If I turned you off back there

[j4]

"On televisions, for example, we would like to see labels saying 'if you watch it, it will cost x pence per hour, if you leave it on standby, it will cost y pence'. Then you can present the environmental cost in monetary terms"

But that's not actually presenting the environmental cost at all, really, is it? Unless you add "WHICH MEANS that when you sink into drooling oblivion in front of the flickering forms of minor celebrities bonking in a bath of baked beans you are not only wasting the product of several thousand years of human evolution but also SYSTEMATICALLY RAPING THE PLANET and leaving it an UNINHABITABLE WASTE LAND, you selfish cretin." Really. Is it. I mean.

That's before we get to the question of how in the name of -- well, frankly, anything you care to name -- an electric toothbrush can be regarded as "essential".

I think I'm just in a bad mood today.

Comments

[j4.livejournal.com]

do you not feel obliged to give such Christmas presents a go, at least for a week or so?

Not really, no, if it was something I really didn't/couldn't use! If somebody gave me a pair of shoes that didn't fit, I wouldn't feel the need to damage my feet by wearing them for a week or so. If the giver of the gift is close enough to me that they're going to notice if I don't use it then I'm probably on good enough terms with them that I can tactfully say "It doesn't really fit / work for me / etc. but it was a really nice thought and I'm sorry I couldn't really make use of it".

To be honest, I also wouldn't have much time for in-laws who wanted to "take charge of what [I] ought to be doing" to the extent that they'd tell me how to brush my teeth.