Again, I'd like to express that I think that Freecycle is a good idea. It's a means by which you acknowledge that you have stuff you don't want and that it might have value to someone else. Rather than attempt to extract that value in terms of cash, you simply give your stuff away. Simple as that. Maybe if you want something, you choose something from what's on offer on the mailing list. But there's no quid pro quo. It's recycling, it's free and it's about sharing with strangers. I like the idea.

However, it amuses me to see what people write on their Freecycle adverts. What does it say about the person? What are people Freecycling?

Here's one which caught my eye today:


A bit of tough love here. If you ask for everything that this person has to offer - I'll not include the items in 1 and 2, so as not to make you greedy, then they will immediately assume the worst - you're an evil capitalist carbooter (I assume that's someone who sells random shit at car boot sales, and not someone who puts people into the boots of cars, or makes boots for cars, or kicks cars...). Bad evil person: your email will be deleted.

However, on top of the tough love, there's also an easy glimpse into the sort of hippy recyclingy friend of nature type of person who is using Freecycle. A bunch of vegetarian interest magazines and a green magazines - you can almost smell the hummous and lentils from here. I've no idea what "cookkery" is, but I bet it's not something they teach at schools during "spelllingg".

Ah, looking at people's lives and making arbitrary and superficial judgements. It's what Tuesdays are all about.