Pointlessly specific everyday items.

Adhamh

This has been bothering me for a while. There's just too much stuff which everone uses without seeming to realise how pointless it is. Stuff that has a clear use, but the necessity for which didn't exist until the item itself was invented. I mean...

1. Kettles. Why not just boil the water on the hob? Do you really need a whole appliance just to boil water? A Spanish chick once told me that when Spaniards visit here and the UK, they buy each other kettles as gifts and souvenirs, because apparently they don't use them back home.

2. Toasters. Why would you require a specific appliance to do a sh!ttier job than the grill does, especially when most people would eat toast perhaps every other day? I have never gotten a well done, evenly toasted slice from a toaster and it's only when I stopped using it that I realised how daft it is. Understandable if it's in a restaurant or somewhere that needs to churn out toast lots but in a domestic situation, this is plain wierd.

3. Eggcups. Eggcups.

4. Those stick things that dog walkers use to pick up tennis balls with and then use them throw for the dog to fetch. Fair enough for old people who're frail and can't bend over, but I've only ever seen young people use them. You already have one, it's called your arm.

Is there anything else to add to the list?

starbelgrade

Adhamh wrote: »

1. Kettles. Why not just boil the water on the hob?

2. Toasters.

3. Eggcups. Eggcups.

Kettles & toasters are great time savers.

And how would you eat a soft boiled egg without an egg cup?

Saila

welcome to modern times, how was it in the plains of africa

What an age to be alive!!

Celly Smunt

make up,smelly horrible paste.

krudler

cutlery, just pick stuff up with your hands and eat it that way, then lick the plate clean, saves on taps, washing up liquid, tea towels...

o1s1n

Shoe horns.

phasers

Are you from the 19th Century or something?

Kettles safely boil water and you don't have to hover over it because they turn off when the water boils. Same deal with toasters and bread.

Eggcups make perfect sense, what don't you get about them?

Those stick things let you throw further without wrenching your shoulder and save you from bending over umpteen times.

Seriously...

Chuck Stone

They are all ubiquitous household appliances exactly because they are usefull.

Now put on the damn kettle and make me some tea and sammiches.

jaykay74

All those different pasta shapes. For the love of jebus isn't one shape enough. Don't get me started on different colour pasta

starbelgrade

o1s1n wrote: »

Shoe horns.

I find shoe horns very handy for beeping at other pedestrians who are in the way.

mikemac

SUV's.
Fair enough if own horses or maybe pull a boat on a a trailer.

But if the biggest off-road excursion is mounting the footpath outside your brats school, then it's pointless.

Agricola

Tin openers. Just stab the can with a large knife, or use your teeth.

phasers

jaykay74 wrote: »

All those different pasta shapes. For the love of jebus isn't one shape enough. Don't get me started on different colour pasta

Spaghetti is useless in a carbonara, you need a good tagliatelle or some penne at a push

stupidusername

pmcmahon wrote: »

make up,smelly horrible paste.

I'm sure there's many a female you wouldn't agree it's pointless for :pac:

starbelgrade

jaykay74 wrote: »

All those different pasta shapes. For the love of jebus isn't one shape enough. Don't get me started on different colour pasta

There are different size pastas to suit different types of sauces - in general, light sauces go better with thin pastas & heavier sauces are carried better by heavier pastas.

Pastas are also coloured to add flavour - for example, black pasta is coloured by squid ink.

However, none of this really makes much difference unless you are cooking with freshly made pasta, as the dried stuff is all pretty much the same & usually made with cheap ingredients.

Snakeblood

jaykay74 wrote: »

All those different pasta shapes. For the love of jebus isn't one shape enough. Don't get me started on different colour pasta

My partner is Italian. The different shapes have different textures etc. Like if you get the shell pasta, you can make a sauce with peas. The pea then tends to stick inside the pasta, with delicious flavour for all. not going to do that with spaghetti. The Penne catches more sauce than spaghetti does.

Although I agree with you . IT MAKES NO ****ING SENSE.

twistedsoul

have to get one of these toasters !

http://www.epinions.com/reviews/hmgd-Toasters-Dualit-Combi_Toaster

punk77

Adhamh wrote: »

1. Kettles. Why not just boil the water on the hob ?

2. Toasters.

3. Eggcups. Eggcups.

4. Can-openers. Why not use your teeth!

* apologies Agricola,you got there ahead of me. Damn!*

Saila

twistedsoul wrote: »

have to get one of these toasters !

http://www.epinions.com/reviews/hmgd-Toasters-Dualit-Combi_Toaster

with crumb tray :eek:, just leave holes in the bottom and rest it on a fresh clean bin

Thoie

Kettles and toasters are generally more energy efficient than the alternatives at least.

The ones I'd question are things like

• electric can openers (unless you have an infirmity),
• special things for poaching eggs in (which never do as good a job as a pot of boiling water)
• remote controls for switching off lights
• remote controls for opening your car
• The Fat Magnet (which doesn't work on your hips unfortunately)
• I don't even know what this is.
• A thing designed to make your stomach sweat, for no discernible reason.

mikemac

Microwaves with over twenty different buttons and options. First microwave we owned cost over four hundred punts which was a hell of a lot of money at the time. You can get a microwave for sixty euro these days.

Does anyone actually use all those buttons and options?
Just a dial for time and a dial for power is all most anyone needs.

There was a time about twenty years ago when you could do night courses on using a microwave. Anyone remember these?

_feedback_

krudler wrote: »

cutlery, just pick stuff up with your hands and eat it that way, then lick the plate clean, saves on taps, washing up liquid, tea towels...

a plate? Ah, will ya go away outta that!

JustAddWater

A box of matches...

