What To Do With All That Silicone

If you have been shopping for kitchen utensils lately, you may have noticed the abundance of silicone. There are silicone spatulas, silicone potholders, silicone jar openers - find something that used to plastic; it's now made out of silicone. Heat resistant! Flexible! Available in designer colors! Why this great breakthrough in kitchen technology?

You're probably way ahead of me: silicone breast implants have gone the way of the dodo. What were the manufacturers to do but foist that silicone (in designer colors) upon the public? (Think about THAT while you're stirring your oatmeal.)

Besides, industry is always looking for a new product. How else are they going to sell us more stuff? Getting us to replace the items we've already bought from them is better than waiting for those items to wear out so that they can sell us the same thing.

You know what's funny about repeat business: people begin to trust the brand. This is after we have purchased the same item from them, over and over, mainly because it has come out in a new color. Why do we begin to trust these companies?!

And so I end up thinking the same thing that I always think when I realize I've been had: How do I learn from this, so that I can do it too?