More on Stuff

By jjacquet on May 25, 2009.

I remember back in my teenage years unpacking the car during a vacation and singing a little tune I made up and envisioned turning into an entire Broadway musical (unfortunately, you cannot hear the catchy tune that went along with it):

Stuff.
We have too much of it: stuff.
We still want more of it: stuff.
It's tough to have so much stuff.

And, as the ever-resourceful Mike Hirshfield of Oceana pointed out to me at the recent IMCC meeting when we were talking about the post on The Story of Stuff, George Carlin did the original Stuff Story in this stand-up comedy routine from 1986:

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hilarious, and oh-so-true. Self storage and garages full of stuff (with the cars parked in the driveway) were one of the most confusing things I've encountered when moving to the States.

Anyway, all this talk about stuff is fascinating, and has motivated me to look a bit more into the history of stuff, but so far all i've found is relatively modern info about our own relationship with stuff... nothing about (pre-)historical cultures' relationships with stuff. must look around more.

I think there may be a bit homage to Carlin in this cartoon Interview With The Tick. Starting at 00:49.

I am doing my best to de-accumulate these days, and it's surprisingly difficult. Like losing weight, and maybe for the same reasons.

Hi, I stumbled acrioss your blog while prowling scienceblogs (usually I like PZ [sorry] and some who are now gone). And I saw your idea of a musical. Check this one out - you have to wait for the singing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTvqFhrWOTw