European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 1, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Products americans can t Tho air conditioner r transparent tape this Litile invention fus revolutions re Chris Lotus bin Hribyk and All other events that Call Tor Blu Fly the automatic Washer dryer Una the a radome is to Autull. These Are 10 no More r Good Lor broken Hsmith pair Mower once pc time Ihrck were used to keep Lawm trim. Power maven Art handier and Muc the Only drawback is that on now he to go to the meal Maik Trio gel Umb. Nik Yuen Tlam by Patricia Leigh Brown new York times life without  s not quite odder for a Post nuclear disaster movie and certainly the Fale of i Hearth does not hinge upon them. But for Consumers plastic baggies Are one of those Little things that make a difference in daily life. Without them Betty Furness would have a tougher time toting pickles and sliced Steak leftovers to the office. And Leona Helmsley would have to find substitute storage for her homemade Chicken with peso or Marinara sauce. Each year according to Consumers Union. 2,000 to 4,000 new consumer products appear in the american Markel place. Many Are simply the effluvium of a hyped up consumer culture yet another thing to make us fret about waxy buildup or unwanted hair. Bui a few have been downright earthshaking big deals that have affected the lives and attitudes of hundreds of millions of Consumers examples can be seen until january Al Cooper Hewitt museum in new York in an exhibit titled milestones 50 years of goods and  the objects were culled by Consumers Union Lor its Seth anniversary. Of course what constitutes a big Deal is to some extent in the Eye of the beholder. Liquid Brown sugar did More for my menial health than any other thing on the  says the syndicated columnist Erma Bombeck and Black towels were certainly a Domestic breakthrough for me. But the no 1 item i use every Day is the toaster Over. Before i had one. Life was a series of cajun Toast and cold  toaster ovens and baggies Are not included in the consumer hit Parade at the Cooper Hewill or in an accompanying Book appropriately tilled i la buy thai so Small wonders and big deals that revolutionized the lives of Consumers. But they could be. The exhibit s Eclectic Range of goods and services Many for the Home extends from video Asretli recorders and Power mowers to Trant went a disposable diapers so seamlessly knit into the of contemporary life they now seem like Given according to the september Issue of Applit Magazine a private publication. 99.9 percent a America s Homes have refrigerators 92 percen television sets 70 percent washing machines percent electric dryers and 33 percent Var s items that were either invented or perfected is Consumers Union the world s largest indecent of product testing organization and publisher of i. Consumer reports was founded in 1b36. F inside our Homes and in the seven household on display of the Cooper Hewitt Are Reg Elalore of ice boxes television sets instead of radio Cona in what has arguably most freed women from hoi Drudgery Washer dryers instead of scrub boards wringers and laundry lines. For the normally staid Consumers Union wll reviewed some 100,000 products since us Tow and Daros to go beyond what s new to ask does it work milestones is Bitof add after reporting on product and service  says Rhodah. Karpatkin executive it Consumers Union we thought in would be Lai to step Back and not look Only at How product performed but How they have afle cled our Fife the organization polled past and present or University and museum stalls and profession and business organizations to come up  50 most revolutionary products. The result. Karpatkin says is an Arche tog into the Irti facts of our  they Are designs Lor living says Lucy Pel who coordinated the exhibition Lor the Coop in contrast to 16-Speed blenders automatic Waleters and electric shoe polishers the prod services represented Here filled a mass need brilliantly one example was displayed for the 1937 at a Louisiana county fair As the Bendix happily obsessed eccentrics Are britons really by de lion United press International few people know Blita s famous eccentrics As Well As american psychologist David weeks who has made a two Yea study of people he Calls happily obsessed weeks principal clinical psychologist at Scotland s Royal Edinburgh Hospital has studied 130 of those pop the who help give Britain a reputation Lor people who seem slightly Dotty. Like a potato inspector weeks found who exists on potatoes and chocolate bars but remains Hearilhy. Or a Man who installs automatic Bank telling machines but dresses Tike Robin Hood. Weeks started his study in 1984 by putting up signs in Edinburgh pubs and grocery stores saying eccentric it you feel that you Are or might a Contact him. He has now interviewed and tested certified self confessed eccentrics All across Britain developing a psychological profile of people with obsessively Wacky behaviour. Week Aya eccentricity is not a mental illness but just a different lifestyle from the  in fact of the people who were interviewed Only one of them was psychotic he Saio in an interview. That s about the same level As you find in the general population if no  but he says his study has applications Lor treating schizophrenic and neurotic patients because it Sheds Light on a different Type of mental  eccentrics Are people happily obsessed with one of iwo subjects and their curiously knows no  to said. They generally Are very opinionated and very original and creative. They feel they Are fighting against  weeks 42. Tested three people bucking in scientific establishment and trying to invent f motion machines which physicists Call an impossibility. Now he wants to conduct a similar study in United states to see if american eccentrics of same Hallern As eccentrics in Britain. His British study conducted with research Kate Ward turned up people like these a Man in his mid sos who taught yoga f meditations to his restaurant staff to help in with customers. A Man who broadcast his own poems c radio because he wanted to bring culture i a husband whose wife ran Oil with t woman who then went to live on a Remote j Hillside and scan the heavens Lor ufos. A social worker who dropped out of i in a Cave but went Back to living in a Colt remarried his third wife. Weeks said he has found eccentrics have of general traits in common. They Are curious introverted often Wen child or eldest child with a strict upbringing they received much attention but Are non competitive As Lar As society is concerned. Solitary exercises and feel the rest of the to mundane and they feel different from others. They feel ahead of their time and Hove a than the average. They generally have had i marriages and have different eating and Sll habits than the  despite their Odd behaviour he says Soma of the 130 British eccentrics he interviewed regular jobs Many in professional and my positions although they can be hard to " Page 14 the stars and stripes