Wednesday, July 9, 1997
A Day Without the
Dow (Almost)
by
[email protected]
Following TMF Sheard's "challenge" to try avoiding all the 30 Dow stocks for one day, I decided to pick up the gauntlet and see just how things would turn out. "No problems," I thought. I don't drive a General Motors car and the tires are not made by Goodyear, so I can at least get to my office. And neither my TV nor my VCR was bought at either Sears or Wal-Mart. As for the rest of the things, surely I should be able to take care of them as I go along?
Beginning on midnight Wednesday night, for the following 24 hours, I resolved not to rely on any product from any company in the Dow 30. Yes, I can do it!
Or so I thought. The troubles began as soon as I got up and entered the bathroom. I had to check the toothpaste, the soap, the shaving cream, the after-shave -- everything -- just to ensure that none of them was made by any of the Dow 30 companies, like Procter & Gamble or Johnson & Johnson! It was a little irritating, but I somehow managed.
In the office, I discovered that the paper used in the printer was made by International Paper. So, no printing for the rest of the day! I was forced to see everything on the screen as it scrolled, instead of being able to peruse a printout comfortably on my table (and fortunately for me, the computer was not made by IBM!).
Come afternoon, I had to go out for my lunch, but now I was "required" to avoid going to the nearby McDonald's, and drive along for a few more miles so that I could eat at some other place. Even there, I was forced to eat raw salad, as I found that the dressing was made by Kraft, a division of Philip Morris!
Somehow, the day came to an end and soon, I was driving back home. I noticed that I was running out of gas, and I realized that I was "forbidden" to go to my regular Chevron gas station. Nor could I go to Exxon. I hunted around for a while, until I found a Texaco gas station. Sure, Texaco belonged to the Dow 30 not too long ago, but hey, I deserved that little piece of luck, didn't I? Back home, I realized that I was "not allowed" to see my favorite ABC channel, and not knowing if any of the other channels belonged to any of the Dow companies, I tuned in to public television. Midway through "Nightly Business Report", I realized that I had to wash the dishes that day. I loaded the dishwasher, added the dishwasher detergent, and then suddenly, I realized to my dismay that the darn dishwasher was made by General Electric!
All right, I had to hand-wash my dishes, then. Well, that's OK, I thought. It was then that I saw that the dishwashing soap was made by Procter & Gamble. Oh, no! So, I had to go to the store now. And yes, it could not be the Wal-Mart where I could always get the lowest price, but it had to be some other store. This was really getting on my nerves now!
Back home, I thought of the misery that I had worked myself into. I wondered whether I could even cool off with a beer later in the evening. I turned around and looked at the refrigerator. Nope. Manufactured by General Electric. Fortunately, I had absent-mindedly kept a case of beer outside the refrigerator. Now surely "Lowenbrau" beer must be made by some German company, I thought. But no, not again! It said clearly on the bottle that it was made by Miller Brewing Company, another division of Philip Morris. Aaaaarrrrrgggh!!!! But it was clear I had nobody to blame but myself.
So, resigned to my fate I started unloading the dishwasher, to handwash the dishes, cursing myself for all the troubles since I woke up in the morning and suddenly I stopped. My AM/FM clock radio! That was the very first thing I had used in the morning. I rushed to the bedroom, and there it was, my little clock radio, made by General Electric! How in the world could I have overlooked that?!
So, that meant I had lost the "challenge" even before I had gotten out of my bed! Strangely enough, I felt a sense of relief come over me. I walked over to the kitchen, started the dishwasher, opened the "Lowenbrau," walked over to the TV and changed the channel to ABC.
Sira Sudhindranath