For many years, when I washed produce in the sink prior to consumption, I’d scrape the little stickers off and allow them to get washed down into the drain trap. This habit irritated the mister exceedingly, and one day he asked why I couldn’t just throw the damn things away.
It was a reasonable complaint, but when engaged in the task of washing produce, I didn’t want to stop that activity, open the door where the trash can is and dispose of the sticker. Nor did I think it likely I could retrain myself to scrape the stickers off prior to washing the produce. Who gives stickers advance thought?
However, in the interest of maintaining marital harmony, I hit upon another solution: I started scraping the stickers off and applying them to the bottle of dish soap that sits on the ledge of the sink. Those bottles get tossed in the recycling anyway; who cares if they’re covered with produce stickers? Problem solved!
I realize this isn’t rocket surgery, but little things that make life easier, well, make life easier. Do you have any to share?
If not, feel free to discuss other topics. Open thread!
Wyatt Derp
Toothpaste makes a great polish for any of your metal surfaces.
Wyatt Derp
also newspaper for cleaning glass. Something in the ink I think.
Corner Stone
I think one that might be tried is when a confirmed effort to hack and change the US presidential elections is identified that information is communicated.
Trabb's Boy
Putting the cat box where the dog can get to it reduces the need to scoop.
SiubhanDuinne
@Wyatt Derp:
Toothpaste is also useful as emergency spackle to fill a small nail hole. White toothpaste, not the sparkly or stripey kind. And toothpaste, not gel.
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
I leave the butter out of the fridge so that it’s always ready for spreading on toast. It doesn’t spoil for weeks unless it’s very hot in the kitchen. The French have a special dish for this with a cover and I think a small compartment for an ice cube, but the ice cube isn’t even necessary.
zhena gogolia
I hate those damn stickers.
Miss Bianca
Can those bottles actually recycle when they are covered with stickers? Our recycle station is quite picky about stuff that isn’t kosher getting mixed in with recyclables.
Mustang Bobby
Dryer sheets like Bounce are great for cleaning the lint off the lint trap. Also, after cooking something odiferous, I put a couple of quarts of water in a sauce pan, add a half-cup of white vinegar and a couple of shots of cinnamon and put it on to boil. Clears the air and adds a nice scent in the bargain.
Bess
@La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes):
I’ve been using a butter dish like this one (but a different decoration on the cover) for almost 40 years. I’ve never had butter go bad even when I’ve been away from home for three months.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I have a list of things that I want to do to improve my life or who I am. I don’t even vaguely have the energy to work on all of them, so I try to keep it prioritized and make progress on one at a time.
For a while, getting to the gym four days a week was at the top of the list, largely out of hope that it would provide more energy for the rest of them. I had that largely accomplished a few months ago. I thought that meant that getting my writing going again was at the top of the list. It turns out that my subconscious had other plans, and had moved getting to the gym 6-7 days a week to the top. I’ve been doing that for more than a month now. (And still hating every fucking minute of it.)
So, *now* I’m hoping that writing again is at the top of the list. We’ll see. I’m still lacking short story ideas, and the novel idea that is closest to being ready still has some large holes in it, namely that I haven’t been able to get the plot that the protagonist is investigating to make any sense. I can’t get the pieces to fit together.
By the way, for those of you who were hoping, “Be less of an asshole” would be at the top of the list, I think I have that scheduled for sometime around 2023.
Bess
@SiubhanDuinne:
Saved me from a large repainting bill when my roommate and I moved out of our dorm room. Art major roomie had filled the walls with small holes – a year’s worth of changing “latest sketches”.
The room next door was not as fortunate. Their repair job with peanut butter did not pass the inspection.
Lapassionara
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: sounds to me like your novel plot is just like our lives right now.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne:
Funny you should mention that. I did the same thing last year. It worked great, dried and sealed, but it attracted a herd of little black ants.
Which made me wonder if that particular brand of toothpaste used sugar as its “natural flavor” ingredient. I wouldn’t put it past them.
Lee
Here is something interesting to chew on: my wife has a client that is an attorney in Plano Texas. Apparently she is going to be in DC next week. The reason this came to light is that she interrupted a call with my wife with ‘I’ve got to go Trump is on the other line’. Now she is boarding he animal for (at least) the next week.
Looks like he is having to cast his net pretty far to get someone to work for him.
germy
Some say catnip is a natural flea repellent. I don’t know if this is true or not.
germy
Dishwashing liquid poured into the toilet is heavier than water, and its degreasing properties will loosen whatever is blocking the trap. Let it sit for a few hours then add hot (not too hot) water.
Olivia
@SiubhanDuinne: There is sparkly toothpaste???
Steeplejack
Cash money is helpful for fixing a lot of problems.
germy
My wife grew potatoes in a laundry basket outside. Filled it with good soil. When it came time to harvest, shook the soil out and voilà.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Steeplejack: Ha!
“When choosing parents, look for rich people, preferably flabby who don’t believe in exercise”
– from a book propozal on how to suxeed @ lyfe, by Eric Ivan Trump, with a forward by Megan McCain
ETA: @germy: dammit, if I weren’t on a diet that forbids potatoes… maybe if I plant the laundry basket today, I’ll have lost the weight by harvest time. And I do hate doing laundry.
Olivia
I saw an ad for a miraculous stainless steel bar that you keep at your kitchen sink and rub your hands with it to remove the smell after you have been handling onion or garlic. Nobody needs to spend money to do this because any stainless steel will do. My mom showed me that trick when I was a kid. Just rub your hands over a table knife blade under running water and the odor is gone. If you have a stainless steel sink, you can just turn on the water and rub your hands on the sink.
germy
@Steeplejack: I don’t know. I’ve paid lots of cash money over the years to contractors, and the stuff they fixed fell apart again (usually after three or four months). And then they wouldn’t take my calls.
debbie
@Wyatt Derp:
And without streaks! Great for the inside of the windshield.
