In the history of niche products - of finding a solution to a problem that didn’t exist, and filling a gap, both literal and metaphorical - surely fridge magnets are up there in the pantheon of greats.
Sicily, it transpires, is the land of the fridge magnet - I have never seen such variety. It offers a veritable eco-system of ecologically unsound non-biodegradable doodads. I bought four in the last week, possibly five (TBC - I haven’t fully unpacked).
I now fear for the structural integrity of my fridge door, where twenty years of effigies of world-famous edifices cling, all blinging primary colours and fake-ass stucco and stone. Fortunately I have a capacious, double-doored fridge, and a rapacious, near insatiable lust for kitchen kitsch.
My fridge magnets are my favourite souvenirs. They don’t need dusting, like the snow globes I originally focused on.
Also, a travel learning: the water in snowglobes often yellows over time. I was browsing through boxes and found my Parisian one. Et voila! L’Île De la Cité submerged in piss. Take that, French people.
Fridge magnets also don’t take up shelf space like the bejillions of rubber Japanese kaiju and shrine effigies I brought back from Tokyo and Kyoto. Shelves can be filled with books, records, even food, but what else are you going to do with your fridge door?
And they are fairly robust, in fact, robust enough to still be there, plastic-pristine, in a landfill in 30,000 years, long after they have been prized out of my cold dead hand. That said, my New Zealand blue penguin has lost his beak; my Munich beer glass/ bottle opener has lost its handle; each of my three Madeiran lizards has lost a limb at a minimum, and a head in at least one case.
I don’t have a favourite - they’re like my children. Although, the magnets representing places I didn’t really like are relegated to the side, above the cat litter tray. This does actually approximate my approach to children, but with them it’s the attic, obvs.
The toxoplasmosis red zone of cat litter central does not include the magnet for Las Vegas, however, even though it is the worst place I have ever been. That’s because it is nonetheless a place with truly awesome fridge magnets. I think this in itself says much about Las Vegas.
I thought my collection was impressive until, in a half-hearted stab at looking like some kind of real writer, I gave journalist and blogger’s friend, Wikipedia, a cursory check. It transpires a woman called Louise J. Greenfarb in the US has a collection of around 45,000. And she lives in… Las Vegas.
Americans do everything bigger, although usually In a slightly terrifying way, like hormone-injected, chlorinated chicken breasts.
So I’ll never compete with her. But perhaps in the UK I could aspire to be something of a local hero? No. Apparently Tony Lloyd, a teacher in Cardiff UK, is also a major collector, with around 5,000. He’s been away to 104 places. And that, my friends, probably says a great deal about Cardiff.
My question with all of this is, how many fridges do they have?
Cardiff: a reason to travel.