I just e-bay'd. Or would that be e-bayed? If that isn't a verb it will be one soon no doubt, following close upon the heels of RSVP'd. Have you not heard people say, "I RSVP'd" on Friday? As in "I responded if you please'd."
How come I e-bay'd after all these years of not doing so? Well that isn't strictly the case. Once before I bought something, a chain saw actually, that wasn't available in town. In this case it was the same issue, but in a more complex form. Before she is allowed to graduate Emily's history teacher is insisting she complete the research required of I.B. students. I'm not against this, though I think he's on rather thin ice--the essay is a part of next semester's work and Emily isn't sitting the I.B. exam and Emily will graduate this semester. But on general principles I'm "for" a piece of research. The only problems are a) Emily doesn't want the "extra" burden and b) she doesn't know what she wants to study. It has to be something in twentieth century history and you have to use primary and secondary sources. Since I have a house full of First World War stuff, this would seem to be the obvious period, but what within that period grabs her attention? Something on the status of women? No. Something about art produced in the era? No. An analysis of the photos in the "Times History of the War." Maybe. Eventually we worked our way to the magazines of the era, of which I own only three. Bit hard to do an analysis of three magazines. So one the web we found others and then I thought to check e-bay. Three available in Britain at two pounds each. Piece of cake. Send them along.
Ha!First e-bay wanted to know what my nom-de-e-bay is. And then my password. And then Paypal wanted to know the same stuff. All of which required sending reminders to my e-mail and then logging on and changing things. Each time I logged on, the e-bay site took exception to my browser. Why wasn't I using Microsoft products, they wanted to know. It was like dealing with someone on British Rail, "You could carry on with that Safari browser, but I wouldn't if I were you, guv. Could be dodgy. Particularly considering the wevvah. Could be a drop of snow before too long and then where will you be? Stuck, is what."
Finally, several interruptions later, this evening I managed to enter all the right bits of info and supposedly from some cottage in rural England, three First World War magazines will set off here-ward tomorrow.
In other news, I bought knives. There's a particular design of steak knife, probably sold in the 1950's, that I see now and then at estate sales. I love them. I have bought two sets in the past, but persons un-named have a habit of putting them in the dishwasher, which causes the bone or bakelite handles to crack. Today, on the half-price day at an estate sale, I scored not only a new set, but one that still had the case and the guarantee, which I quote, "These knives are guaranteed forever."
They don't write warranties like that any more. Hey, maybe they sell these on e-bay too! David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