Elmo
@La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes): we used to use one of the kind with water, but discovered that our well water was making the butter go bad before it would if we just left the butter out. So now the butter just stays out (but in a cupboard, because if we left it on the counter the Anatolian – 34″ at the shoulder -will get a bonus.)
Edited to fix forgotten parentheses
germy
@debbie: I first heard of that from a British woman. She said they all use newspapers to clean glass in the U.K.
She was also disgusted by our healthcare system (this was about twenty years ago).
Steeplejack
@germy:
Helpful but maybe not always sufficient.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
Do you wet the glass or newspaper, or just use the naked paper?
Olivia
@germy: I grew potatoes like that and my mom yelled at me “How lazy can you get?” Apparently, there is only value in potatoes you have to strain your back for.
schrodingers_cat
@Wyatt Derp: Especially silver.
SiubhanDuinne
@Olivia:
There certainly used to be. Can’t remember the brand name. Maybe they took it off the market. I think it was white paste with little blue and green sparkles all through it.
ETA: A little googling tells me it was called Gleem. That sounds right.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I put them on my kitteh’s heads they hate and try to remove them. It is hilarious to watch.
Alabama Blue Dot
@Olivia: I use a spoon-it’s even vaguely the same shape as the high priced gadget.
Olivia
@SiubhanDuinne: I need to do research on that and see if I can get some.
Another Scott
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: NPR interview with Jack LaLanne:
Getting over the “I hate it” to the other side and “but I like the results” is tough. Congratulations for sticking with it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Spanky
After 7 months of blissful quiet, my inbox is once again getting Tea Party fundraising blasts.
A small sample:
Et cetera, et cetera. The others from the last day and a half were about that odious, devious Barack Obama who, if my memory is correct, holds no position of power in DC.
Or does he? (Cue dramatic music.)
So my question is, what caused a sudden all-hands-on-deck reaction? The WaPo article? I’m thinking not, but maybe it’s had a bigger splash than I assumed outside the BJ bubble.
(Did you catch the “President-Elect” in there? Engaging in a little recycling here.)
Steeplejack
One kind of nerdy thing that I have found very useful is the so-called “hipster PDA.” I use half-sized index cards (half of 3" by 5") and a very small clip. I carry that and a Fisher Space Pen in my pocket all the time. Surprising how often it comes in handy.
Ruviana
I am told that the stickers are edible but I’ve never been tempted to test that assertion.
Sebastian
@Steeplejack:
Just the paper. This is an old car detailing trick. If your windows are really greasy you might want to use some cleaner first, a little will go a long way. Finish it with dry newspaper, all the streaks will be gone.
Jim Bales
Our life revolves around the weekly calendar scheduling pad that lives on the fridge
https://m.erincondren.com/schedule-pad
Garbo
My well water leaves a ring/stain in the toilet at the water line (scale, I guess) that I was having to scrub away with a pumice stone. Had the idea to wipe a thin film of petroleum jelly around bowl at the water line, and no more ring!
Snoopy
OH. MY. GOD.
My wife peels the stickers off, but she sticks them to the counter NEXT TO the trash can.
I want to battle this, but the ditch I’m going to die in is whether the car keys should be put away in the refrigerator.
Steeplejack
And I highly recommend David Allen’s system and book Getting Things Done.
germy
@Ruviana:
They pass harmlessly through the esophagus and stomach and lodge permanently in the duodenum.
schrodingers_cat
I save glass bottles to keep my dry spices (buy them in bulk from the Indian grocery store) and plastic coffee canisters for grains, beans and legumes and then I label them.
Major Major Major Major
Today I learned on facebook that lefties really hate Randy Bryce, the guy running against Paul Ryan, and believe that No True Lefty could ever like Louise Mensch.
indycat32
Wait, what? I’m supposed to be washing my produce??
Oatler.
Put produce stickers on husband’s TV remote. If that doesn’t teach him the value of silence nothing will.
schrodingers_cat
Question about the house for the hive mind.
Do I need a basement dehumidifer? Humidity is about 70% right now and the past few days have been extraordinarily muggy. Any recommendations of specific brands would also be appreciated.
ruemara
I add the stickers to the compost bin and I don’t mind. I exercise 6x a week, 3 1.5 to 2 hr weight and aerobic workouts, then 3 aerobic mental health breaks. The hack is, live in the town you work in and only be a nice 4 miles from everything. Plus have nothing else in your life. Vinegar spray for mirrors and glass, coconut flour & cauliflower for lo carb/paleo baking and don’t require the President and Congress tell you what any reasonable person paying attention to a fat demagogue with shady connections has been displaying for all of his fucking life to understand not to vote for him. The simple basics.
Another Scott
@germy: Food stickers are going the way of the dial-up phone and last-minute flights. TheGuardian:
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who heard about the newspaper trick from Heloise decades ago…”)
Iowa Old Lady
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Your kindness to me at Fourth Street suggests you may need to polish up the assholery, not tone it down.
Major Major Major Major
My momma taught me that when you’re cooking you always have a trash can or disposal container of some kind on the floor next to your prep surfaces. Really saves everybody a lot of trouble.
Olivia
@schrodingers_cat: If your basement is finished, you should have one. If the basement isn’t finished it will keep it from getting mildewy smelling. We bought a Danby from Costco. We had a GE but it was very noisy. The Danby is much quieter and we are happy with it. It keeps the basement humidity at about 40-45%.
Gelfling 545
@germy: My niece’s in-laws are from Germany. They came here about 30 years ago for her f-i-l’s job. They were, and continue to be, appalled by the state of health care here. Why, they ask, would people want a system like this?
Redshift
@Steeplejack:
I agree. The explanation of the psychology of how unfinished tasks make you feel stressed was very helpful.
My only problem with it if that I’m a little too good at tricking my brain into letting things go. I put things on my to-do list, which works for letting me not think about them, but unfortunately it works even if I never look at my to-do list. (Well, unfortunate for getting things done, though still fortunate for reducing stress.)
schrodingers_cat
Another hack: Use a coffee grinder to grind spices. I have two coffee grinders, one for coffee and another one for spices.
Redshift
@Another Scott:
Yeah, we’ll see. I read about that several years ago, and was looking forward to it. Maybe it’ll actually take hold this time, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve seen a number of Indian-Americans do this but I don’t think any other group, oddly enough.
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: Dehumidifiers can make a huge difference in the comfort of your basement (and house). I have one running all the time in our basement, and another one on the main floor (used for a few hours on very humid days) and a third upstairs (ditto). I don’t use them all the time, but our AC doesn’t run very often so the humidity builds up.
Aiming for 40% relative humidity is a good number, but it can be hard to hit that unless it runs continuously (depending on the source of the water in the air, of course).
I got our latest ones at Lowe’s (Hisense) a few weeks ago. Our basement one before that was a Frigidaire. I think they’re all made in China now – probably at the same factory – almost independent of brand name stuck on the outside (with a few exceptions). Don’t expect them to last more than a few years if they run continuously (the pipes corrode and the freon leaks out), but maybe you’ll get lucky.
HTH a bit.
Cheers,
Scott.
SFBayAreaGal
For clogged drains, pour baking soda, salt, and white vinegar down the drain, let stand for 5 minutes then pour boiling hot water down drain. Repeat if needed. It really works.
Quinerly
@Trabb’s Boy:
Poco gives that one 4 paws up! ? ?
efgoldman
@Miss Bianca:
Dirty (so to speak) little secret about all the stuff you so carefully separate out and put in the recycle bins: Most of it just sits in piles at the dump because there’s no (or not enough) use for it.
And the stuff that’s really valuable to the recyclers (electronics, esp circuit boards)? They CHARGE YOU (at least around here) a fee for the privilege of dropping them off. Can’t even put an old TV out at the curb. $25 a pop!
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Ground spices like pepper, coriander and cumin lose potency fairly rapidly, freshly ground spices make the difference between a mediocre or a spectacular final outcome for a recipe.
IAs probably consume more spices per capita than any other group?
ETA: A mortar and a pestle is just not that efficient for dry spices, plus it would take forever.
dww44
@Lee: I’m intrigued.Your friend’s client must really be a Trumpite if she personally gets phone calls from der fueher himself. Any idea what the client’s field of expertise is?
efgoldman
@germy:
Did you rub yourself all over with catnip? Did you get fleas?
There you go! Actual science you can do right in your own home.
Spanky
@schrodingers_cat:
Definitely. Then when the coffee grinder dies on you when you’re in dire need of coffee you can use the one that had been grinding spices. Wipe it out first, of course, but it’s surprising how little taste carries over from the spices.
Most every dehumidifier I’ve had ended up vibrating against the case sooner or later. Never had Olivia’s Danby, though.
Steeplejack
@Redshift:
Always a few kinks in the system. My problem sometimes is getting started on breaking down a big project into the little “what’s the next thing to do?” steps.
What I have found helpful is to separate “planning” Steep from “doing” Steep.
“Okay, here’s how it should be done. Glad I don’t have to do it!”
“What idiot came up with this list?! Oh, well, better get started. This first little item doesn’t look too bad.”
schrodingers_cat
@Another Scott: What about the size. I am looking through some on my computer and they have different capacities.
My basement is unfinished with a concrete floor. Right now we just have some cardboard boxes, a small fridge and the washer and dryer besides the oil tank and the water heater.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat:
Particularly of the kind you described, yeah. I’ve seen professional chefs recommend it too but the only “man on the street” types have been IA’s.
p.a.
If you have a double sink drape a wet towel over the divider. It can save drops from damage and makes a reasonably stable work surface for heavy duty scrubbing.
If your local dollar store etc has the small sized rubber/plastic sink bottom protectors (the ones w/o a hole for the drain) they make a nice fridge fruit and veggie bin liner; keeps food off the bottom and helps prevent bruising. Or buy larger and cut to size.
Uncle Cosmo
@Olivia: So stainless steel is the gimmick? I picked up an ovoid years ago at a Japanese-American dollar store somewhere near San Mateo that’s supposed to do the same thing. Made of stainless steel, natch. Now if there were somethng to get rid of garlic breath….
@germy: I pour half a cup of dishwashing liquid into a slow drain & follow it with a couple of quarts of boiling water. Does the trick a lot cheaper than even generic liquid-plumber.
Fruit-fly infestation? Cut off the top of an empty 2L soda bottle about 1″ below the “shoulder”, fill the bottom with 2″ of apple cider vinegar, add a couple of spritzes of dishwashing liquid, then invert the severed top & shove it down tight onto the bottom & set the assemblage on a kitchen counter. The little bastards swarm in following the apple cider smell & can’t find their way back out; eventually they do a swan dive into the liquid & the soap on their wings keeps them from flying back out until they drown. Flush out the dead flies every couple of days & replace the vinegar.
efgoldman
@dww44:
Torture and death panels.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Redshift: @Steeplejack: Getting Things Done proved way more ambitious as an entire life program than I could handle, but I routinely use his two-minute rule:
Answering a routine e-mail? Putting away the jacket, shoes, work outfit I just took off? Feeding the fish? Flossing? All take less time to do than to think about.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: I know some women of my mom’s generation and older only use either Sumeet (a brand of a blender and grinder made in India) or the good old mortar and pestle. I have known peeps make trips to Toronto or Jackson Heights in NYC to buy their speshul mixer-grinder. It has a more powerful motor and weighs a ton compared to say an Osterizer.
p.a.
@schrodingers_cat: They’ll be rated for sq. footage but not area IIRC. Good luck, I haven’t had any last more than 3 years for quite a while, and the humidistats don’t seem to be very accurate. Get the frost-free unless you only need it in the heat of summer. I’ve had GE (just a nameplate now) and Haier. Standard Home Depot crap.
Pluky
@Miss Bianca: no worse than the paper labels on many of them.
schrodingers_cat
@p.a.: Only need it for the summer. In the winter the basement humidity <50% naturally.
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: I got a 70 pint for the basement. Our house is 1.5 stories (+ finished basement), ~ 2500 sq feet above ground. It’s attached to a garden hose and drains into a pit in the floor (with a sump pump). Lowe’s was having a 10% off sale at the time, so the price wasn’t too horrible.
Think about how you’ll get rid of the water that it condenses out of the air. Some of them have a built-in pump to send the water (via a hose) to a sink – you’ll need something like that if you don’t have a floor drain, and don’t want to empty the bucket every few hours. The ones with the extra pump cost more, of course.
The other two are 50 pint and we just manually empty the buckets once a day or so.
The size upstairs may be overkill, but the smaller the capacity the more often you’ll have to empty the (smaller) buckets.
Also note that these things are not quiet. There’s some compressor noise, and there’s a strong blowing air fan noise. Ours are quieter than a vacuum cleaner, but on that order. But if you run it when you’re at work and turn it off when you get home, it’s a decent compromise.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scot.
JR in WV
@germy:
I use my biggest pot, nearly 5 gallons, fill it with water, bring to a boil, turn off the stove, add Dawn (used to degrease wild animals after oil spills, the only real choice) a big squirt, and pour that into the toilet. You gotta be careful not to overflow, but usually after 3 or 4 gallons, nearly full, the heat, soap and water pressure takes that clog right outa there.
Yes, I know there is a paraffin ring in the floor, usually everything is running too fast to harm the ring. If it gets a little soft, that (in my mind) just helps the seal out. And I flush with cold water asap after the clog breaks up.
John Revolta
@ruemara: At first I thought you meant that I should only be nice when I was 4 miles from home or less. I thought this was great advice, and would save me a lot of energy. I may try it out.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: heh. So many must-haves in life that are functionally almost identical to something that costs one tenth as much. Looking at you, tortillions.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Olivia: Sugar with soap is also a great odor remover. Though I miss my garlic steel because it was cute.
Lyrebird
@schrodingers_cat: I forget the model, but the $400-ish GE dehumidifier I got from Home Despot was a life changer – made the not-dry basement year-round useable for a family with some mold allergies.
ETA: as Another Scott said, there’s some noise, and when it cycles on in the 70-yr-old house, the lights on the same circuit dim. But to be able to work, play, and store things downstairs was more than worth it. We had a floor drain and a friend cut a garden hose to just the right size. Zero maintenance other than occasional rinsing of a little air filter – easy to do.
bemused
@Spanky:
Got it, they are the Real Americans who live in Real America not like the rest us deviant interlopers. I would bet real money that if they got the Real America they fantasize about that they wouldn’t like it much.
Lyrebird
@Major Major Major Major: Maybe you don’t have many Ethiopian-American neighbors?
Shell
Shit once, flush twice.
zhena gogolia
@ruemara:
Haha.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@schrodingers_cat: That’s a hack? I thought it was just how you did it!
I use Ball Jars as bulk coffee beans/grain/nut/dried cranberries containers. I get plastic lids and give the canning lids to market folks who actually can things. I put bulk spices in saved commercial spice bottles, relabeled several times over through the years mainly.
Ruckus
@Gelfling 545:
Because they are too narrow minded, bigoted and stupid to believe that someone else in the world besides a white christian may have, if not entirely solved a problem – really good healthcare, have made it work much better than the mess that we have cooked up to maximize profits rather than maximize products and it’s because of American Exceptionalism. Because with that one idea, we have managed to fuck up lots of stuff. Countries, religions (not that they needed a lot of help) food, the less fortunate, promises even to ourselves, politics, voting……..
schrodingers_cat
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Indian purists use the mortar and pestle or Sumeet. Spice bottles are too tiny. I save my spices in bottles of salsa, prepared tomato sauce or bottles for preserves or peanut butter.
ETA: I do use the Ball jars and bottles of baby food (obtained from friends with babies) for spices like saffron, nutmeg etc which I don’t use a lot of.
Major Major Major Major
@Lyrebird: not that I’ve talked to about cooking. I certainly wasn’t trying to claim an ethnic monopoly on using coffee grinders for spices.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Iowa Old Lady: Have you been following the storm on 4th Street’s Facebook page concerning Steven Brust’s rant at the opening ceremonies? I went off on Will Shetterley as a part of that dust up.
Shana
Hair spray for getting ink out of my husband’s shirts. Spray some on, let it sit a minute and scrub with an old toothbrush. You’ll have to do it a few times, but it works pretty well. Put a rag underneath or the hairspray will leak through onto your surface.
Mart
@Miss Bianca: I have been to city recycling sorting stations. Nasty garbage dump perfumy smell, extra special in the summer. Metals get pulled out by magnets, other materials sorted by weight, etc. Then there are the minimum wage workers with a mountain of trash on a conveyor belt coming at them for hand sorting the nasty ass stuff. For some odd reason nearly all the line workers speak Spanish, while the managers don’t. I get upset with folks that toss un-rinsed or cross contaminated items (soap bottle with stickers) into the trash knowing the plight of the folks on the line. So throw your sticker bottle in the trash Ms. Cracker.
