I don't know if it was in your local paper, but earlier this week the rag here in Hamilton had a full page ad giving away "free" Amish heat stoves on a first come first serve basis. Of course you have to pay shipping and handling -- which probably covers the cost of the materials plus a bit of profit.
But didn't anyone notice that the stoves are electric? I thought the Amish eschew electricity; so why would they make stuff that uses it? If -- if -- they drive cars, it's always black, just a base model and they never use the a/c; and they go in and out of merchant shops as fast as they can so they're not exposed to the "sinfulness" of our world for longer than absolutely necessary. That includes artificially produced heat and light. Granted, the vast majority of the community has a peace of mind that most of us can only dream of.
You can slap the word "Amish" on anything to give it an imprimatur of quality or a wholesome character. Doesn't mean it is really Amish. Chinese food here in North America (at least the kind at quick serve restaurants or buffets) isn't Mandarin or Cantonese -- it's mostly San Francisco fare. "Pizzas" aren't Italian, either -- a real Italian pie is thick, even thicker than the fare in Chicago. I have to wonder what the deal is here. Has anyone out there tried those heat stoves and is the provenance of origin genuine?
If this was a real advertisement, all the power to the vendor. If it was a fake, shouldn't the paper as well as the seller ask questions about its truthfulness? Uh, well not the paper -- after all Newsworld ran ads for weeks about silver coins made from the finds in a vault under Ground Zero in Manhattan, years after Eliot Spitzer (yes, him) ruled the whole operation fraudulent, and other than a few random blog posts I don't know if the CRTC or any fair practices agency called out the CBC on it.
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1 comment:
That is a funny article. I have a friend who lives in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He is Amish and I recall asking him about how did they heat the farm house in the winter. He told me that they prefer the wood stove, but in rare occasion they use the electric portable furnace to keep the children warm. He also told me that they have a Heil Gas Furnace http://heilfurnace.org that they rarely use. This is a very modern way of thinking for an Amish family.
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