When I was a teenager,
seemingly a long time ago and certainly way
pre-Internet, there was a story making the rounds concerning
a late-model luxury car which was available for free. The
catch was that the former owner had committed suicide in the
car and the body decomposed for a long time on the front
seat. If you could overcome that, you could have the car for
nothing.
I expect a lot of inventive male teens tried to think of ways around that, such as airline oxygen masks or or military gas masks vented to the outside to overcome the obvious. I know I certainly spent some serious time thinking about it.
Most of the obvious workarounds were either too expensive or unworkable in practice. What girl would want to go on a date wearing an oxygen mask? The bottom line was that there was no practical solution and the unattainable reward was an impossibility. I've come to realize the story was something of an Aesop's fable for its time.
When I read about all of the modern efforts to make to turn straw into gold without it sublimating back into straw , I chuckle.
I expect a lot of inventive male teens tried to think of ways around that, such as airline oxygen masks or or military gas masks vented to the outside to overcome the obvious. I know I certainly spent some serious time thinking about it.
Most of the obvious workarounds were either too expensive or unworkable in practice. What girl would want to go on a date wearing an oxygen mask? The bottom line was that there was no practical solution and the unattainable reward was an impossibility. I've come to realize the story was something of an Aesop's fable for its time.
When I read about all of the modern efforts to make to turn straw into gold without it sublimating back into straw , I chuckle.