Olivia
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks, I saw that it is a popular crossword puzzle question. I remember Gleem in the 60s but I guess the sparkles were in the 70s. I wonder what they were made of.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Sumeet is better than Vitamix, actually. You can get one online for $238 on sale right now.
ETA: I don’t have one but my mom does.
ArchTeryx
Had myself a furious go around at Lawyers, Guns ans Money over the tone trolling over my Nazi/Republican comparison. Turned into a dogpile with folks insisting that my comparison of the AHCA to Nazi death camps was wrong, wrong, wrong. Including by folks who claim to have lost relatives in the Holocaust. I wad called ‘dangerously ignorant’ and far worse.
And I’m beginning to wonder if they are right.
The Dangerman
@Ruviana:
They are perfectly edible; the FDA rather insists (as in, can you imagine the lawsuits if they weren’t edible and they were consumed accidentally?).
Now, they are edible, but I don’t know how tasty they are.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
A lot of that stuff at the dump has to be sorted due to different types of plastic. It’s a manual job, a dirty job, a stinky job. In a lot of places with a lot of trash, say LA, there are firms/public trash collectors that do a lot of this. In areas with less trash it has to collect a while before it gets shipped to a recycling firm. In most places it does eventually happen.
The electronics stuff – here in LA there are a few places that you just drop off electronics at no cost. Once again I think it is the volume that makes a difference. As an aside I used to live about 5 blocks from an electronics recycling shop. You had to find it but I never paid a dime to drop off anything. The place had pallet loads stacked 2-3 high of different types of electronic stuff. They would break down the big stuff, TVs etc so that the remains could be sent to more specialized companies.
Notice I said that I had to find places and this is in LA, with millions of people in somewhat close proximity. There are far more people in the greater LA area than in the state of OH for example. Volume matters in recycling.
Lyrebird
@Major Major Major Major: Sorry I didn’t think of a good tone tag for my comment. It so happens that I first learned about the coffee-grinder trick from folks from Ethiopia, so I wasn’t “joking” as in saying something untrue, but it was meant somewhat jokingly bc I’d guess that community in the US is at least one order of magnitude smaller than the Indian-American community.
Olivia
@Uncle Cosmo: Yes, it is the stainless steel that works. You could try sucking on a spoon I guess, but I think garlic and onion breath happens because of them being in your system after you eat it.
Ruckus
@Steeplejack:
I keep putting off making the fucking lists, let alone reading or taking action. I may be the camp procrastinating champ. Not proud of it but hey I got something going for me.
joel hanes
Vinegar combats the odor of stale urine (ammonia/urea are bases, so react with acetic acid)
If your cats mark, use dilute vinegar to clean.
If your pet pees on the carpet ditto.
And if there are men in the household, use dilute vinegar to wash everything within splash range of the toilet.
—-
Get a length of 1 x 12 or 1 x 10 clear pine just long enough to bridge your kitchen sink,
or a cutting board that does. Bring it out when you need more counter space during prep.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Windshield spray or Windex. The newsprint doesn’t leave streaks.
rikyrah
ICYMI:
The heartbreaking segment from LarryO last night from a mother whose child is on Medicaid.
It will break your heart and enrage you at the same time that this family, and millions like it, are in this position right now because of Trumpcare.
https://youtu.be/DycQyIhcc-U
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: Interesting.
Do you have any experience in using it to grind coffee beans? J likes flavored coffee and buys flavored roasted whole beans. We have a Krups grinder that still works as fine as always, but it’s a pain the neck to grind several batches to make a large uniform quantity (for a few days/weeks) because the wet stuff sticks to the oval part of the cavity (and gets reground) while the larger drier grains float to the top and are easily dumped out. Getting one of those Sumeet things just to grind coffee would be overkill, but we could use it for other things, also too. ;-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@Major Major Major Major:
Last night, someone was calling her the new Milo.
Older
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I don’t really like the plastic caps that are available. But Classico Italian sauces come in canning-like* jars with screw on lids that fit all narrow-mouth canning jars. It’s good sauce too; sugar is not the second ingredient in every sauce.
I’d like to find a product that comes in a jar with a screw-on lid that fits wide-mouth canning jars.
*The label warns against using them for canning, because they are, I dunno, inferior in some way. abut we have used them for canning, and they seem to work okay.
Morzer
Funnily enough, Madam Morzer collects those same little produce stickers and uses them to pick up bits of dust. To each their own.
Mnemosyne
My best housekeeping tip: hire cleaning people. G and I probably would have divorced years ago without that One Simple Trick, because I am a terrible housekeeper.
Also, GTD is awesome and I just wish I was better at keeping up with it.
Iowa Old Lady
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I have not. I don’t like internet brouhahas to start with, and I suspect this one is also fanned by past clashes which I don’t know about.
ETA: As I recall, Brust said he wanted to be challenged. He got his wish.
efgoldman
@Older:
I think the glass itself is thinner/weaker than actual canning jars. Just a theory.
Don’t know if it’s still true, but 25-30 years ago, when we really had to pinch the pennies, we found the cheap Hunt’s, in the can, had no sugar added. OTOH, salt was right up there on the ingredients list, and these days I *really* have to watch my sodium intake.
Around here (Providence area) there are a bunch of locally produced (or at least, locally labelled) sauces, but they run $5-$6 a jar.
frosty
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
I had the same experience, except of course for misjudging that a 15 to 30 minute task could be done in 2 minutes. Now it’s routine that at 4:00 I look over the cube wall and say: “Got the little stuff out of the way, now it’s time to start working on what I came in to do today.”
