A Graveyard of once Great Products that are now Crap.

A lot of people may say "So what?" and roll their eyes, but the same thing happened with Camel cigarettes (the real ones, with no filter). They are supposed to be a blend of turkish and "domestic" tobaccos. You can no longer taste the turkish tobacco at all (there may be some in there, but not enough for you to notice), and turkish tobacco has a very distinctive flavor. They are also putting less tobacco in them. I got a pack, out of a carton (i.e., about as fresh as you're going to get), and in that pack, the tobacco was falling out of the cigarettes, some had only half the tobacco left. I sent it to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and without comment, they sent me coupons for Camel Filter cigarettes--yeah, as though i were going to smoke those crap cigarettes.

I didn't contact them to get something out of it, i contacted them to let them know their quality control had badly slipped. Well, at least i learned about how much the company cares now that it's part of a multi-national which no longer relies on their tobacco revenues. I suspect the same is true for other cigarettes, but i didn't smoke those, so i don't know.

Joe Camel died for our sins.

My Nana from Brooklyn smoked those non-filtered camels, that was all she would smoke.

I have to agree with another poster....taco bell has 8 little strings of cheese on their tacos,(i know, i counted) 85% lettuce and barely any meat.

Happy Meal boy/girl toys have taken a real low dive. Now that I buy HM once in a while for the granddaughter I have been incensed at what i am paying for. One time there was Darth Vader with just a head and he made an awful loud slurping sound.

Yeah, their tacos have lettuce. If you only look at the pictures, they also have tomato. Not in real life, but at least there's still pictures of tomatoes.

the last time, my last time, the burrito was folded into a rectangle. I swear, there as only a couple of tablespoons of filling, and this was not the 79 cent deal, I paid almost $3.

Maybe we need a Taco Bell sucks thread?

The tomato thing is becoming a Frankenstein story. They've developed a tomato for the fast food market that turns red very quickly on the vine but has no taste, little juice and still looks like a tomato weeks after it's been picked. It's really just a hard red ball with the taste of plastic. I don't think they even gave it a name just a lab number like Tomato #224 . The weird thing is it takes forever to show signs of rot, and even when it does it just sort of shrivels. We've had a national tomato shortage due to bad weather, but this little gem is grown in a hydroponic, chemical based greenhouse and it seems to embalm the fruit. This is probably what all fast food outlets will be using in the next few years. I've always liked Michael Pollan's advice about not eating food that doesn't rot. Hold the tomatoes, please.

Anybody remember the Good Humor vanilla ice cream that came in the little cups? The dessert was so flavorful and creamy that just that small cup was more than enough to satisfy.

Today I go to Costco or Sam's and get the sundaes. They are cheap and huge, but mostly blown up with a lot of air, which gets my digestion tootin' along!

I long for a car without gadgets.

Spedo in the center of the drivers side dash, oil pressure warning light, water temp warning light, and thats it.
.......and bench seats so my girl can slide all the way over next to me.

Sounds more PBS. I would love a show like that. In fact, it would make a nice a companion piece to Antiques Roadshow.

I basically agree with that (and it pretty well describes the dash of my jeep), but i'd rather have a temperature gauge and an electric charge/discharge gauge--they way they used to have them. My jeep overheated and blew the plastic top of the cheapy "from the factory" radiator, within seconds of the water temp idiot light coming on, and after i'd already pulled to the side of the road.

My mechanic installed a Borg radiator--that sucker would stop a .45 slug.

Harrison and Crosfield or Revolution Teas are the best.

I notice a decline in the quality of tools. cheap and don't last.

The Dollar Stores crap is killing us.

I also miss the wing windows in cars.

Not precisely a product, but airline travel. It used to be sooo cool. You would get a smile and welcome, you didn't pay extra for bags, you got the cool food served to you even on a short flight. You got at least a little leg room and usually you could stretch out when traveling alone as it was rare to have a completely full flight - and you could actually use your frequent flyer miles.

Isn't there a thread for self-made theories? Here's mine re: products.

The tendency for any item to become a piece of crap is directly proportional to the amount of extra **** it is supposed to do.

The Steam Iron : Basic steam iron which steams will last fifty times longer than the one which has "Steam Control", "Burst of Steam", twenty four temperature settings (digital) and extra-super-duper easy-to-do "Vent Clean." It won't put a crease in cotton khakis, but it will shut itself off, SEVERAL TIMES WHILE YOU ARE TRYING TO IRON SIX SHIRTS. First thing to fail will be the digital temperature read-out.

The Microwave: Basic One-power level will nuke anything, it's cousin with the multiple power level and pre-set Compu-defrost cycles, special buttons for Popcorn, Baked Potato and MicroWave Pizza will do all those things too, but only after you press through the additional menus of weight or choose the number of Muffins you are re-heating. First thing to fail is the interior non-replaceable lightbulb, the next thing to fail are the touch-buttons which you found useful. (I am now back to defrosting chicken breasts in the refrigerator, just like my ancestors.)

The Toaster: Are they kidding? There are now Toasters with about as many settings as the Space Shuttle.
Joe(I'm putting mine on Cancel as soon as the bagel starts to smoke.)Nation

Classic conversation at our house:

Me: (holding up broken blow-dryer, iron, whatever)...Honey, can you fix this?
Hubby: Sure, let me see it...(30 min. later) Here you go. Works fine now.
Me: What are these pieces left over?
Hubby: Extra parts.
Me: Extra?! Everything is made so cheaply, they wouldn't include it if it wasn't important!
Hubby: Well, it works just fine now.
Me: Hmph. (shakes head) OK, what was wrong with it?
Hubby: Too many parts.

It's never the engineering department's fault, it's always the marketing department's. "More BELLS more whistles!"

Wait.

I'm changing my mind. Engineers are always too willing to give in to the marketing department's demands.

If only once they would say "Nope, we can't find a way to put anymore bells and whistles on that thing."

But, they always can and do. So..... here is a blender.

It has eighteen , count'em, !eighteen! speeds.

PLUS "pulse" on every speed. Ain't it grand?

Mr. Waring's first effort had two. High and Low. It made gimlets and smoothies very very well. Later, er, research revealed it's ability to create superb Margarita's.

If it was possible to go into everyone's kitchen and look at the buttons on their blenders, I'm betting that that research would show maximum use of only two buttons: the slowest (mixing the olive oil into the pesto or the butter in the Hollandaise sauce) and HIGH (everything else.)


Joe(ut-oh,,,now I have the need for Eggs Benedict...)Nation

PS: one should NEVER make Hollandaise Sauce in a blender. Never.

Except for very recent family members, your ancestors very likely had neither a refrigerator, not the occasion to deal with a frozen chicken breast.

Microwaves suck for defrosting, anyway. They get too warm in the middle, and leave the outsides almost frozen. The best method for defrosting does require that you know what you want to eat at least four hours in advance, but it is "low-tech," inexpensive and always reliable. Put the item or items to be defrosted in the sink, stoppered. Fill with enough cold water to just cover the items to be defrosted. Put a heavy pot on them to hold them underwater. Go to work and don't think another thing about it. They will have thawed by the time you get home, and will not have gotten warm enough to begin to spoil yet.

The water temperature idiot light is not actually a water temperature idiot light. It's a water level idiot light, in spite of being shaped like a thermometer.

Red Baron frozen pizzas. They reduced the price, but also reduced the size. You now have to make two pizzas to have enough, with a net increase in the amount you spend.

I no longer buy Red Baron frozen pizzas.

Jesus Joe! You're one funny dude.