Show and Tell: The Magic Plastic Lid
How a simple piece of plastic became an object of romance and wonder.
Show and Tell is an occasional Inconspicuous Consumption series focusing on objects of personal significance, with most of the entries contributed by IC readers. Today’s installment, however, is from me. You can see additional Show and Tell posts here. — Paul
In early 2023, soon after E and I started dating, she was staying over at my place for the first time and wanted to do one of her favorite things: take a bath. That presented a slight problem, because my bathtub doesn’t have a built-in stopper and I’d never purchased one of those rubber tub-stopper thingies because I never take baths myself.
But then I had an idea. I went to the kitchen, rooted around in my supply of Tupperware and takeout containers, and found a round plastic lid (shown above), which I thought could double as a stopgap stopper. E was skeptical, but it worked perfectly. My original plan was to buy a real stopper at my local dollar store the next day, but the lid worked so well that I decided not to bother.
Nearly two years later, E still uses the lid every time she takes a bath at my place. Along the way, the lid has become an unlikely romantic talisman for us — a quotidian object that reminds us of a fun little story from the early days of our relationship.
When the lid isn’t in use, it usually lives on the same tub shelf where I keep my soap and shampoo. But after one of E’s recent baths, she sort of randomly pressed the lid against the tiled tub wall and was surprised when it stuck there, as if it had been glued on. She called me in and said, “Look — it’s magic!”