Charge Card Cat

I have a friend that has a "thing" for charge cards. No, he doesn't like to shop a lot... ever since he was young, and his mom let him borrow the department store charge card (Higbee's, was it?) he has loved those machines that you stick the card, the slip with carbon copies, and "cha-swish" with... I am not sure what the technical name is for this. But step back 15 years, and this was how credit cards were "impressed" at stores... the raised numbers on the card would show-through in the carbon copy, and that is how they got your number before magnetic strips.

I think he likes these things too much. It's almost like a fetish.

So, damned be him, that they now just swipe your card's magnetic strip. No large "cha-shwish" sound, no physical imprint.

So, he tells me that recently he drove out to the Apple store in Fresno to get his fresh copy of LEOPARD. The credit lines were down. He thought he drove for nothing.

"But Admiral!" he told me. "They brought out... those old-fashioned charge imprint machines! Oh buddy!"

I could just see him... as the Apple store, his favorite store, was inserting his Visa card in momentary bondage, and as it got pressed-against a sheet of paper, all close and squeezed like. "Cha-swish," cha-ching. He lost the grip on his pen... it slipped out... he was wet all over...

I am sure this copy of Leopard will be forever coveted... just for the old-school way he was able to buy it.