Thank goodness, it works!

Dan Verner
Published: November 30, 2008

I have been thinking recently about what works well in our culture. While there are some things that don’t work so well (make your own list here), there are many that do. Now, I realize that if you’ve just
had a big problem with your computer, you would not be feeling too charitable toward computers in general. A friend of mine lost a database with 4,000 names and addresses on it a couple of weeks ago.
Computers can do that to you. Maybe that’s why I don’t have them on my “works well” list.  When they work, they are quite helpful. When they don’t, it is plain old frustrating. But I would like to nominate
these things for the “works well” list:

Bar codes: Almost every product we can buy has one of those little square UPC codes on it that when scanned displays the item name and price. How does it know? There must be tens of thousands of
products with distinctive bar codes. It’s amazing that all the parties involved agreed on a format and that it works so well. I can remember a few times when bar codes were first introduced that they would
be inaccurate, but that hasn’t happened (to me, at least) for a long time.

Air conditioning: This is something we take for granted, and my contention would be that is because it is so ubiquitous and it works so well (if your air conditioning broke on the first hot day this year, you
have my sympathy). An architectural historian ranks the air conditioning of spaces in this country as a technological achievement on a par with landing on the moon. If you want a sample of what it was
like in the bad old days without nearly universal air conditioning, go to Europe in the summer. And then there is car air conditioning. The only cars with air conditioning when I was a lad were limos. The
rest of us were hot in the summer. I did have a classmate whose family rode around with the windows up in the summer to make it look like they had air conditioning but they had larger problems than
that.

Washing machines and American appliances in general: Again, I’m sorry if your washing machine recently spewed suds all over the floor. In general , though, appliances in this country are durable and
well-made. I’ve read of Europeans who come here to buy their appliances since European appliances are of such poor quality. My parents had a Montgomery Ward freezer that ran continuously for 60
years with maybe one repair. And that’s typical of many appliances.

Ballpoint pens: When ballpoint pens first came into common usage, they tended to leak and flow unevenly.  That’s why guys wore pocket protectors (I never did, but all my shirts had ink blots on them). I
can’t remember the last time a ballpoint pen, even a cheap one, leaked or didn’t write evenly. Ballpoints are so common and so cheap that they have become community property. We used to see the
black ballpoints that had “Property of the U.S. Government” on them, but I haven’t for a while. They must have given up trying to stop people from stealing them. The vet we use puts big plastic flowers on
the end of their loaner pens. That makes anyone think twice about pocketing them. And even as cheap as pens are, when I get a good one I hang onto it.

Boeing jet aircraft: Going back to the B-17, Boeing aircraft have been durable and well-made.

You might recall a Qantas 747 that lost part of a wing shroud and still landed safely. These aircraft can absorb a tremendous amount of punishment and still fly.  Thousands of people owe their lives to the
good folks at Boeing. An airline pilot can go an entire career without an engine failure —that’s in the neighborhood of 15,000 hours. Of course, the engines are made by the good people at General Electric
or Pratt & Whitney, but they are attached to Boeings.

Self-stick stamps and forever rate stamps: Why didn’t someone think of this sooner? If you’ve ever had to lick hundreds of the old-style stamps (this was before the invention of sponges and moisteners),
you have a deep appreciation of self-stick stamps. And forever rate stamps are great! No more scrounging around in the corners and cracks of desk drawers for a one-or two-cent stamp to make up the
postage. They’re good for eternity!

So, as you enjoy these things that work well, I hope you will think about how fortunate we are to have them. They almost make up for computers.

Dan Verner is a Manassas resident. He contributes his thoughts and stories to the Perspective page on Sundays.