Cheap Travel Shaver

Last weekend when I was searching for replacement parts for my electric shaver I found an interesting alternative to replacing some of the bits: a whole new shaver for $20! That was less than half the $47 for the replacement bits, let alone the $125 cost of buying a whole new shaver in a 12 year old design. (The more modern ones cost even more.) And, to boot, this shaver is small, a good size for travel.



How small is small? Well, you can see it above in my hand. It's, like, barely 3 inches tall and less than 3/4 inch thick. It's not just American small, it's Japanese small. It's actually imported from Japan with most of the packaging printed in Japanese.

Obviously I bought one. I mean, it's obvious because I'm holding it. 😅 I figured, "Hey, for $20 I'll try it." If the replacement screen and blades I bought don't improve my 10 year old shaver, I could switch to this until I'm ready to invest in another more-expensive shaver. And this could be a good travel shaver. I could leave it in my bag so I don't have to remember to pack my shaver when I travel.

Why have a second shaver just for travel? Because having two sets of things is a technique that makes frequent travel easy. For years I've had two sets of my regular toiletries: hair brush, hair products, toothbrush, toothpaste. I keep the travel set with my bag. It's way easier than having to grab all sorts of things from the bathroom every time. I've never had two shavers, though. The main reason is I never wanted to spend another $75, $125, or more. But for $20? I'll try it.

How is it? I tried my first shave with it today. It shaves reasonably close when I have a light stubble. It's definitely good for everyday shaving or for fixing a 5 o'clock shadow. Reviews online said it's not so good with longer stubble. Maybe I'll give that a try this weekend. And there's no whisker trimmer on it, so it's not good for keeping sideburns sharp. That alone limits its use to maybe at most a 2-night trip for me. But like I said, I'll try it out. Worst case I'm out $20 plus tax.

A Year into the No-Choice Era

Today marks a year since the US Supreme Court's Dobbs decision throwing out the federal legalization of abortion decided in 1973's landmark Roe v. Wade case. A year later, where are we?

Not unpredictably, many states in the US passed abortion restrictions. 14 states now ban abortion entirely or with severe restrictions, and 6 more have gestational limits that make abortion unavailable by the time many women realize they're pregnant, as this CNN article (updated 26 May 2023) shows. Note the figures would be higher but some states' high courts have struck down bans. For the 25 million women and girls of reproductive age living in these states (NARAL estimate, 10 Feb 2023), the end of the Pro-Choice era is the beginning of a new No-Choice era. ...Or at least a choice that has been taken away from women and girls age 12-44 by the overwhelmingly older, male legislators in these states who clearly know better.

It's interesting, as a counterpoint to what old-white-male legislatures are doing, that in the 6 conservative states where abortion was literally on the ballot in the last year— i.e., where proposed abortion restrictions were put to voters in ballot referendums— new restrictions lost in all 6.

One of the insidious things about limiting access to reproductive care is that you don't have to ban abortion outright to make it effectively unavailable. In many states where it's still legal but with heavy restrictions, a large number of clinics that used to provide abortion care have closed down. Doctors and clinics find the legal environment too hostile, and the greatly reduced demand for legal care makes it economically unviable to continue. This NPR article (21 June 2023) shows an interesting heat map of proximity to abortion access. Researchers who created the map found that one a year ago the average American lived 25 miles from an abortion provider, while today that figure is 86 miles.

Today women are traveling farther for abortions than they've had to for 50 years. One interesting wrinkle of people crossing state lines now for care is that Florida, a GOP dominated state that is enacting tough restrictions, has actually seen a big spike in numbers of abortions performed. This Politico article (24 June 2024) shows that Florida has seen the largest increase of any state. I'd say, "Suck on that, DeSantis," except that his 6-week abortion ban currently tied up in court may well be upheld.