Factoid for the day

The country’s first and last waterbed-only shop is run by a guy named Roland — wait for it — Formica, reports the NYT. After waterbeds were invented in 1967, sales peaked around $2 billion in the mid-1980s and now have plunged to $456 million. Creatures of fashion, people have foresaken an improving product. “The modern water bed is soft-sided and looks exactly like a conventional mattress. A virtually leak-proof water-filled bladder is held in a foam case, instead of wood, and a thick pad of ticking is zipped over it. The mattress can be placed on any standard platform bed or on top of a box spring, is nearly waveless, uses standard sheets and, once emptied, is far easier to move than a coil-filled mattress.”

My favorite Formica sales line: “You may just wake up in exactly the same position in which you fell asleep, never moving once all night.”