, and cushy that we need designer bowls to hold garbage? Bowls remarkably similar to the bowls we already have.
Perhaps the garbage bowl is like a consolation prize. If I can't look like Rachel, or cook like Rachael, at least I can make garbage like Rachael.
If I can't cook like Emeril, at least I can buy knives like Emeril and chop like Emeril. If I can't be a domestic diva like Martha Stewart, I at least can buy her stemware, dinnerware, 600-count sheets, towels, muffin tins and play like I'm Martha.
It's always so much easier to buy the gizmos and gadgets than to actually acquire the skills.
Here's the real kicker to the garbage bowl. When you're finished dumping the apple peels, orange rinds, onion skins, garlic mush and tomato innards from this rough and tumble, guaranteed-to-last-for-many-years bowl, the instructions say, "Hand wash."
Sounds kind of prissy for a bowl that holds trash.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Lori Borgman is the author of , most recently, "Pass the Faith, Please" (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) and I Was a Better Mother Before I Had Kids To comment, please click here. To visit her website click here.
ARCHIVES
© 2008, Lori Borgman
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|