Adam Whyte-Settlar <grawillers@hotmail.com> wrote:

> > I was haunted by one lady who was possessed of disbelief that
> > we had fridges, washing machines, telephones and the same
> > Japanese cars as they had.
> 
> Iv'e mentioned this before but in Edinburgh in 1976 one Merkan tourist asked
> me, in all seriousness, if we had 'phones in Inverness.

Some time last year, several street vendors in Akihabara[1] were trying
to sell huge stacks of antique Macs[2] for 500 yen[3] each. I have
picture somewhere of one bloke sitting on a Plus, because it was cheaper
than a chair. Although many people were cooing in nostalgia at seeing
the old B&W desktop, no-one was buying.

I asked one of the vendors where they had come from. He said there had
been a drive throughout the churches and schools of the US, to collect
outdated (but servicable) computers and send them off to less fortunate
countries where such equipment would be welcomed. Such as Japan. He'd
bought a container-load at auction at the docks, in the hopes that
someone might want them for decorating or something, and was regretting
it.

[1] "The" district in Tokyo for the latest in electronic goodies. 

[2]  I mean Pluses and SEs and IIs in various stages of decreptitude--it
was interesting to see that the old beige colour turns a remarkable
shade of orange under bad storage conditions.

[3] Somewhere between 2 and 3 quid, depending on which stage of the
Dance of the Demented Yo-yo the yen has reached at that point.

________________________________________________________________________
                   Louise Bremner (log at gol dot com)
   If you want a reply by e-mail, don't write to my Yahoo address!