Am I alone in imagining this, but is everything getting smaller? Instead of becoming more expensive, items we buy still seem to be the same price but smaller in size – packets, jars, bags. Ceiling seem to be getting lower – or at least they did somewhere around the 1950s (or was it earlier?). In contrast some things (wine serves) seem to be bucking the trend. However, the overall the trend is down, and where the trend is up, for example with wine serves, it is linked to a downwards trend, in, for example, health. I'm calling this new area of research 'sizeanomics' and I think I can probably build a substantial career in it – if the demand doesn't get smaller.
As I was trying to squeeze my (smallish) car, one of those unfortunately named SUVs, which I think means ‘Sports Utility Vehicle’, into a car park that barely allowed you to open the doors, I realised that car parks have been getting smaller – at the very same time that cars have been getting bigger, much bigger. With the advent of electric vehicles, they will also be getting much, much heavier. I hope all those carparks built in the last few decades are well reinforced, because the oncoming tsunami of electric vehicles is not going away. In the United States of America it's been called the 'truckification' of the family car and it's another unfortunate American trend that we have the bad luck or bad judgement to copy.
Ceilings getting lower
These creeping dimension changes seem to be occurring all around me all the time. The confusing thing is that they are not all going in the some direction. For example, since the 1950s, ceilings have been getting lower. Ceilings were once 12 feet high, now they are 8 feet. In the time it took to shrink from 12 feet to 8 feet, we have managed to transition from Imperial measures to metric. At this rate, we’ll all have to bend down to get inside, like those 19th Century houses, where the doors are impracticably low and windows seem to touch the ground – at both bottom and top. That was fine when the bulk of the population were on diets that could only be described as ‘starvation’, so hardly grew past childhood – but it won’t do now.
Wine glass stems bucking the trend
In an unusual contrast, wine glasses have been growing longer and longer stems. It means that there are far more places along a stem where it can be broken. At the same time, wine glass serves seem to be getting bigger. When I was in the UK back in 2017, I discovered there was a wine serve that could only be described as 'much bigger than in Australia'. It was 250 ml, compared to the standard serve I was used to of 150 ml. That is one whole third of a whole bottle of wine.
Not long after I came back to Australia I discovered that the 'much bigger than in Australia' wine serve could now be called the 'much bigger in Australia, too' serve. At least in a wave of smaller items, there's some hope – even if it does encourage some less desirable practices.
© Stephen Cassidy 2025
See also
‘We live in troubled times – but then can anyone ever say that they lived in times that weren’t troubled? For most of my life Australia has suffered mediocre politicians and politics – with the odd brief exceptions – and it seems our current times are no different. Australia has never really managed to realise its potential. As a nation it seems to be two different countries going in opposite directions – one into the future and the other into the past. It looks as though we’ll be mired in this latest stretch of mediocrity for some time and the only consolation will be creativity, gardening and humour’, Beyond a joke – surviving troubled times.
‘Sitting by a roaring fire in a wintry pub in the Central Highlands of Tasmania near where I grew up, I read that Tasmanians liked to call Australia ‘the Island to the North’. Many years later I went back to Tasmania, in early 2019, driving through an island on fire to reach the tiny village where I grew up in the centre of the island, by the shores of Lake St Clair. Now after three more years of bushfires and floods and pandemic, I have been thinking about the island to the North, its tiny neighbours and the vast Pacific Ocean that laps and links them’, Revisiting the island to the North – a nearby foreign country.
Surviving the pandemic – notes from the plague years September 2020-November 2021
‘During the pandemic I have become an expert at many new things - early morning raids on enemy supply lines to ensure the household has adequate food supplies, masks, sanitiser, avoiding others, especially the ones I don't like. It's risky – I see that small bands of foot soldiers in the service of assorted warlords are roaming the streets, though luckily in the far South and not here. Sometimes I feel like one of those ancient Vikings heading out from the fjords of Norway to plunder distant shores – today Lindisfarne, tomorrow Sonoma Bakery’, Surviving the pandemic – notes from the plague years September 2020-November 2021.
Holed up in the mountains
‘In a time of pandemic, if you can't be on a small island off another island, then being holed up in the mountains might just be the next best thing. While there are some daily things I miss - coffee sitting down in cafes, a quite drink or meal out – in many ways life in lockdown is not all that different to how I lived before. Perhaps I need to take a closer look at what I really miss’, Holed up in the mountains.
