frozen fun and ruskin rationale

long ago a magical shop opened near where i then lived
and soon my family would go to ’31 flavors’ for dessert
though the official shop name was ‘Baskin-Robbins 31 Ice Cream’
evolving as it did through the partnership of ‘burt’ baskin and ‘irv’ robbins
with a boost from the helpful mentoring of irv’s dad

none of which mattered to the eight-year-old i was when i first savored the product
and the fact that at ten cents a single-scoop cone was affordable
even on a dollar-a-month-allowance budget
a two-scooper and three-scooper were a logical 20 and 30 respective cents
but in the arizona heat three-scoopers were only for the daring

there was a framed quotation from john ruskin on the wall from the start:

“There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse,
and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone
is this man’s lawful prey.”

this confused my kid-brain
not least because ‘ruskin’ and ‘baskin’ were so similar
i thought they might be related or in cahoots
and you know after fifty years of reflection i conclude that they are
spiritually anyway

i have found that the converse is true:
“there is scarcely anything in the world that someone can make a little more fancy or fancifully
and sell for a little bit more
and the person who buys on product recognition alone is that someone’s lawful prey”
and wowzers–the predators are out in a big way

there is an item whose purported purpose is to tell its wearer what time it is
it is worn on the wrist and its approximate price range is five dollars to nine thousand dollars
paradoxically the five-dollar item keeps better time than the nine grand one
and there are lawful prey who will buy a hamburger for more than a hundred and fifty dollars
just because its ingredients are flown in from here and there

i do buy fancy ice cream nowadays
but my phone is cheap
and my wristwatch is not at all
even so i realize there is no way in this here and now to avoid being
someone’s lawful prey