Ohio Mom
@ArchTeryx: That’s very LGM-like, they can really pile on at the slightest provocation. And be pit-bullish about it, they won’t let go.
I didn’t see that thread so I can’t comment on the comments. But I am Jewish, lost relatives in the Holocaust, had family members who survived the camps, etc., all this in way of stating my credentials — and I no longer think there was anything particularly special about the evil that surrounded the Holocaust.
There is some real scary evil out there (have you ever met an actual psychopath, that is creepy) but most of it is, as Hannah Arendt pointed out, banal. That is the category I put the somewhat prominent local Jewish family who helped start the Cincinnati Tea Party, they are banal. Not special at all, just run-of-the-mill bigots and assholes.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
And, IF they had been able to vote, what do you think the result in Florida would have been?
Lips pursed.
BrookingsVerified account @BrookingsInst
1 in every 4 African Americans in Florida was unable to vote in 2016 http://brook.gs/2tu1IxB
https://twitter.com/BrookingsInst/status/878058787957088256
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne:
Or for a large hole! My brother and I used this very tip some 30 years ago, when he went for a jam on the Nerf hoop in his room and put his foot through the drywall. (Helluva jam, eh?!)
We cut a piece of cardboard out to match the hole, used toothpaste as spackle, slapped a quick bit of paint on that bad boy, and called it a day. The ‘rents never did notice. =)
Mnemosyne
@ArchTeryx:
I think you’re going for the slightly wrong parallel. The correct parallel is to Aktion T4, the euthanasia program that preceded the death camps. Basically, the Nazis used the disabled to rehearse and perfect the murder techniques they would later implement at the death camps.
ETA: And what was the stated rationale for killing off the disabled? It was because they cost too much money to keep alive.
Ruckus
@Older:
Traditional canning lids are 2 piece and stay tight better. Also they have a better seal for the heat/pressure. A one piece lid can work OK but use it too many times and the seal just won’t work.
Also the threads on jars are all standard sizes. They are this way for manufacturing ease (just like nuts and bolts) so that every time a company wants to put something in a container with a threaded closure they don’t have to reinvent the wheel and manufacture both the container and the lid. In a prior life I used to make container molds, along with other kinds of molds, for all kinds of products.
JR in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
Frigidaire FAD704DWD
GE ADEL70LR (Home Depot)
Honeywell DH70W
These are recommended make/model from a testing lab. I picked brands I prefer. I have a small receiving device with a pump, intended to remove water from HVAC unit so pretty hardy, lasts for years on a big device. DeLonghi is good but expensive…
Jeffro
On the subject of actual life hacks, here’s one off the top of my head: if you save those little glass jars that capers come in, you can use them as refillable dressing containers. Very helpful if you like to pack a salad for your lunch, but don’t want to put the dressing on in advance.
And not really a hack, but an observation: it sure is nice when the chief mess-makers in the family are out of the house for a few days. Holy cow this is nice!
ArchTeryx
@Ohio Mom: I worked fpr a high functioning paychopath once. I left that lab within 6 months. His specality was threats and humiliation in front of coworkers…and the threats were truly nasty shit. Teh Jeang did more to turn me off academia than any one human being. When I got word he died before assuming tje chairmanship of his dept, I whistled a cheerful tune. So did everyone else in that department.
Calling me dangerously ignorant because I said the Jews were the most high profile victims of the Holocaust but not the only ones?. Noone there seema to subscibe to the banality of evil.
Luthe
@Older: The warning is because the manufacture doesn’t want to get sued if the glass jar breaks during the canning process.
Another Scott
BlueVirginia: 12+ reasons why Tom Perriello lost.
(None of them was Wilmer.)
Lots of clear-headed thinking there, with some good lessons. Check the comments, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
Barbara
@Spanky: When I was in San Diego I tried a coffee drink that consisted of espresso, but before putting in the ground espresso, they put ground cinnamon in the basket, maybe two teaspoons so the coffee was infused with cinnamon as it brewed. Plus whipped cream. Yummy.
My little tip is to take citrus fruit rinds and run them through your disposal to make your kitchen smell fresh .
You can also use a full glass of vinegar and position it right side up in the top shelf of your dishwasher and run it extra hot. The glass overflows and vinegar flushes soap scum out of the pipes throughout the entire cycle. Maybe once every few months.
efgoldman
@ArchTeryx:
Dunno’ if you noticed, but I stuck my nose in briefly to support you.
I spend a lot of time over there, and often like it, but I try to avoid the arguments. Nothing like getting academics warmed up!
ArchTeryx
@Mnemosyne: I thought Acktion T4 DID take place at the early death camps. The Jews came later and in much greater numbers but the disabled were first.
The biggest bone of contention seems to be the idea the German public was mostly ignorant of the death camps until the Allies freed them. Out of sight, out of mind.
Mnemosyne
Wait, I do have a tip from one of my coworkers — people who both like gelato and sorbetto and need wide-mouth storage jars should buy Talenti at their grocery store. Hand-wash only and not safe for the microwave, but they’re made out of a very sturdy plastic that my co-worker uses to transport lunches.
henqiguai
@Wyatt Derp(#2):
Doubt it. That was a staple of car cleaning and household mirror cleaning back in *my* youth. Now newsprint uses soy-based inks; not the same thing. More likely it’s the paper pulp.
Mnemosyne
@ArchTeryx:
Nope — Aktion T4 started well before then and took place at various hospitals and institutions. It was only later that they expanded out to what became the death camps. Many families were horrified to discover after the war that their institutionalized child’s death hadn’t been from measles or the flu as they had originally been told.
