(Yesterday, 12:23 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: ...
The Pet Rock craze of the 70s comes to mind. Because anyone can pick up a rock off the ground, give it a name and make it a pet, it has little value as such. What people were actually buying was a certificate from the guy who came up with the idea. Then you have bragging rights when someone else has a rock from their backyard. This is kind of the idea it seems.
...
My Pet Rock was definitely one of a kind, a rarity. I caught it and tamed it myself, out of the wild. I couldn't see giving someone actual money for something I could get for free, on my own, using a suitable trap to catch it, of course.
Although one-of-a-kind, I don't know if it ever had any actual value or not. Before I could investigate that matter, I accidentally left it's cage door open, and it escaped back into the wild.
Some times, especially on cold nights, I can still hear it tapping against the side of the house, wanting back in... but I'm done with it, I tell ya! I gave it the easy life, and it still ran off, so it can damned well stay out there in the wild!
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“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger.”
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake