VCR? I don't need no stinkin' VCR

Not long ago, if you could afford it, you might have a 6 head hi-fi stereo VCR (younger readers note VCR was an ancient format involving magnetic tape and voodoo). And if you wanted to purchase a video like The Best Of The Young Ones you might expect to pay about $50.

Recently I was given a VHS copy of the Young Ones but had no machine to play it on. So I went out and bought a 6 head hi-fi stereo VCR for $50.

You get it? It's ironic. I used to really want a 6 head hi-fi stereo VCR but could not afford one. Now I own one simply as a means to get my copy of The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood as a director is rivaled only by John Ford in the Western genre. Sergio Leone was a hack) into digital form. After that it will reside in Person 3's teenage oasis at the end of the hall where it will record music videos, Spongebob, and every episode of Charmed.

They used to cost $600 and took pride of place in the living room and if they broke you paid a person to fix it. Now if it even jams a tape it will probably be disconected, disused and eventually thrown away. IT'S THE EXACT SAME MACHINE. It was valuble until something better appeared, and the "next big thing" in technology may be here already, but they're not releasing it until they've extracted the last $50 out of this technology first.