Just carry 2 rocks with you and bang them together when you want to light your cigarette

Snakeblood

Ice cube trays. What's wrong with holding water in our cupped hands, while standing in a freezer?

4leto

If you want you can use your hob to toast a piece of bread and boil a cup of water, but the increase in your lecky would be enough to buy 2 toasters and 3 kettles.

Kettles and toasters are efficient at doing those purposes and a lot cheaper in the long term, there is nothing pointless about them.

jaykay74

Snakeblood wrote: »

Ice cube trays. What's wrong with holding water in our cupped hands, while standing in a freezer?

Its cold and you wont fit in the freezer..... Unless of course you get a big freezer and a jacket/gloves/hat/scarf. Then it might work.

seamus

The fncking world would stop revolving without kettles and toasters. Breakfast would take twice as long in the morning, and there'd no longer be any such thing as a "quick cuppa".

When I need hot water, I actually boil it in the kettle first before transferring it into the pot on the cooker. The kettle uses energy much more efficiently so heats up quicker and more cheaply than using the hob.

OK, I can understand that if you've owned a succession of cheap and crappy toasters, you might think of getting along OK without them. But a kettle? The kettle is the lifeblood of the Irish workforce. Our very survival depends on being able to click on the kettle and enjoy a nice hot cuppa 300 seconds later.

Celly Smunt

jaykay74 wrote: »

Its cold and you wont fit in the freezer..... Unless of course you get a big freezer and a jacket/gloves/hat/scarf. Then it might work.

reminds me of playing tomb raider and locking the butler in the freezer.

mikemac

I don't want to touch the soap dispenser, the button may have germs.

Luckily the dettol dispensor has a sensor so I can avoid this, hurray

Though it doesn't give me a lot of confidence in Dettol's product. If your product is effective then pushing the button shouldn't matter at all

4leto

Why have a hob at all when we can light a fire.

Peep O'Day

pfft yeah and don't get me started on cars, i mean what's happened to just using the old pony and trap? ludicrous invention

punk77

Pyramid-shaped tea-bags. Essential. Tea never tasted so good. LOL.

foxyboxer

Cufflinks. Rosary Beads. Mechanical watches. Jewellery in general.

4leto

And what are airplanes about what was wrong with boats and do we really need phones what was wrong with a letter.

Peep O'Day

foxyboxer wrote: »

Cufflinks. Mechanical watches. Jewellry in general.

exactly! such a waste of money when a simple sun-dial will do the trick

Peep O'Day

Peep O'Day wrote: »

exactly! such a waste of money when a simple sun-dial will do the trick

and while im at it, there's another one: Money! Such a waste of ehhh... time, when you can just use barter for whatever you need

punk77

Electricity! Surely tis the Devil's invention.

4leto

Adhamh wrote: »

This has been bothering me for a while. There's just too much stuff which everone uses without seeming to realise how pointless it is. Stuff that has a clear use, but the necessity for which didn't exist until the item itself was invented. I mean...

1. Kettles. Why not just boil the water on the hob? Do you really need a whole appliance just to boil water? A Spanish chick once told me that when Spaniards visit here and the UK, they buy each other kettles as gifts and souvenirs, because apparently they don't use them back home.

2. Toasters. Why would you require a specific appliance to do a sh!ttier job than the grill does, especially when most people would eat toast perhaps every other day? I have never gotten a well done, evenly toasted slice from a toaster and it's only when I stopped using it that I realised how daft it is. Understandable if it's in a restaurant or somewhere that needs to churn out toast lots but in a domestic situation, this is plain wierd.

3. Eggcups. Eggcups.

4. Those stick things that dog walkers use to pick up tennis balls with and then use them throw for the dog to fetch. Fair enough for old people who're frail and can't bend over, but I've only ever seen young people use them. You already have one, it's called your arm.

Is there anything else to add to the list?

Stupid threads do we really need them, I mean why not just start a good thread.

kylith

phasers wrote: »

Those stick things let you throw further without wrenching your shoulder and save you from bending over umpteen times.

Seriously...

Not to mention how horrible a tennis ball is when coverd with mud and slobber. Plus you can throw further with the ball launcher.

Standard Toaster

iPads

lazygal

I can sail through life without a candwich: http://markonefoods.com/

Ghandee

Toilet roll!

God above gave us shovel-like hands for a reason!

Ghandee

Standard Toaster wrote: »

iPads

Ladies use these on Japanese flag week though

foxyboxer

"...and here I am using my lungs like a sucker :mad:"

MistyCheese

This new-fangled Boards.ie thingy. I can't get my head around it at all. Why was it even changed? What was wrong with the Boards.ie of yore?

There's probably a poster or two knocking around now who weren't even born yet back in those days.

*leans back in rocking chair and turns up Classic FM

stupidusername

MistyCheese wrote: »

This new-fangled Boards.ie thingy. I can't get my head around it at all. Why was it even changed? What was wrong with the Boards.ie of yore?

There's probably a poster or two knocking around now who weren't even born yet back in those days.

*leans back in rocking chair and turns up Classic FM

wow that looks way better than this version! can we go back to that!?

MistyCheese

stupidusername wrote: »

wow that looks way better than this version! can we go back to that!?

It even takes a while to load. Just like in the old days. For added realism you can play the old dial-up sound while you wait.

mikemac

Colonic irrigation

Inventing something we managed perfectly well without for centuries

Honey-ec

This is turning into a Viz Top Tips thread.

"Don't waste money buying expensive binoculars. Simply stand closer to the object you wish to view."

4leto

Anyway I want a cup of tea, so I am going out my back, to chop some kindling, then I will rub 2 sticks together to get the fire started. Then I will go down to the local stream fill a pot with water, then I will boil it, and throw a teabag in the pot.

Like cups who needs them.