To market, to market

[/ dave /]

I bought an early '60s-vintage, suitcase-style, portable,
battery-operated record player/AM radio/shortwave set  - imagine Emma
Peel and James Bond doing the Mashed Potato on the beach - at an estate
sale a week or so ago. (Amazingly, my Stock, Hausen & Walkman record
sounded fantastic on the turntable...)

I was fooling around with the shortwave last night and got China News
International, a highly polished, government-sanctioned, western-style
station broadcasting in English, and was interested to hear a story on
how fishermen from small villages in one region are making extra money
($12 / month) by selling ordinary seawater to ritzy hotels and
restaurants to keep their seafood fresh - apparently this was an issue
before someone's bright idea.

But the kicker was the schoolmasterly on-air commentator's genial,
upbeat summation of the story, which was (paraphrasing only slightly),
"which just goes to show - in a market economy, it pays to be on the
cusp of the trends!" I almost choked on my dinner when I heard that.

--

/  dave  /