# Zippo lives up to its propaganda! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 30, 2002, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470 "2002-05-30T00:26:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/41 "2002-05-31T00:46:45Z")
\*\* > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by stofsky_ > I seem to remember a friend from high school saying that 4 slashes meant that you could light it on the wing of a flying passenger jet.\*\* Call Tom Ridge! Smoke shops are going to have to look out for suspicious people buying Zippos! **blur** : I wonder how that Zippo **got** there, f’yaknowwuddImean. **malaka** : Cool link! ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/42 "2002-05-31T02:21:46Z")
Remember all the cool moves with the Zippo? Brushing it across your thigh – once to open it, again to light it and back again to close the lid. Standing around snapping it open and closed. When civilized people still smoked, the rush to light a pretty woman’s cigarette. The red, raw splotch on your hip where the lighter fluid leaked through your pocket. Those were the days, my friend. Damn these plastic butane things. how can you light a can of Sterno or a camp fire or a bamboo and palm leaf hut with these silly little things? ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/43 "2002-05-31T02:44:02Z")
I learned how to put my thumb on the bottom, two fingers on top and ‘pop’ it open. But I never could manage the move my dad mastered which was to snap his fingers and light it. That’s just HARD! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/44 "2002-05-31T03:02:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zappo \* > \*\*Aw geeze, guys. Thanks. You made my day. \*\* **Zappo** , would _you_ light on the first try? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/45 "2002-05-31T03:16:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Inky- \* > \*\*Just curious Rilch, is [this](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2106840620) the Zippo in question? \*\* Dude, that is BOSS! Now I have to get a Zippo. (Whatever will I do with it? I don’t need it for lighting things, because I have a gas stove for that.) ---
**Author:** ![Dieter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@Dieter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dieter)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/46 "2002-05-31T04:30:39Z")
I have a 20 year old zippo I bought new in 1982. It’s still going strong today and has never been repaired. (he says lighting a cigarette and enjoying the “click-cllluck” the zippo makes when it closes) ---
**Author:** ![Dieter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@Dieter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dieter)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/47 "2002-05-31T04:36:10Z")
I have a 20 year old zippo I bought new in 1982. It’s still going strong today and has never been repaired. (he says lighting a cigarette and enjoying the “click-cllluck” the zippo makes when it closes) ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/48 "2002-05-31T05:01:19Z")
Yeah, I do the brush-against-the-thigh thing. I love bringing my hand up with the lighter aflame, like I’m Lady Liberty! ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/49 "2002-05-31T09:29:30Z")
I’ve actually been to the Zippo factory… my sister lives about 100 yards down the road from it, in fact! If you are in the area, it’s worth a stop; they have a little museum and everything… **Astrogirl** still doesn’t understand why I made her come with me to see the Zippo factory. 🙂 I love Zippos! ---
**Author:** ![Zappo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b3f665/32.png) [@Zappo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zappo)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/50 "2002-05-31T13:49:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\ ***Zappo** , would _you_ light on the first try? > > 😃 \*\* Depends on who’s striking the flint. 😃😛🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/51 "2002-05-31T14:12:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rilchiam \* > \*\*Yeah, I do the brush-against-the-thigh thing. \*\* I gave a Zippo as a birthday gift to a college friend. He insisted on doing the brush-against-the-thigh thing. Ripped the lid right off on Day Two. ---
**Author:** ![Skerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Skerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skerri)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/52 "2002-05-31T14:43:32Z")
When my friend Jason left to go to college in 1991, I gave him a Zippo with his initials engraved on it. We went our seperate ways, and lost touch with each other for a while. I saw him about a year ago, and he told me he still had my lighter. I thought this was pretty funny, considering one of our ‘friends’ saw the lighter in his car and stole it about a week after I gave it to him. When she moved from D.C. back to Charleston, I found the lighter in a box in her room, and took it back. I never told him that she stole it, and I wonder who gave him the lighter he uses. I gave my SO an engraved Zippo for Valentine’s Day one year. He promptly lost it in a cab in NYC, so I don’t buy Zippo for other people anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/53 "2002-06-01T23:41:10Z")
So has anyone told the Zippo people about this thread? ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/54 "2002-06-02T00:01:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MONTY2 \* > \*\*I have, on several occassions, had a Zippo engraved and given it as a gift. That way I know my gift is going to get used . \*\* Gee, this is what I do for a living. And my stock answer for people who (especially when selecting grromsman gifts) say, “we can’t get lighters, some of them don’t smoke” is that even I own a Zippo for lighting birthday candles. I got so tired of rolling up a piece of paper and lighting it on the gas stove. And Zippo lighter fluid is the best adhesive remover…much better than Goo-Gone. ---
**Author:** ![hardygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@hardygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardygrrl)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2002, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/55 "2002-06-02T00:24:32Z")
I have two Zippos. One was my grandfather’s. He carried from the day he left for WWII until he died. I also have an official WWE Hardy Boyz Zippo. Yes, I’m a geek. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/56 "2002-06-03T04:22:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kittenblue \* > \*\* > …even I own a Zippo for lighting birthday candles. I got so tired of rolling up a piece of paper and lighting it on the gas stove. > \*\* Hell, I just bought one specifically so I could learn to do the tricks with it. Don’t smoke, don’t burn things particularly often… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/57 "2002-06-08T20:31:03Z")
**Rilchiam** : After waiting a few days to see if you’d bid on the “Hate” Zippo on eBay, I bid on it myself. I won the bidding! If you want it, I’ll sell it to you for $18 (what I paid for it – if you really _really_ want it, I’ll sell it to you for $20. 😉 😃 ). If not, then I’ll keep it myself. It’s pretty groovy. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/58 "2002-06-08T23:00:21Z")
**Johnny** : Thanks for thinking of me! But no, you keep it. I knew from the start that I would not be replacing ol’ Buddy. I demanded the $25 because I knew it would come out of the kid’s hide; I didn’t want the problem of a kid who randomly wrecks other peoples’ stuff to go unaddressed. But at the time, I needed the $25 more for bills than for a replacement of a lighter that still worked. I’m not much better able to afford this expenditure now. I’m actually more happy that someone else is giving Peter Bagge some publicity than I would be if I had the shiny new lighter myself. Bring it to the next Dopefest and we’ll display them for everyone! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2002, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/59 "2002-06-09T00:10:07Z")
Okie dokie! I’ll try to remember to bring it. Since it’s still unused (in the box with the sticker on the back and instructions) I won’t be using it though. You know, I was doing quite well on my quitting smoking until I opened this thread! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2002, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zippo-lives-up-to-its-propaganda/111470/60 "2002-06-09T00:35:36Z")
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