Where Does It Come From?

Imagining the people behind generic consumer products

A couple of years ago, I wrote a little appreciation of this musical Christmas clock I put up every year in our home. I picked it up in a thrift store for a few bucks, and it turned out to not quite work—the songs that play at each hour don’t play at the right hour, and in fact how many hours they’re off by varies each time I put batteries in it. I kind…