At the Target, where we were looking up someone's wedding-gift preferences, we met an old next-door neighbor, one we sorely miss. These folks shunned disposable diapers and did not use a clothesdryer either. It was always such a pretty sight to see a full line of laundry out every day. The first thing the new owner did was to take down the clothesline. I've got such a good eye for picking out the manager or any establishment or, failing that, the person most likely to know something and be willing to impart it and otherwise assist. Otherwise, shopping for anything would be even worse than it is. It's a great convenience to find that there's a scanner available to customers, so that the price of any article, even if unmarked, may be ascertained by means of the UPC. Of course, as to the wedding presents, most of the unbought ones were out of stock. And the item that we bought, we forgot to have removed from the list. How many others have done the same, one wonders. Most of the afternoon was spent assembling a fan on a telescoping pole. This item is ever more cheaply made and badly packed. The directions were scant, the box had been opened, and the result is wobbly. At first it appeared that there was a missing part, but perhaps that is not the case. We shall see. A remote control, of all things, is included. This is probably a good thing, since dealing with the controls manually requires one to be as limber as a contortionist.