Tuesday, May 11, 2021

The Telltale Key

This was my rental car key (I've included a full-sized pen for comparison purposes):




















The key was large. It was roughly the size of my rental car.  

It was also attached to another, identical key. Two keys on a single, stranded wire ring. 

They could not be separated. 

In itself, this was astounding. A second key has absolutely no purpose if it is inextricably bound to the first. It is redundant, and doubles the weight as an added bonus. I carried what felt like two pounds of keys in my pocket all weekend.

When I returned the car on Monday, I went to the rental desk. I told the clerk that putting a second key on the same ring was maybe the dumbest thing I'd ever seen, and I'm sure he heard that all the time. 

"Well, the second key has to go somewhere," he said, which was utterly stupid and staggeringly brilliant at the same time. 

"I can't argue with that," I said.  

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