In this column, two consumers reflect upon their experiences in the marketplace. A male consumer and a female consumer alternate.
Here are 10 reasons why 1993 was a hell of a year for me (and it was.)
1. I got to use my Frequent Flyer points. First time, after all these years. Is there a Promotions Hall of Fame? If so, does the guy who thought up Frequent Flyer points – I’m pretty sure he was at American Airlines – have a room all to himself? He should.
This idea captures just about every human emotion, and dumps it all into one little package. Greed. Reward. Anticipation. Keeping score. The feeling of being a privileged individual. Somethin’ for nothin.’ All put together, and it all works.
You sit there, way in the back of the plane, crammed into your little coach seat, having flown about eight billion boring hours to earn this stupid freebie, and you feel victorious, and you smile, and you purr.
2. Joe Carter hit that home run.
It’s not the home run that endures, even though only one other guy in history ever ended a World Series that way.
It’s the memory of watching Carter leap around the bases like the happiest eight-year-old that ever lived. This, from a thirtysomething man who makes about $5 million a year.
3. I saw The Piano.
4. I found a good lawyer.
5. I made a New Year’s Resolution.
That’s not the good part; generally, I think resolutions are dumb. But this one made sense.
I resolved not to go anywhere, anymore, where I don’t want to be. Meetings, parties, events, lunches – the standard for my attendance changed from ‘I oughta’ to ‘I wanna.’
6. Bill Clinton.
Yeah, really. I was in the States last month, and my cab driver’s visor had a sticker calling for his impeachment: ‘Dump the Chump.’
But the guy is trying. And communicating. And trying to establish a collective social conscience. Boy, if the u.s. could get Canada’s attitude toward the unfortunate, and Canada could get an American attitude toward the bottom line, what a country that would be.
7. Trendy Toronto restaurant North 44 hasn’t changed a bit. Neither has the local watering hole, the Wheatsheaf Tavern.
8. Tom Cheek called Joe Carter’s home run.
It usually takes a city about 50 years to get emotional and soggy about its baseball broadcaster. (Harry Caray in Chicago, Ernie Harwell in Detroit, or, of course, Foster Hewitt here, in another sport.)
We should hurry up the process for Tom Cheek. He’s great. Did you hear the call on Carter’s gamewinner? He finished by saying, with a lump in his throat, ‘Touch ’em all, Joe. You’ll never hit a bigger home run as long as you live.’
9. I’m going to make the first great Canadian movie.
You don’t believe that. Most of the time, I don’t believe that. But, I’m acting as executive producer for a young man who devoutly believes he can do that. Damn, it’s nice, in this era of long faces, to be around somebody who doesn’t understand what’s impossible.
10. There’s new blood in Ottawa. As the early Tory commercials said, ‘It’s time.’
