STUPID IDEAS
26 June 2008
"Second Thoughts"
The manufacturers of the Family Communication Center claim you can "Organize your home without a second thought." Actually, I think they’re rather counting on your not giving the matter a second thought, as I have to think a lot of the glitter would rub right off if you did.
I’m really not one to knock what appears to be a nice piece of furniture—whatever the style or function, but Sligh Furniture’s Family Communication Center strikes me as a lot of overkill at a rather hefty price, to a point where I was really thinking of titling this blog, "How to Burn $3000 When Your Matches are Wet."
I don’t know. Maybe it’s because we don’t have children, or maybe because we never felt the need for seventeen thousand different electronic gadgets. But the thought of paying that kind of money for a cabinet whose main claim to fame is that it it’s a cabinet/desk/console that recharges electronic gadgets and provides Internet access just seems a little "out there."
I’m told that in this modern age people have a need for docking stations to recharge all of the things they tote about, especially children who should really be outside kicking around a ball of some sort! But I digress. Computer games, BlackBerries, and the like have created a perceived need for some sort of central place to recharge the things. Although, as one critic of this product pointed out, a power strip would do the job just as well, for considerably less.
The other main selling point for this item was the security issue, which has just a little bit of validity to it. A little. Given the dangers that abound these days on the Internet, people who let their children use the computer in their bedrooms are probably asking for trouble. Setting up the computer in a "fun" place in the kitchen is the most frequent suggestion, and it has a lot to recommend it. But any cabinetmaker can easily include the necessary cabinetry in a kitchen remodel. Failing that, a place at one end of the counter, or even the kitchen table would do just as well for the laptop in the top picture.
The little girl’s feet would dangle just as much from a stool pulled up to the counter. Or maybe, if the adoring mother developed a better shopper sense, she would take that money and commission a piece that would better suit her daughter’s size.
Finally, in looking at the specifications for the piece itself, I couldn’t help noticing that the finish on the piece featured here is described as "mahogany finish." But I should point out that the difference between "mahogany finish" (which is simply wood stain applied to a lesser species of wood) and "mahogany" is, to paraphrase Mark Twain, the same as the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
Joseph
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