The Portable Issue

The Weight of the Industrial Revolution

Back in the bad old days the word 'portable' meant you could move it from place to place with greater ease than 'stationary' objects. I was carrying a couple of 'portable' typewriters this evening. Both were manuals in cases, one a Remington that was made somewhere around 1964 and the other a Smith-Corona that was made in the seventies or early eighties. They weighed about twenty pounds apiece. I've got a couple of office models at home that weigh about thirty pounds apiece. They are considered non-portable but they can be carried for a few blocks, but it is awkward and they don't have cases. Back in the bad old days a wheelbarrow was considered a useful device because not everyone had a wagon or a cart. Produce, cloth, seed, tools, water, all were necessary; and if it took a little muscle power to get them home or take them to market, nobody thought much about it. Nowadays portable means light, very light, almost weightless. People throw fits if they have to carry a couple of tools or a book or two. If they had to actually tote something from one place to another on foot, they have to be poor or homeless. Everyone else has a truck or a car. Even those folks will think twice about hauling something when they can have it delivered by a bigger truck.

More reasons why modern people are wienies:

1. 8:57 AM
Convenience and inconvenience
by
Your Other Right Foot (appearing nightly without warning)

2. 9:57 AM
It's not the weight, it's the repetitions.
by
Your Other Right Foot (appearing nightly without warning)

3. 10:57 AM
Humans are portable
by
Your Other Right Foot (appearing nightly without warning)

4. 11:57 AM
The nomadic lifestyle of people who own a house... they can't take with them.
by
Your Other Right Foot (appearing nightly without warning)