A Funny Anecdote and Thoughts About Brand Names et al

So yesterday I was picking my friend up from her apartment, and it was raining lemurs and caribous. I pulled up there facing south on Overlook Terrace blocking the southbound lane such that anyone wishing to continue south would have to pass me in the northbound lane, which is standard practice in that neighborhood. Anyway, a woman in another car coming northbound pulled up right next to my car facing the opposite direction, thereby blocking the street. Then a gypsy cab came along wishing to proceed northbound, so I lowered my window, got the woman's attention and, well, here's what went down:
Me: "Would you please move so that the other car can get by?"
Her: "You move!"
Me: "Well, I was here first."
Her: "Well, I'm a girl."
So, being the non-confrontational sort, I politely pulled up about 20 feet ahead, however everyone in the car with me, girl included, agreed that you should never waste an "I'm a girl" card on something as foolish as that. And then my friend got 20 feet wetter because I had to move. Just not a cool move.

It has occurred to me that I sometimes describe a certain generic product by its most popular brand name. You know that a particular brand has cornered the market when everyone refers to any product of that type by it's brand name. For example, last night my friend gestured toward an SUV and asked me who's Jeep it was. Although it was clearly a Ford Explorer or something, maybe a Honda CR-V. Sorry, it was dark and I was too busy getting wet to notice. Either way, it certainly wasn't a Jeep. Currently, I can only think of three other products to which this phenomenon applies. One of these is Kleenex. That one wasn't so obvious because I grew up calling them "tissues." The really obvious one to me is Band-Aid. To this day, I'll go ask my father where the Band-Aids are. To me, a bandage is like an Ace bandage, not one of those sticky guys you put on your cuts along with the Neo. My brother has reminded me of the Xerox machine. You will often find people who will ask you to "Xerox" something for them instead of using your trusty, somewhat dusty Canon copier, or even the dark horse Ricoh model. I also thought of Q-tips. I have never in my life referred to them as "cotton swabs," nor will I ever. I wonder how much the Q-tip guy is worth? I wonder if they have a stock I can buy? There's no way he's worth as much as the aglet guy though. He makes money on every shoelace ever made. For those of you who don't know what an aglet is, it's the plastic cylinder on the end of your shoelaces, which makes it easier to put the lace through the holes in your shoes. I need to get out more.