I wrote last year about a simple marvel of real-world standards when a paint-roller handle broke and we were able to screw in a broom handle into the same socket (fantastic!).
I was amused and amazed at lunch the other day by my colleague Peter Rukavina with another simple display of standards. He was layered up in two coats. The first coat (green) was purchased at the REI corporate store in Denver, CO in April of 2004. It was assembled in Mexico of US material. The second coat (grey) is a Ralph Lauren Chaps-brand coat purchased at the Eatons store in Toronto in 2000. It was made in China.
Both coats sport the ubiquitous YKK zipper brand and as Peter demonstrated with flair, despite their distinct origins, the coats can zip together because they share a common zipper type/size.
Also dining with us during this marvel of overcoat synergy, Dan James informed us that sleeping bags can be easily zipped together. This seems like the thing of nightmares for the parents of teenagers on co-ed camping trips.
The German way (regarding camping trip concerns):
– Talk with the children about “reproductive” intercourse at age of 10
– Give condoms to boys at the age of 12
– Give the pill to girls as soon as they want to (age of 14+)
Ot seems to work for we do not have too much “young” parents.
BTW: I love the fact that you can zip together sleepingbags for a long time now… 🙂
That’s all and well for you in a relatively civilised part of the world. Over here, most are so _gawd_darned uptight about sex. From the behaviour (the true message) of many here, it is considered a sin to even talk about sex to childeren. Sex is also a sin unless it’s purpose is to produce a child you cannot tell about sex. It is fortunate for the race that instinct has not been completely beaten out of us by religious tyrants and their minions.
Hell, I’ve always tried *not* to get my parents to talk about sex in front of me.
I warn you, unless you want permanently attached sleeping bags, be wary of zipper variation!
Actually, my wife and I bought our latest sleeping bags specifically with zippering in mind. The one thing to consider is that you need to have one left-handed and one right-handed bag–something we never realized until the sales person pointed it out.
The ability to connect sleeping bags and coats has more to do with one company’s dominance in the global zipper market than it has to do with universal standards.
Matt: I don’t think this is true, because you flip one bag over when zipping them together, so the identical zippers thingies are on opposite sides.