Zipper

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Two weeks ago I bought a brand-spanking new backpack for ten bucks. One week ago one of its zippers broke off. Today, I took it to a luggage repair shop. The guy said he could fix it for fifteen bucks. A year ago, another guy, at a different luggage repair shop, said he’d fix the broken zipper on my old backpack for six bucks. A week later that six-dollar zipper broke off. So I went ahead and paid fifteen dollars for a zipper. (Actually, he insisted on replacing two zippers. So I got two new zippers for the price of one. Maybe.) At first, he said he could have it done by six o’clock. I said I’d come back.* But he said, no, when did I want it by? I said three o’clock. (At the time, it was one o’clock.) He said ok. I checked around, and other tailors said the job would cost over twenty bucks, so I didn’t feel so ripped off. 

12 August 2002 

*Presumably, the FireVaney meant that he’d come back some other time to have the zippers replaced. 

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