Word: flush
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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This new flow of contraband south from Windsor began in the name of water conservation. In the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, passed in 1994, Congress mandated that toilets sold in the U.S. use no more than 1.6 gal. of water per flush--less than half the flow they had employed before. Soon, as Americans moved into spanking-new homes or replaced their cracked old gurglers with the swishy new models, they found themselves forced to flush and flush again--drowning the supposed benefits of water conservation. And then they had to go hunting for the plunger. Soon they wanted...
...proprietor, Sid Awerbuck, 75, has made a nice living selling faucets, tubs and other washroom fixtures. But in the past two years, as the booming economy has pushed more and more Americans into new homes and onto the balky new low-flow toilets, trafficking in the old high-flush models has added 20% to his bottom line. And here's the best part: most of the outlaw commodes sold in Windsor are made in the U.S. by companies like Kohler and American Standard. The high-flush models can still be produced for export, so long as they are not resold...
Shirley Krupp, 69, and her husband Bob Ward, 76, drove their green Chevy van 45 miles from Ypsilanti, Mich., to Windsor on a recent Thursday in search of a toilet that does the job on the first flush. "Everybody in our area comes up here," says Shirley. "I think the 1.6 is just terrible," sniffs Bob. "You end up having to flush it twice, three times...
...those who don't want to drive to Canada, another option is a high-flush toilet salvaged from an old building by entrepreneurs like Tim Harmon, owner of Tim & Billy's Salvage Store in Indianapolis. "We have people who come in here and say they will give up their handguns before giving up their toilets," he says...
...money performing well in the stock market and feel rich - and then they'll go spend what they don't actually have." Granted, spending against paper profits that may disappear with the next NASDAQ nosedive isn't exactly the stuff of sound personal finance, but will American investors' apparent flush of success be enough to spur the Fed chief into do something drastic - like once again raising interest rates? Count on it, says Kadlec. "Consumer spending indices hold a lot of weight with Greenspan," he explains. "As long as we see numbers like these, there's no relief in sight...