Air!

December 1st, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

People have tried selling a lot of strange things: whale carcases, human souls, excreta (aka “poop”), belly button lint (no, I’m not kidding), grocery plastic shopping bags, even used dentures (I gotta write blogs on each one of them).

But how about this item? Air.

Air? Yup, air.

Nope, not just any old, run of the mill, middle of the road, garden variety, par for the course, no great shakes, vanilla air. Oh, no, not at all. This is air from Lake Como, Italy.

Now, the aforementioned lake and its environs are really pretty. Several years ago, it was described as the most beautiful lake in the world for its microclimate and environment, and prestigious villas and villages, backed by marvelous landscapes, wildlife, and spas.

Said Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1818:

This lake exceeds anything I ever beheld in beauty, except the arbutus [strawberry-like] islands of Killarney [in Ireland]. It is long and narrow, and has the appearance of a mighty river winding among the mountains and the forests.”

All good stuff, no doubt.

But to sell air from Lake Como?

The sealed 400 ml (about 14 oz)-containers are being sold at a bookshop and a restaurant on the lake. Fine-looking cans with an aerial image of a motorboat speeding across the idyllic Italian lake.

Yup, air is being sold. Special air. Unique air. Mystical air. Air from Lake Como. At €10 ($10.71) a pop. Apparently, the sellers think the cans will have a particular appeal to American tourists.

Said Davide Abagnale, consultant for Italy Comunica, the marketing company that dreamt up the cans.

I believe the souvenirs will appeal to American tourists whose numbers have skyrocketed since Hollywood actor George Clooney bought a villa on the lake more than a decade ago. We wanted to create a reminder that people can easily take home in their suitcases.”

Of course, when the can is opened it obviously loses its charm a bit.

Other locals are less than impressed with the idea. One remarked:

I think it’s better to breathe the actual air of Como. Buying it doesn’t bring the same satisfaction.”

No matter what you think of air sales, tourism is booming in the Lombardy region. There was a record 5.6 million visitors last year (of whom one was your faithful blogger).

The cans, bought in the Netherlands and sealed in Como, were apparently inspired by French artist Marcel Duchamp who took a 50 ml (about 2 oz) empty vial and labelled it “Air de Paris” before giving it to a friend in 1919.

Alessandro Rapinese, mayor, admitted that the new cans would not be on top of his to-buy list:

But if someone wants to take away a bit of our air, then please do.”

A puff of air is the entirety of life—a breath, the Bible says.

Behold, You have set my days [as] handbreadths,
and my duration as nothing before You;
surely every human, [though] standing firm, is all a breath.”
Surely a person goes about as a shadow;
surely [for] a breath they make an uproar;
He heaps up [riches] and does not know who will gather them.
Psalm 39:5–6

But the breath of God—that’s a different matter.

By the word of Yahweh the heavens, they were made,
and by the breath of His mouth all their host.
He gathers as a heap the waters of the sea;
He puts in storehouses the deeps. …
For He spoke, and it was;
He commanded, and it stood.
Psalm 33:6–7, 9

So all ye airy ones …

Every [thing with] breath, praise Yah.
Praise Yah!
Psalm 150:6

SOURCE: The New York Times