ETA: Don’t forget, the most notorious death and labor camps were on conquered territory in places like Poland, not in Germany itself. This was not an accident. I have a really good book called The Nazis: A Warning From History that details the slow buildup of the Nazi state, including the enslavement of Jews and Slavs and the slow transition from Aktion T4 to Treblinka and other death camps.
Sab
@SFBayAreaGal: For dog pee on the rug, blot it up with paper towels or whatever, then sprinkle it with baking soda to absorb the smell, then poor vinegar on the baking soda so it fizzles away, then blot up the vinegar.
efgoldman
I’m hearing what sounds an awful lot like a blimp/dirigible circling… circling… circling….
Can’t imagine why.
Doesn’t look like there’s anything going on at Gillette (~30 miles North of me).
The big air show South of me was in May.
Maybe they’re guiding the black helicopters! Oooh Nooooo!
NoraLenderbee
@efgoldman: @Older:
It’s the lids. The rubbery ring inside the lid does not make as good a seal the second time. Safe canning practice is not to reuse lids for canning. (You can use them as regular jar lids.) Like many food safety rules, it is often violated without ill effect.
Re toothpaste for spackle–I wouldn’t do it in a house I owned. It’s short-term and a pain to clean out. Spackle is cheap.
Sab
@efgoldman: Some other blog I was reading has many herbalist commenters, and they say cat mint oil is a better mosquito repellant than DEET.
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: In similar fashion, lower your standards or focus your efforts on the spaces you use. My side of the bedroom, the bathroom and the kitchen are kept clean all the time and I avert my eyes and use a cleaning service for the rest. It sometimes upsets me but I try to let it go.
Older
To all of you who responded to my comment about Classico jars: I suspect there’s nothing actually wrong with the jars, and Luthe’s idea is probably correct. There are a very few other manufacturers as well as Classico who use cannable jars to pack their products. I doubt that Classico’s jars are less heavy than ordinary mason jars, since I handle a lot of them, and I handle them daily. I am aware that jars and lids come in standard sizes, but there are very very many of these “standard” sizes.
Finally, I never meant to suggest that one should re-use the Classico lids to can one’s own produce. One should never re-use a standard canning lid for that matter. But the Classico lids are perfectly all right for topping jars used for storage of, for instance, bulk granola, or crackers. My local food co-op sells lids for several sizes of jars for this purpose. But they are quite expensive, so I look for ways to reuse things that are already available and would just have to be recycled otherwise. I try to get at least three uses out of things like that (one if they are made of paper).
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH THIS.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Glendale does electronic recycling at their recycling center.
Bess
@Another Scott: If possible, try pulsing the grinder rather than turning it on until you think the grinding is finished.
That tends to throw the larger pieces into the blades. And, I suspect, avoids heating up some of the grounds which softens the oil in them and makes them stick to the sides of the grinder. At least when I started following the directions on the grinder to “pulse”, I quit finding coffee stuck to the bowl.
debbie
@Shana:
Not a hack. More like a miracle product, this gets every stain out, even blood out of a brand new white duvet cover. Spray it on and leave it on for up to a week, and then wash as usual. It hasn’t failed me yet and I’m always spilling stuff.
Older
Speaking of Salt and Sugar in canned goods, many years ago, when I was young (and by that I mean significantly more than fifty years) my friends and I used to hit the dumpsters just before garbage day. We once collected a number of undamaged dietetic canned goods. When we tried them, we found to our surprise that they tasted amazingly like fresh fruit and vegetables. The only difference we could see in the ingredients was that they contained no seasonings. No salt, pepper, sugar. Apparently the “canned” flavor was the result of the producers trying to improve the taste, and they were (inadvertently) doing the opposite.
I don’t eat commercially canned veggies and fruits, but if you do, this could be worth knowing.
Matt
Store and feed your sourdough starter in a plastic bag rather than a jar, roll it up before putting it in the fridge. No airspace at the top so it never gets moldy.
Maybe this is obvious but JetDry, the stuff you add to your dishwasher, works also to help water sheet off your windows.
Sab
@ArchTeryx: Cleveland Plain Dealer had a huge story in today’s issue about a twelve year old boy’s battle with Crohn’s. It was above the fold on the front page with a color photo of the kid, and a full page farther back. Wonderful, heartwrenching article, except not a phucking word in the article about how the family pays for his treatment, or how they expect him to survive past age 18 if Obama care repeal goes through.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mnemosyne:
Me, too. I’m only semi-competent with it, but, man, is it a really useful tool.
SWMBO
To everyone who recommended boiling water in a toilet. DON’T DO IT! It melts the wax ring at the base of the toilet and you will get seepage and smell around the bottom of the toilet. Plus more germs. Just don’t go with very hot water. Once you melt even part of the wax ring away, you (or a paid plumber) will have to remove the toilet to replace the wax ring. Liquid Plumber, Draino and other chemicals cause heat in the pipes as well. This is also a bad idea. Anything that eats a clog or heats it up will do the same thing to the wax ring. It’s not life threatening but it is nasty to have to replace one.
Iowa Old Lady
Open thread right? I’m looking at an article in my local paper about Trump’s rally in Cedar Rapids this week. I trying to decide if they’re throwing shade. Here’s the opening:
“He doesn’t get credit for all he’s done in 152 days as president, Donald Trump said Wednesday night., but he’s mad ‘amazing progress’ delivering on his promise to ‘Make American Great Again.’…His supporters who ‘showed up and voted to put America first,’ want ‘a government that shows you the same respect and loyalty in return,’ Trump said.”
The whole article is full of quotes like that. It’s as if the reporter and/or the paper isn’t going to take them as anything other than something Trump said.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
This is reminding me of the “American Psycho in Paris” number in Spamilton.
jonas
@Gelfling 545:
My European friends ask the same question and the answer is: because if it actually covered everyone and provided quality care, 1. taxes would be higher, and 2. Real Americans™ would then have to watch said tax dollars go to care for undeserving colored/gay/lazy people who are clearly not worthy of any social safety net designed to be good enough for white people. So here we are.
