Selling air

No, this isn’t something out of Total Recall or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress–there is really an entrepreneur who is selling air to people who live right here on Earth where, at last check, the air was still free. His gimmick? Nostalgia.

From BBC Online:

Welsh air up for sale on the web

Actually, this is nothing new. People were selling Atlantic City air a hundred years ago–seriously. Before the city was the perennial butt of jokes and unflattering comparisons with Las Vegas, it was considered a health resort.

This actually makes sense: with people crowded into largely unsanitary cities like Philadelphia and New York (waste management was still in its infancy and horses a dominant form of urban transportation–do the math), the seaside breezes that blessed Absecon Island were seen as the healthiest thing since spinach. So a handful of locals bottled and sold “healthy ocean air” to visitors, affectionately known as “shoobies.” Ah, the old days.