The Technician

Issue date: 7/30/09 Section: Entertainment

I was washing clothes the other day, and I noticed something odd. The lint traps in the dryers are all bolted down on one side. Not only does this make cleaning them inconvenient, but it made me ponder as to why such a device would need to be secured to its machine. A fellow washer at the time suggested "well, we are in flint" but these are in the basement of the dorms for Pete's sake! If someone from outside really wanted a lint trap REALLY bad, they would have to go through the key card access doors, possibly past the front desk, and past a lot of expensive audio equipment, computers, and in some cases jewelry, all to get a possibly ten dollar piece of plastic and mesh.
The next logical step is to assume the students themselves might take it, but then again, why? It's small, mostly useless, and not very easy to turn into something else. The only reason someone may take it is to have exclusive access to its use.
But are we that petty? Well, a core group of people says: yes. Of course we are! Are you kidding me? We as college students are in constant competition with each other whether we like it or not. And any sort of game makes for an easy way to divide people into winners and losers. Maybe entire units would try to get as many lint traps as possible and hoard them to be a sort of "washing machine police" who have exclusive rights to the cleaning and, moreover, drying of clothes.
So if you ever wonder why something is bolted down, it's probably because it might be absconded with for use in a bizarre dorm sport of "keep away".

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