There's nothing in it which I couldn't identify as having come from a specific family member, "These Japanese prints belonged to my great-mother" or "this trunk came from my Naval Officer grandfather and was used to move his things from post to post," or a particular place, "Clark Street, Chicago, La Brea Avenue, LA," etc. I just hope somebody's interested!

By contrast, I helped a friend's daughter acquire a bicycle last summer when she was dorm resident of a local university. According to the school's www site, "most students abandon their bicycles at the end of the year because it's cheaper to buy a new one than store the old one." She told me several classmates left bedding and other cheap durable goods behind, presumably for the same reason. The school has instituted a disposal fee to discourage that. But the students may simply put the stuff in a dumpster themselves.

Has nothing to do with taking a previous quote YOU made and using it against you. You obviously need to research the definition of "context".

An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin: "argument to the man", "argument against the man") consists of replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim.

But read my last post, fool. I have no need for ad hominem. You do a fine job of making yourself look bad. Nice job with the Google though.

Tell me again, what *was* the "substance" of your "argument"?

it's like penicillin, or the integrated circuit.

Seeing a guy who's obviously out of touch with modern society and technology type that is beyond funny. Thanks.

Did you address any of my arguments about how Wally World is BAD for the American economy? You know, the ones for which I actually provided links? PWNED. Right?

John Anderson: "Mr. Hutman, I have a lot of knick knacks."

What sort of knick-knacks? Got any paddy-whacks? Did you give your dog a bone?

Knick-knacks are old skool. What about bric-a-brac? Doo-dads? Tchotchkes?

I notice a lot of people in here have mentioned the great deals you get with thrift stores and Craigslist buys. The one thing that holds people back from buying more furniture online is transporting it. The secret of IKEA is that you can buy a huge bookcase that you can slide into your compact car (usually by unlocking the back seat and folding it down so the bookcase package will extend from the trunk all the way to the passenger side of your car). Then you get the bookcase home, assemble it, and you've got this huge piece of furniture.

Compare to buying furniture at a thrift store or via want ads. You have to have 1 or 2 friends helping you move the stuff. You have to borrow or rent a truck. This is a little tricky, and becomes much more of a project than following a 3rd-grade-level set of assembly instructions that require nothing more than a screwdriver and a hammer. (The average 3rd-grade-level Lego set is more difficult to figure out.)

But what is the point of having something that's well-crafted? Pride in ownership? Aesthetic appreciation? Seems to me like a mislaid investment of one's discernment.

I think there is some value in it. I don't have a dining room (my husband took it over for a music studio), so I have a kitchen table, made by hand by an artist named David Marsh. It's a little gaudy, with baubles and paint all over it, but I love it and treat it like an heirloom. I spent entirely too much money on it.

If anyone cares, here's what his furniture looks like: http://ethnicarts.com/david-marsh-furniture-c-14

I certainly wouldn't do the whole house with his stuff, and I can't afford it anyway. But, having something that I love and I use every day is very valuable to me.

Now of course they are all supercenters.

Is indeed a great invention. All that stuff that would have ended up in the river, creating the need for even more trees in the sawmill/factory, is now being used to make viable, (mostly) disposable furniture.

I try to avoid particle board whenever I can, but some of it is pretty high in quality.

And aren't they super?

I own IKEA stuff, well-made stuff, and random stuff, much of which probably is Chinese. IKEA stuff (while stylish) generally is very cheap and sometimes a pain to assemble. I bought a bookshelf (admittedly, not a BILLY shelf, which seems to draw raves) for not all that cheap (maybe $40), and it bowed and buckled and threatened to crash apart when touched (although assembled correctly). But anyway, my main point is not to trash IKEA.

Hitting the skids financially several times in the past few years (due to layoff, moving, etc.) has forced me to evaluate what is necessary. Do I need a new mirror for the wall? No. Would a flat-panel TV rock my mom's world on mother's day, or would she appreciate some photos that I took and developed myself? Do I need to buy potato chips, or would a bag of potatoes be a better idea?

Although I buy good food and organic whenever possible (this is one area I won't skimp), I spend less than any of my friends/family, because I'm careful about what I buy and get very little processed food. A family on Oprah recently mentioned that they throw away about 1/3 of the produced they buy. I throw away almost nothing.

I also am a member of the Freecycle email group, which involves free swapping of items. Through that, I've obtained (among other things) a vaccuum that got me through until I moved into my new home and some plants for the yard. I've also given away a VCR/DVD player, firewood, moving boxes, etc.

I haven't shopped at Wal-Mart in years and years. It's not (just) that I'm sanctimonious about it; it's really just that I have yet to have trouble finding a comparable deal on something I really need - or even finding it for free.