So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Tiki Tom]

A common comment you’ll hear from Americans is that Germans tend to “over engineer” things. Meaning, I guess, that things are designed and built too well or too sturdily for their anticipated use/lifespan, and are therefore too expensive. This quickly bleeds into a discussion of America’s throw away culture vs Germany’s obsession with precision. I used to sense (based on no exact information) that both cultures were lazily drifting towards each other… meaning that Americans are not quite as “disposable “ as they used to be, and Germans are relaxing their standards a bit. Not sure if this is true. Just an idea that I sometimes played with.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Here in Hawaii, have been awakened by premature 4th of July fireworks being shot off for at least the last three nights.

 

[Touchofevil]

It starts while it is still light outside and continues through the night until, I assume, they either run out, go to sleep, pass out, get arrested, or set something on fire.

 

[tonyb]

Most of the municipal fireworks shows around here are cancelled on account of the dry conditions.

Fireworks of any sort are banned in this city. But you’d never know it judging from what you see and hear throughout this blessed burg.

 

[ChrisB]

Legalizing fireworks was one of the stupidest in a long series of stupid decisions made in my state during the 2010s. Just ask that drunken fool up the County who tried to launch a rocket off the top of his head. Happy Fourth!

Contender for the Darwin award.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

When comments on a Facebook page come in so fast and furious that it causes it to bog down or even crash. Same with clickbait articles that are so loaded with ads.

Then in the case of the latter there's an ad after every paragraph with nearly half the content being tangential filler that really isn't very germaine to the story or topic.

 

[Trenchfriend]

A common comment you’ll hear from Americans is that Germans tend to “over engineer” things. Meaning, I guess, that things are designed and built too well or too sturdily for their anticipated use/lifespan, and are therefore too expensive. This quickly bleeds into a discussion of America’s throw away culture vs Germany’s obsession with precision. I used to sense (based on no exact information) that both cultures were lazily drifting towards each other… meaning that Americans are not quite as “disposable “ as they used to be, and Germans are relaxing their standards a bit. Not sure if this is true. Just an idea that I sometimes played with.

Made in Germany products are crap, in general, since the 2000s.
Our old West-Germans can exactly differ between three eras, especially kitchen devices. They say, the kitchen devices from the 60s were strong and built for half a lifetime. The ones from the 80s were still old school reliable, but not more so super longlasting. But the stuff since the 2000s is much more cheaper made and not reliable, too.
If you're clever, you just hold on the simple metal Moka pot.

 

[Edward]

When comments on a Facebook page come in so fast and furious that it causes it to bog down or even crash. Same with clickbait articles that are so loaded with ads.

Then in the case of the latter there's an ad after every paragraph with nearly half the content being tangential filler that really isn't very germaine to the story or topic.

I hate those stories about cute animals and such that lure you in with an intriguing headline, but then instead of the link taking you to a page that has the whole story in one place, it spreads a 100-word item across a dozen links, each one covered in not only ads, but ads with all sorts of misleading links designed to look like they are taking you to the next part... TBH, if I realise I've opened a story like that I now *always* close it immediately without following, on principle. The clickstream data on these things is always harvested, so if enough of us do that, the format will die out....


eBay is winding me up something shocking now. It's okay to buy from, but selling has become massively awkward. The culture of buyers it has created is not pleasant either: everyone seems to think you are a business, and expects everything posted out immediately. No mercy for any seller who has a job that goes mad for a couple of days, or gets ill, or lives in a city where all the (inevitably privatised) post offices close at 5pm on a Friday and don't reopen until Monday.... or all of the above. Ebay has certainly proven ever more successful in diving out the smalltime seller. They better hope that no other platform comes along and hammers them in the pro-sales market, because they've alienated so much of their original seller base.

 

[tonyb]

Made in Germany products are crap, in general, since the 2000s.
Our old West-Germans can exactly differ between three eras, especially kitchen devices. They say, the kitchen devices from the 60s were strong and built for half a lifetime. The ones from the 80s were still old school reliable, but not more so super longlasting. But the stuff since the 2000s is much more cheaper made and not reliable, too.
If you're clever, you just hold on the simple metal Moka pot.

You’ve touched upon a matter we’ve discussed here before: consumer goods that used to be durable seem anything but these days.

I’d guess that most of us here are old enough to have firsthand recollections of fix-it shops, places where you could take your toaster or stand mixer or whatever when it went on the fritz. These days it’s generally true that it’s less expensive to just toss the thing and buy a new one.

