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From
Clocks to Recipes
by Peary Perry | |
Besides
root canals (which I’ve never had) the two times of the year that really hack
me are the times when you have to change your clocks to adjust everything for
daylight savings time. I can’t remember if the one we do in the fall is to put
us into daylight savings or to take us out of it.
I just know it’s a big
pain in my rear. When I was growing up, I think we had one alarm clock and then
another one over the stove or oven or whatever you call it. Today we have a clock
everywhere. The television has one. The thermostats have one, the microwave has
one, the stereo has one, the oven and alarm systems have one. The cameras have
one, the DVD has one …and on and on. And then we have the ones in the cars. You
used to be able to just turn a knob to reset the ones in the car, but now you
have to have a degree from M.I.T. or get a kid to show you how to push four buttons
at the same time to adjust the time.
I tried keeping count of the clocks
I had changed and finally gave up when I started getting mad and disgusted at
the time I was spending on this activity. And just think I won’t have to do it
again for almost six months or so. Tell me these are labor saving.
This
got me to thinking about all of the so called new inventions that are supposed
to make our lives easier, but in fact actually make it more difficult. Take for
instance the tape that provides the security for a cd. By the time you get the
sticky stuff off the top of the plastic case and your fingers you’ve lost the
mood to play the thing for any reason. The tape sticks to you like a small piece
of plastic that holds on your fingers by static electricity. You just can’t shake
it off. You see people going down the highway shaking their fingers…..it’s that
plastic. You could buy illegal cd’s….one good thing about those is that they don’t
have all of that sticky stuff to contend with. Of course there can be major issues
with buying those as well, such as having a blank disc with zero music on it.
Can’t take’em back for a refund can you? You pays your money and you takes your
chances.
Another great pieces of modern day technology are those plastic
cases surrounding just about anything I want to buy. Need a printer cartridge?
Inside of one of those hard plastic shells. Need a software program for your computer?
Inside of one of those hard plastic shells. Need some pens or pencils? Guess what?
Get that pair of shears out so you can open the package and use whatever it is
that you’ve bought. I’d bet the packaging costs more than the product in a lot
of these things. I’ve got garden shears that won’t cut these boxes open. You have
to almost use a blow torch or something equally as drastic to get your stuff out.
I bet the landfills are full of brand new things because someone got disgusted
and gave up and just threw the thing away. More trouble than it’s worth. I can
relate to this. You probably can as well.
My
last point for this week concerns recipes. I’m not sure how I made the move from
daylight savings time to recipes, but it happened anyway. I love to cook and get
a lot of the things I cook from the internet. No problem unless they call for
some ingredient that you’ve never heard of or can buy in our part of the world.
Examples of these are: Ads iswid? Daikon, Zafrig. These sound more like exotic
diseases rather than food items.
Even worse than this would be the instructions
for cooking something you can’t find down at the local supermarket….try this one
on for size…. Cut the flippers off from the oogruk. Put the flippers in fresh
blubber. Let them stay there for about two weeks. Take the loose fur off the flipper.
Then
what? I’ll pass on cooking this one up. Don’t expect to see it at my house. One
more thing…is it just me or why is there such a shortage of shredded Swiss cheese?
Is it against the law to shred this stuff or what? Ten or fifteen kinds of every
other cheeses but not but one of Swiss. What’s with that?
I’m done for
this week, found another couple of clocks that need changing.
©
Peary Perry
Comments go to pperry@austin.rr.com
Letters
From North America - November 12, 2009 column
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