From me to you

I didn't realize quite how many little things I needed to pick up from the convenience store, but that happens. I needed soap, shampoo, deodorant, maybe something to snack on. Somehow this put me into a whirlwind of free bonus items; don't ask me why. The free haul:

First, an Oral-B toothbrush. If I'd bought toothpaste I would understand the tie-in, but I didn't so I don't. Next: conditioner. Since I did buy two bottles of shampoo that makes sense, although I'm not a conditioner user by nature. I've got a simple arrangement with my hair, in which I don't ask it to do anything more than be around, and it complies. Conditioning seems to be pressing the truce.

Also given me was a little imitation-cloth plastic bag filled with a trial bottle of Lux Super Rich shampoo; two small tubes of ``Sterile Wash multi-purpose usage'', which claims to be a hygenic wash for minor cuts or for eye wash or eyedrop ``in time of emergencies''; a plastic package of ``Marvel Gel with Green Tea Emollient and Exfoliating Gel'' a pack with two ``Ocean Health Throat Lozenges with Echinacea and Zinc''; a pack with two ``Ocean Health Children's Appetite Increaser'' (like I need help to devour more children); a sample of Mane and Tail shampoo and conditioner (my sister swears by it, but she's a horse person and talks in a strange language where even when she explains what she does with horses we don't know what she does with horses) (and isn't this a lot of shampoo to get on top of my shampoo purchase?); an ``NDP Discount Voucher'' booklet of coupons for things like Nutrafem Menopause Support; and a blister pack thing labelled entirely in Japanese of what looks like the innards for one of those BB tabletop pinball games, with a picture showing a young girl holding it to her eye. And somewhere I got a 250 gram can of ``Georgia Club Coffee'', to be served hot or cold; when I got it, it was lukewarm.

The only trouble is I forgot to buy deodorant, and I'm a little afraid to go back.

Trivia: Edward Emerson Barnard (of Barnard's Star) was paid US$200 for each of the comets he discovered in the 1880s. Source: Planet Quest, Ken Croswell.

Currently Reading: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Barbara W Tuchman.