As recently as 15 years ago or so there was such a shop in the neighborhood where I lived at the time. But no one I knew ever sent any business its way, and I can’t recall ever seeing anyone but the shopkeeper in the place. Maybe it was a front?

 

[tonyb]

Legalizing fireworks was one of the stupidest in a long series of stupid decisions made in my state during the 2010s. Just ask that drunken fool up the County who tried to launch a rocket off the top of his head. Happy Fourth!

 

[Turnip]

Couldn’t confirm that, I’m very sorry.
After refurbishing our house about 20 years ago we replaced all „white ware“ such as washing machine, heat pump dryer, vacuum cleaner (all Miele) kitchen electronics such as fridge, freezer, oven, stove and dishwasher (all Bosch). All stuff purchased at, delivered and installed by a local dealer downtown. They also removed and dumped the packaging and the old, replaced machinery.
The predecessors ran about 20 years without fault and so do the replacements meanwhile.
Miele white ware is designed to last 20 years minimum and to be repairable, should a bug occur, you’ll also get all necessary spare parts during that slot.
Similar with hand working machinery like the (blue) Bosch professional hand machine line, Fein machinery has no other than professional line or semi-heavy mechanical machinery like Alzmetall, Gillardon, Gildemeister, Trumpf, hand tools from Gedore, Hazet…period.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
New appliances are gee-whiz in some ways. They’re much more features-loaded than the stuff made way back when. And I’ve yet to hear anyone with an induction cooktop offer anything but positive commentary about it.

Still, a 20-year lifespan for a major appliance is hardly a selling point in my book. I had a 1920s-vintage “monitor top” General Electric refrigerator that was still chugging along fine when I sold it some years back. (I still kick myself for ever parting with it.) I’d bet it’s working still.

Many now elderly people are cooking on stoves older than they are. My 1930s-vintage Sunbeam T9 toaster was getting kinda finicky (I’m confident it would be repairable by the sort of fix-it shop I alluded to above) so it’s now on a shelf in the basement utility room. My genuine made-in-Milwaukee Oster “beehive” blender, which I’m guessing is 60 years old or so (I found it in a thrift shop) works fine. The new Cuisinart brand blender my wife bought maybe a decade ago quit working after maybe five years.

I found a vintage KitchenAid stand mixer in a thrift store several years ago. Paid 50 bucks for it. I’m not sure of its vintage, beyond knowing it predates 1985, because it wears the Hobart brand and Hobart sold its home appliances division to Whirlpool in that year.

 

[Turnip]

I’ve got an approx. 70 yo wood/coal fired cooking machine (four ring-fields, oven and water boiler) that is quite unloaded with features and an approx. 10 years younger, four plated and coal/wood fired oven/stove combi, already in compacrt white design, daily used in our families households and not from a thrift store with unclear use.
In my book they may have a way longer life than most electrical devices but I only keep them for nostalgic reasons and in case gas or oil should run short. Too uncomfortable, too dirty (for me).
Our ancestors were happy getting rid of them by the way, especially the women who had the daily grind with these devices, not just for sentiments.

 

[Bushman]

View attachment 436656

When my dept head wished us a happy 4th on Friday, he told us not to blow off our fingers or else he'd have to transfer us somewhere else. XD

 

[tonyb]

I’ve got an approx. 70 yo wood/coal fired cooking machine (four ring-fields, oven and water boiler) that is quite unloaded with features and an approx. 10 years younger, four plated and coal/wood fired oven/stove combi, already in compacrt white design, daily used in our families households and not from a thrift store with unclear use.
In my book they may have a way longer life than most electrical devices but I only keep them for nostalgic reasons and in case gas or oil should run short. Too uncomfortable, too dirty (for me).
Our ancestors were happy getting rid of them by the way, especially the women who had the daily grind with these devices, not just for sentiments.

I and several people of my acquaintance burned wood as a primary heat source for several years, as recently as c. 1995.

It was messy. It was dirty. It was a PITA, a much greater PITA than any electric or natural gas appliance I’ve ever used, whatever its vintage.

 

[tonyb]

“Age is just a number.”

People I actually like, capable adults, not notably unintelligent adults, have uttered that phrase.

