"Tired and True"
Few question the propriety of the current haste on the part of manufacturers
to bring out "new and improved" products at prevalent rate. At one time, in
the dim, distant past before the advent of television, it was the vogue for
products to be advertised on the merits of their "tried and true" qualities.
Few advertisers were impious enough to jettison any part of the product that
had been accepted by the public. Year after year, the local grocery-store
owner proffer the same box of cereal, the same house cleanser. The acceptance
was of the time-tested products. Today's spate of transient products would
have been considered an anomaly in those days.


a blind alley--a direction which lead nowhere.
The modus operandi was leading up a blind alley and they were barking
up the wrong tree.