Exploding Plate

How many circles do you suppose one can make from an inexpensive school-kid’s compass these days?

Well, we found out.

Apparently only six.

Yep, that’s all six of them there. Count them. My daughter likes to point out that some of them are not complete and shouldn’t count as circles at all. But let’s give this cheap-garbage product the benefit of a doubt and call it six.

So my daughter comes running up to me the other day. “Dad! Dad! I have something for your web page!” I’m thinking: “O, great! What broke now?”

So, she uses this new compass that we bought her as dutiful parents for school this year (because it was on the school supply list, but they didn’t actually need them at school), and so, she’s trying it out the other day out of boredom and discovers that it only makes defective circles because the pencil isn’t sharp.

Of course, they don’t sell them with sharp pencils - probably don’t want to be sued.

So, my daughter attempts to slide the pencil out in order to sharpen it in our nice new electric pencil sharpener (the second one we’ve gone through in as many months) and instead of sliding out, the compass crumbles in her hand.

The Crumbled Compass

The tell-tale signs were printed in tiny letters on the back of this gray-plastic piece of trash: “Made in China” - another couple bucks for the land-fill.

- Basil

Tags: Product Grumbles //