"asdf" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 17 Feb 2006 02:53:05 +0000 (UTC), "R. Aluitious Harris"
wrote:

On your site, I see http://nokia.fotopic.net/p7005885.html

What is the meaning of the title/caption?

Take a closer look at the gentleman's choice of reading material...

Oh!

Not so much 'reading' material, then, is it?!

Best wishes,
Mr. Harris.

"Chris Read" wrote in message
...

Has anyone else noticed, *all* of the chocolate vending machines
on Tube platforms, certainly in zone 1, have been taken out of use.

I don't get the gag in the subject line.... why isn't the thread called
"Chocs away"?

"John Rowland" wrote:

I don't get the gag in the subject line.... why isn't the thread called
"Chocs away"?

Because if I could come up with witty, relevant thread titles, I'd be
working for a tabloid newspaper and not posting to newsgroups.

Chris

Chris Read wrote:
"John Rowland" wrote:

I don't get the gag in the subject line.... why isn't the thread
called "Chocs away"?

Because if I could come up with witty, relevant thread titles, I'd be
working for a tabloid newspaper and not posting to newsgroups.

If you look in the other thread on this topic, in u.t.l, originally titled
"Underground chocolate machines" , you'll see that I have already changed it
as John suggests ;-)

- Alan (in Brussels)

Chris Read wrote:
Going back 20 years (remembering
childhood trips with grandparents who liked to spoil me), the machines were
programmed to 'eat the money but not dispense the product' for one in three
attempts

Ah that explains it!

The last two times I tried to get a chocolate (having not used a
machine in years), I lost my money. I only complained once but they
gave me a £1 voucher for a 50p loss (as compensation).

The third time I tried to get a chocolate, the machine didn't accept my
coin. When it rejected it, I found a pound in the change tray! So, I
collected my prize, my original 50p and walked away.

Maybe they're now programmed to be like fruit machines.. some people
lose money, others win it! Now if they could only make them pay out
fruit...

Jonathan

Chris Read wrote:


The problem with the present business model for vending machines, is that
the machines have become *too* reliable. Going back 20 years (remembering
childhood trips with grandparents who liked to spoil me), the machines were
programmed to 'eat the money but not dispense the product' for one in three
attempts. It was like a cruel lottery, but the profit margins must have been
good.

Chris



I dread the day that the ticket gates are installed at Exeter St Davids
because it means I won't be able to walk out and buy cheap chocolate in
the University shop next door (it undercuts the station by about 10p a bar