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Category: Personal Reflections
  • And yet more uses

    And yet more uses for Lever 2000: 19. Killing ants 20. Etch name on dirty surfaces 21. Terrorize Lever Consumer Hotline 22. Amuse friends by thinking of uses 23. Weighing down pickle pots 24. …

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  • More Lever 2000 uses:

    More Lever 2000 uses: 12. dog shampoo 13. laundry prewash/stain remover 14. lava lamp ingredient 15. temporary glue for paper holiday decorations on windows 16. “wash your mouth out with soap” 17. eyeglasses cleaner 18. wanking lubrication 19. …

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  • Snow! Tokyo doesn’t get

    Snow! Tokyo doesn’t get much snow. Whether it’s the normal climate or global warming or the city’s “heat island effect” I’m not sure, but my last few winters have been nearly snowless. So a trip to Chicago in winter is a treat. When it began snowing here, I was delighted. By morning we had about…

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  • When I have a

    When I have a problem getting an appliance or bit of equipment to work, I grab the manual and a translation dictionary and spend hours translating. When our friend John had some trouble with his security system yesterday, he grabbed the phone. A chat with a technician got the problem solved in a few minutes.…

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  • ,Lever 2000, a brand

    ,Lever 2000, a brand of American “family body wash,” claims on its bottle that it has Over 70 Uses. Intrigued, I called the Lever Consumer Hotline (1-800-598-5005) to find out more. “Hello, Kathleen,” I began after the introductions. “I have a bottle of your body wash and it says there are over 70 uses. Do…

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  • “Um, I think we

    “Um, I think we have a gas leak,” Tod called from the bedroom. Sure enough, the room was filled with the odor of natural gas. (Do you know that that stinky scent is added to the gas to make sure that when there is a problem, you can smell it?) Time to call the gas…

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  • We hosted a holiday

    We hosted a holiday party for some of Tod’s coworkers. 17 guests represented 7 nationalities: Australian, Irish, British, Indian, Chinese, Japanese and American. Quite international. Yuki, a Japanese woman who works on the NT team, confided in me. “When I am married and have a house, I want to have a home party like this.”…

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  • On this crisp, sunny

    On this crisp, sunny morning, the woman across the way is hanging out her laundry. Her first action is to wipe the city grime from the laundry poles. She lifts the pole down at one end and her hand sweeps along its length. This looks more like ballet than a household chore. In the laundry…

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  • When I was a

    When I was a kid, I loved joke shops, the sort of places that sold fart cushions and plastic ice cubes with embedded bugs. One of the jokes I never tried was the toothpaste that makes the victim’s teeth turn black. Now that I live in Japan, I don’t have to be subvert. Binotomo “Nasu…

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  • The postman rings pretty

    The postman rings pretty many times. Two days ago I found a notice from the postman in my mailbox. He had tried to deliver a package while I was out. The form gave me many options: specify a date and time for them to redeliver; have the package delivered to a different address (residence or…

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