respublica

An different way to day clothes

I came across a discussion about the best way to dry clothes if your dryer is on the fritz. Or, for those who want to dry a small amount of clothes and not bother with the dryer.

Along came a recommendation which has its roots in Great Britain-heated airers.

Now I've never heard of these. They look much like those old fashioned accordion style racks with the horizontal rods across the top. My mother had one of those and I bought one a year ago just for drying onions and garlic I'd harvested.

This British site has images of various types of heated airers available, all of which work by electricity. Plug it in and the rods heat up which dry your clothes. Many swear by this technique.

Amazon has many for sale, most without customer reviews of feedback. This may be due to it being a fairly new British idea yet to catch on with Americans. But now that i think about passing on this thing, it would be just like our dryer to stop working.

Unexpected history

This is one of the craziest sport photos I've seen, made nuttier because it involves women instead of men. Men are more prone to doing things like this, IMO.

I've seen this picture twice today, the first had the date as 1956, the other as 1934. But either way, it happened in Venice Beach, California. Women playing volley-ball on stilts.

There is no way they moved right to left or forward and back so the stilts must have been secured into the sand somehow. The bathing suits don't look like the 1930's, more like the 50's but I could be wrong. Actually after googling 1930's bathing suits, it could well have been 1934.

Best way to de-fog the windshield?

This sort of stopped me in my tracks this morning. A headline which read, "Using Shaving Cream to clear up that foggy windshield."

My first thought was how hard it would be to get that cream off after the window cleared of fog or frost. Can be used inside and outside on the window. Some people swear by this method, but I doubt I'll try it. My method is to get the car running before we have to leave with the defroster running.

I have used a vehicle ice melt spray in frozen door locks and doors themselves at times.

I won't take this dare

Here is a full page ad which came with today's New York Times:

When this fell out from the other sections of the paper, I was totally mystified and curious enough to spread it out on the kitchen floor and read just what this meant. What it means is there is a new theory that as much as we Americans like chicken, it can be produced better by making it out of plants. "We’re chicken lovers who believe eating more plants and treating animals better are both pretty important things. It's why we're working to make chicken better in every way."

So making chicken better means not having chicken but fake chicken made from soy, spices and sunflower oil. Then they sell their Daring chicken pieces and give a few recipes. All this can be found on their website if you are interested which I am not. An 8 piece bundle costs 56 dollars.

Is their a market for this plant chicken? Probably. But enough of a market for this group to make a go of it? I'm skeptical.

Speaking of cooking and food, today I'm going to make a pot roast, something I haven't made in a long time, but it just sounded so good on a very cold Sunday. But, is there anything in the kitchen heavier than a cast iron crock pot? Maybe this is why I've neglected pot roast for so long.

Lawn cleaner

Now this cleaning idea came out of no-where, but it is so weird that it just might work. During a discussion on the best way to clean oven racks, someone testified to the success of doing this:

 "Throw it outside in the grass and leave it over night then wipe clean the next day."

Another agreed: "Apparently it’s the moist grass that loosens the grease. I’m sure my slugs would have a feast in my garden."

A third said: "Put your racks outside on grass for 24 hours and the next day all the burnt on stuff just wipes off I'm going to give mine a go."

Does anyone have faith this will work? I don't know if tossing the racks onto the lawn in winter would work well, but I may try this with a grill rack just to see. If the grass moisture cleans those racks, how wonderful would it be to not have to use the harsher oven cleaners?

Not Prunes!

I learned this morning there is now a coffee drink named, Prune Latte. Cold Brew Prune Latte is being touted by Sunsweet. I realize there has been a lot of messing with coffee flavors in recent years, but this seems a bit much.

Prunes should know their place and stay out of coffee.

Traffic jam

Who knew a kick boxing tournament would draw such a huge crowd? Well, I now know this to be true after coming home from church and finding cars parked on both sides of the street from one end to the other. And, the entire American Legion parking lot was full to the brim. After I'd pulled into our driveway I realized that if I had go out again, it would be a tight squeeze getting onto the street.

I know nothing about kick boxing, but it sure must have its adherents. Some of our other neighbors are really hemmed in, though, should they need to get out. And, I wonder, where is the Legion putting all these people.

Once again a new sign

This is a story which just will not go away. I've written about the exit only sign at the northwest side of the American Legion a couple of times lately. The first time was November 1st when I noticed a new sign at that spot had been hit and was leaning badly after being hit by someone exiting the parking lot. The second time was shortly thereafter when the replacement sign was again hit by someone turning out.

Yesterday I noticed another brand new sign at this spot and the sign itself is huge it can't be missed, but the post is still too close to the edge of the driveway and the red lettering faces out, leaving more gray. Will it stop being hit? Maybe. It's very cloudy today and the main road is gray and someone turning right out of there may be more fixated on the traffic rather than the sign.

We don't like the word Diet

According to those who pay attention to what is on grocery store shelves, diet soda is disappearing. Now this stopped me since although I do not buy or drink diet soda, I know many people do. And, much shelf space has been given over to diet sodas.

So how can this be? Actually it is not true, but cultural food observers found that: "the word "diet" has fallen out of fashion — especially for Millennials and Gen Z-ers. "Younger people just don't like the word 'diet."

Well alright then. So what has taken the place of all that diet soda? Nothing. Nothing has changed except the name. That younger adult generation is still drinking it but in cans or bottles labeled "zero". Coke Zero is just diet Coke under a new name. Others in the zero club are Canada Dry and Schweppes ginger ales, 7Up, A&W and Sunkist. Pepsi brought out Pepsi Zero Sugar some years ago.  About the only soda company still using the word diet is Dr. Pepper.

As for me, they have have their zero's. It's the original Coke for me, found only in 12 ounce glass bottles and made with real sugar like it was through most of its history until the infatuation with corn syrup came along. Hard to find and when you find a store which sells the 4 bottle cartons, they are too often sold out.

Spoil Dogs much?

This is a pretty crazy invention. Dog Leggings. I can't even imagine the effort it would take to get these onto a dog.