Super-downsized world would be a big move for the better

Today's Heckler - am inclined to agree.

Valda Ulm
May 23, 2007

SIZE matters. I am tired of big, big, big. Everything's getting larger, and like King Canute I am trying to hold back the tide. Houses are bigger. New houses now are McMansions with five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a media room and a four-car garage. Cars are bigger too. I saw a stretch limo the other day that looked at least a couple of blocks long.

Babies' strollers are bigger. When my children were small, they went into a stroller that folded up neatly like an umbrella, one I could carry onto a bus or train with a toddler tucked under the other arm. Now they're the size of a Sherman tank.

As far as food is concerned these days, there's no such thing as "small" if you're ordering a hamburger. If you want a small burger you ask for a regular one. The same goes for french fries and soft drinks. The plates in restaurants are bigger. So are soup bowls; you could bath a baby in some of them.

Garbage bins are bigger. They now have to be rolled out on wheels and it won't be long before you need a driver's licence to manoeuvre them. I remember when the garbage bin was a humble affair made of metal, and if it wasn't being used for garbage, it made a handy wicket for playing street cricket. Now we're such a consumerist society, I guess the old bins would no longer do the job.

Have you noticed how everything sold in supermarkets is bigger? You can't buy a single roll of toilet paper any more; it comes in packs of anything between four and 16. Breakfast cereals are in boxes labelled "giant".

Don't get me started on toothbrushes. Once they were a simple handle with a small brush on the end. Now they're designed so they all but talk back to you - and none of them fit into my toothbrush holder.

Television sets have become bigger. The TV once sat in an inconspicuous corner of the living room; now it dominates the room.

The size of a TV screen is the new benchmark of status and success. Talk about keeping up with the Joneses.

The one item that's got smaller is the telephone, but while it has shrunk, it has also become more complex. All I want is a phone that goes ding-a-ling, but it's impossible to buy something that simple. Mine has 22 different functions, including a clock and a message screen that lights up and tells me when to speak and when to hang up.

Please, let's stop making everything bigger and get back to the simple life. It's a small thing to ask.

On second thoughts, make that a regular.

As for the TV a bigger one won't fit in the cabinet - and that's a good thing coz it's the same rubbish on no matter the size of the TV!

Also today is our engagement anniversary - it's been 4 years :) we went out to the movies on Friday and saw 28 Weeks Later - It was OK for a sequel, but I liked the first one better.