Think Outside the Box

Gary often buys “me” Christmas gifts which are transparently technology gifts for himself. Latest stereos, laptops, wireless devices, home assistants, he can only buy himself technology if it is wrapped up as a gift for “me.” It’s a firm Gary Rule, on par with Never Take the Last One of an Item Off the Grocery Shelf.

This year I unboxed something called a TV Fire Cube, which is similar to a TV Fire Stick, which seems to be a way to play streaming services without having cable. We don’t have cable in the basement anymore, so Gary thought “we” could make the basement TV a test bed for transitioning away from TiVos and cable and on to wireless streaming.

Sadly, I couldn’t even open the box. I pulled at every edge on the top, and every corner on every side. I thought, “This is why they have those unboxing videos on YouTube.”

I whined at Gary who strode over with great confidence and got just as stuck. Eventually he rotated it upside down and pried open the bottom.

I assumed he did it wrong. Nope. This image is 44 seconds into the unboxing link above.

You can click the link and watch as the man confidently opens the bottom and flips it on its belly and turns what was clearly the bottom into a front flap, as you do in the twenty-first century. Someday soon this box will be a test for when they glean out the Olds. “Say shibboleth while you open this box, Boomer.”

And if you doubt me, look at what popped up when I searched for how to spell “shibboleth’ …

Yesssss. Shibboleth means stream! (Also, Soylent Green is people.)