And it’s pure horse doo-doo.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are really only two viable home-heating fuels in my state -- oil, either no. 2 or kerosene, and wood. There is no natural gas service here, and while bottled propane is available in most towns, it doesn't offer any real advange over oil once all the costs are factored in. Electric heat is completely off the table when you consider how completely out of control electric bills are here thanks to our global-conglomerate power company and our bought-and-paid-for utilities commission. Wood has the advantage of being plentiful, but it's labor intensive -- especially if you're old and live alone -- and it's also much more dangerous. It isn't fall in Maine until the chimney fires start.

When I was growing up there were still a few people around burning coal in furnaces, but that was also labor-intensive, even with a mechanical stoker: somebody had to clean out and carry away the ashes. There are still a few coal stoves around, but given the choice most stove-heat people prefer wood.

Right now I have no idea how I'm going to get thru next winter. I'm on a monthly oil-payment plan, and that payment has doubled with the start of the new contract in June. My income, however, has not, nor will it, increase accordingly, and I look forward to a winter of 55 degree temperatures and lots of sweaters.

 

[LizzieMaine]

“Age is just a number.”

So is the number of huffing breaths I have to take to get to the top of the stairs.

 

[Zombie_61]

"Illegal fireworks". What a rubbish term. ALL fireworks are illegal here in my home town; yes, even the "safe and sane" kind sold in "legal" temporary stands around the county, because the entire state is currently experiencing the worst drought conditions in recorded history (or so they say on the news).

Still, on the local morning news today they've reported a death caused by, yes, illegal fireworks, two cities west of here. The young news reporter feigned shock as he mentioned the residents in that neighborhood who reported occasional bursts of fireworks all year 'round. Seriously??? Live here for a month, or even a week. Our rather childish neighbors will launch their personally selected explosives into the night sky simply because it's Tuesday, and the local police appear to be powerless to stop it. Give me a ****ing break. I spent approximately nine hours last night just trying to keep our dog calm, even after I'd given him a sedative. And, yes, that's roughly how long the fireworks "show" in our neighborhood lasts on holidays like Independence Day, New Year's Eve, Cinco de Mayo, last Thursday, The Dodgers lost again...

 

[tonyb]

There are really only two viable home-heating fuels in my state -- oil, either no. 2 or kerosene, and wood. There is no natural gas service here, and while bottled propane is available in most towns, it doesn't offer any real advange over oil once all the costs are factored in. Electric heat is completely off the table when you consider how completely out of control electric bills are here thanks to our global-conglomerate power company and our bought-and-paid-for utilities commission. Wood has the advantage of being plentiful, but it's labor intensive -- especially if you're old and live alone -- and it's also much more dangerous. It isn't fall in Maine until the chimney fires start.

When I was growing up there were still a few people around burning coal in furnaces, but that was also labor-intensive, even with a mechanical stoker: somebody had to clean out and carry away the ashes. There are still a few coal stoves around, but given the choice most stove-heat people prefer wood.

Right now I have no idea how I'm going to get thru next winter. I'm on a monthly oil-payment plan, and that payment has doubled with the start of the new contract in June. My income, however, has not, nor will it, increase accordingly, and I look forward to a winter of 55 degree temperatures and lots of sweaters.

Maybe this more belongs in the “you know you’re getting old when” thread, but I strongly suspect it won’t be long until wood as a primary heat source will seem like something straight out of a Wild West tale for most city dwellers.

But Seattle is a city, a pretty good sized one, where it wasn’t at all uncommon as recently as a couple-three decades ago for houses to be heated with woodstoves. The area is blessed by geography and weather to have relatively clean air, but when atmospheric conditions prevent the wind from carrying away the airborne funk, there come directives not to burn wood, the homes with wood as the only adequate heat source excepted.

Now I’m in greater Denver, a locale decidedly NOT blessed with clean air. Like all the houses in this generic suburban subdivision, ours has a fireplace in the living room. I’ve never used it, and doubt I ever will. And my nose rarely picks up the smell of a wood fire anywhere around here.

Air pollution aside, wood as a heating fuel leaves much to be desired. Wood (and/or coal) burning basement furnaces still exist, which provide more or less even heat distribution throughout the structure. The people across the street from our family house were still using one in the early 1970s, but with that exception, in my world it was woodstoves and fireplace inserts.

A nice toasty house with a well-stoked woodstove at 10 p.m. was chilly at 6 a.m., and would be for an hour or so until a fresh fire warmed up the place.

Turning a thermostat is a helluva lot easier.