garbagescout blog

The New York Times today quotes me in a piece about a woman whose thing is found clothing.

Still, for Ms. Apple clothes off the rack are less interesting than those off the street. “If there’s a philosophy behind this, it’s to keep my memory in check,” she said. “These clothes are like tab markers for memories. They help me remember certain walks, or where I was living.”

I can dig it. I’ll have to take a picture of the suit I found (Dior) and send it to her for her blog.

In Japan, they have Mottainai Grandma, who exists to promote mottaini (moh-tie-nigh, loosely “don’t throw that shit away, I can fix it and use it”) to children.

Here’s an article from the New York Times about a predecessor to the ’scout. This was published 12 days after my birth, and the author is Dan Carlinsky.

Street Salvager Refines His Art [230K PDF document]

Funny things: in 1971, it was assumed that one would repair something thrown out. Now, most stuff is so shoddily made that it can’t be repaired, but also, people tend to throw out stuff that is not in need of any repair. Different stuff, differnt motives.

Also the guy in the article, Hugh Rogers has “one of those sprawling west side apartments that are nearly impossible to make look cluttered”. Ha ha! I wonder who lives there now. “Only seven or eight pieces of furniture in the six-and-one-half-room apartment were bought.”

Rogers’s interest is in architectural details, and he has a block and tackle and a steel helmet among his scavenging tools. Even in 1971, New York was characterized by constant demolition and construction.

Thanks to DBS for sending the article.

I learned about the book Possum Living from this Fark thread. From the preamble:

Do you want to get out of the rat race but not drop out? Do you want to live a life of leisure without worry or guilt? If your answer is yes, Dolly Freed will show you how to live well without a job and without working very hard.

Uh, the answers would be yes and yes. But this book goes way beyond finding free stuff. For instance, it covers raising rabbits in your basement for food. Should you choose this path, I salute you.

… is not good for garbagescouting.