Raiding the pantry
‘A few weeks back I returned from a two and a half week regional road trip through Victoria to Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. When we left, people were being encouraged to visit fire-ravaged regional centres to help boost local economies. By the time we were on the way back everyone was being urged to stay home to help reduce the spread of pestilence. We had heard about hoarding and food shortages and we had seen the empty shelves, usually filled with toilet paper, everywhere we passed. As we headed home, I pondered exactly how long we could survive on what was already in our pantry – how many meals we were already sitting on as a result of routine shopping before that time of hoarding and excess,’ Raiding the pantry
Australia - 7-day weather forecast
‘A distraction from the heat, fire, and smoke that have become the new normal in Australia, Internet memes track the ongoing failure of our mediocre political masters. After a Christmas of bushfires, everything is black, particularly the humour’, Australia - 7-day weather forecast.
Feast of Stephen revisited
‘As Christmas seems to be speeding towards us once again – with all the hope it holds out for the survival of the embattled retail sector, it got me thinking. In ‘Good King Wencelaus’, that carol from my distant childhood, there is an intriguing line, ‘good King Wencelaus looked out, on the Feast of Stephen’. I thought, what is this feast, which happens to bear my name? When exactly is it? Well…it is Boxing Day. Now I do realise it, I am determined to celebrate it in the style it deserves’, Feast of Stephen.
Adjusting to reality #1 – peaks, troughs and snouts
‘It seems government allows just enough time to forget what it has done before it begins to repeat it. It would be easy to go along with popular prejudice and believe that the private sector is more efficient than the public sector. Unfortunately both are efficient and also hopeless in their own way. At least we get to vote about the broad outline of what the public sector does – and laugh at it. With the private sector, all we get is to laugh at it. Or cry’, Adjusting to reality #1 – peaks, troughs and snouts.
Internet memes – swirling around the virtual universe
‘Internet memes seem to appear and disappear on the web, digital visitors swirling around the virtual universe. Where they come from or who created them is hard to tell. There are no secrets or possessions on the Internet. Seeing some of these memes got me thinking. I thought perhaps I could produce my own memes and have some fun. Perhaps it’s the new future for the arts – social media postcards – but with humour and creativity’, Internet memes – swirling around the virtual universe.
Bring back the Romans
‘Our political system is having a lot of problems and lately I’ve been thinking that we could do a lot worse than bring back the Romans. Since they were around no-one has managed to do a good job of empire. The Americans had their moment but they seem to be making a real mess of it nowadays. Politically the Senate wouldn’t be much different. The Emperor Caligula made his horse a Senator and we’ve done better than that. So, no change there. No, on reflection it would be a good move. I think we should bring it on and the sooner the better. Now all we need to do is find some Romans and get the ball rolling’, Bring back the Romans.
‘Some days you realise suddenly that Canberra was deliberately located in the mountains. Perhaps it was fear of Russian invasion - imperial rather than communist. Perhaps it was to avoid overlap with the two warring imperial powers of the time - NSW and Victoria. Whatever the reason, Canberra sits well up on the top of Australia, on the long road up to the Snowy Mountains, where Australia finally reaches its peak. I've made two unsuccessful attempts to see the National Arboretum, finding the gates locked and no way in. Yesterday on a cold Canberra day I finally found it open, thanks to Canberra's annual festival of flowers, Floriade. I'd finally made a successful landing at the Arboretum. I was very impressed’, Wide brown landing.
Cures for the common cold
'Even in the heart of the modern world, down in the deep streets of contemporary urban life, folk medicine is still strong. Have you noticed when you mention you have a cold, how everyone within listening distance starts to list off the various fool-proof remedies which are certain to cure you, or at the very least make you feel human again', Cures for the common cold.
Articles in the series ‘The island to the North’
The island to the North – the islands to the North East
‘The awkward relationship between Tasmania and the island to the North is not the only clumsy relationship between islands in this part of the world. The history of the ties between the island to the North and the islands of the Pacific is even more troubled’, The island to the North – the islands to the North East.
The island to the North – turning the map upside down
‘Our geography teacher would turn the map upside down to make the point that we were conditioned to see Asia above Australia, implying that gravity was a factor in human migration patterns and to illustrate the Australian fear of the Yellow Peril, ready to pour down from Asia and inundate the almost empty island to the South’, The island to the North – turning the map upside down.
The island to the North – disappearing worlds
'Islands are easily overlooked – Tasmania is an island that periodically disappears off maps, sometimes there, sometimes not, at the edge of consciousness, at the end of space.' The island to the North – disappearing worlds
The island to the North – a nearby foreign country
‘Sitting by a roaring fire in a wintry pub in Tarraleah I found Tasmanians liked to call Australia "the island to the North". We are neighbours but sometimes I wonder if I am behind enemy lines’, The island to the North – a nearby foreign country.