Denmark, for example, has a fantastic national health insurance system, but historically, the Danish political system was not erected around trying to keep a racially-marked underclass from accessing public services. Our’s was. That’s why we can’t have nice things.
mai naem mobile
@schrodingers_cat: I am surprised you don’t use those spice tray things with the small rpund stainless steel containers that fit in the cookie tin size stainless steel container. I love that thing
It’s so efficient. Anyhoo, I save the little sample size spoons you get at ice cream/yogurt places to use for the spices in the spice tray. Just the right size.
If you’re desperate and completely out of shampoo you can use just a few drops of washing up liquid instead.
Also hydrogen peroxide takes care a lot of clothes stains, and carpet too.
debit
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Great. He googles himself and then spams the comment section of whoever dares speak against him. That’s why in certain sections of fandom he’s referred to as Wool Sweaterly. Oh well, If he shows up here I assume our denizens can take care of him.
GregB
When cleaning the dyer lint screen, start on corner and grab the lint. Then just trace the entirety of the lint screen with the first bunch of lint grabbed without ever stopping. The lint ball gets bigger and and bigger picking up more and more lint. Then you have ine big lint puff to toss away.
Ohio Mom
@ArchTeryx: One of my pet peeves is when the Jewish community talks about the Six Million and overlooks the other Five Million. I consider it a peculiar type of Hocaust denial.
Many years ago, I sat through all of the movie Shoah, which was so long, only part of it was shown at a time, you had to go back the next day to see the second half. It consists of interviews with people who lived through that era.
Certainly, many, many people knew. Maybe not everyone because life was different then and you could be fairly isolated in a rural area.
One of the interviewees who sticks in my memory was some sort of train conductor. Before the war, the trains he worked on moved cargo, during the war, Jews, after the war, back to cargo. All in a day’s work. That’s banal.
As I recall, other interviewees made it clear they either couldn’t care less about what had happened to their Jewish neighbors, or was actually pleased because they got to “inherit” what was left behind.
I absolutely know my government tortures people, I’ve seen films, and I go about my everyday life too.
Matt
One more: get a pharmacist’s gram scale. In every recipe 1.5 percent by weight of the dry ingredient is about the right amount of salt. If boiling pasta, use 1.5% salt in the water.
JR in WV
@ArchTeryx:
No, they aren’t right. Think about 23,000,000 with no health care. Think about thousands of rural hospitals and clinics closing. Those people, the 23 million, they are gonna die sooner, and be unable to vote Democratic forever. The rural people who fall ill, have heart attacks, fall off a ladder, won’t have a hospital to stabilize them before they take off for the trauma center in the big city.
No, these Republicans are exactly as evil and full of hate and greed as the Germans of the 1930s were. Exactly. Going to kill people using paperwork, just for the money, cutting taxes for multi-millionaires, how is that not evil? Actually, it isn’t just for the money, it’s also to keep those dying people from voting against them. Still pure evil.
Sorry those LGM folks were so blind to the amount of EVIL the Republicans plan. Usually I find LGM to be pretty good, not as fun as B-J, but good politics.
ArchTeryx
@Mnemosyne: Now THAT was a good history lesson, some light as well as heat. Thank you!
Sab
@Ruckus: I agree with you on recycling. My kid did recycling for a while and is actually a lot more dangerous than police work. I disagree with you on Ohio. LA has less than 4 million inhabitants. Ohio has more than 11 million. We don’t have one huge city like LA but we have a bunch of pretty densely populated metropolitan areas.
MattF
I am only about 1/3 conscious when I wash my hair in the morning, so most mornings there’s an uncomfortable moment when I think ‘Did I already wash my hair, or not?’ In order to avoid the infinite-loop of spending all morning washing my hair, I wash my hair and then turn the bottle 180 degrees. It’s incredibly stupid, but it works.
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
Talenti itself IS the truth.
And, the jars are good for storage, traveling back and forth for lunch.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mnemosyne:
I have wondered in general about whether it’s safe to use commercial plastic containers long-term. I like the shape of the 60-ounce Pure Leaf tea bottle, also the plastic containers that my Chinese takeout comes in (soups and “wet”entrees). I save them and use them for a while, but then I start to worry that they contain all those bad three-letter compounds because they’re designed to be used only once.
ETA: “Commercial” = container the product comes in originally.
rikyrah
Matthew NussbaumVerified account @MatthewNussbaum
Interesting: New Ocare talking point from WH is it’s Trumpcare vs. Sanders’ universal plan, saying even Dems agree Ocare is dead.
p.a.
@ArchTeryx:
people worked there, lots of people, and in their precursors: ‘clinics’ for the physically and or mentally disabled, prisons for social undesirables and enemies of the regime. lots of people. lots of people involved in transport also, not always soldiers. people talk. in the towns and villages the units were located, it was pretty widely known. they knew murder was rampant, maybe not genocide ’till late.
Richard J. Evans 3rd reich trilogy.
ArchTeryx
@efgoldman: Thank you for stopping in, BTW, to defend me at LGM. Turns out I WAS ignorant of some key points, which flummoxed me because I have a Jewish aunt. Some of my mother’s extended relatives died in the death camps as well.
Never argue trivia with academics. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Kathleen
@Olivia: Especially if you’re Irish Catholic.
Ohio Mom
@rikyrah: That was quite a video. Thanks.
If you listen closely, it makes clear that we started Medicaid Waivers to allow people to live in the community. Better quality of life, and much cheaper than the institutions were. Plus we finally admitted that people have the right to live where they want to.
Because of several court cases, there’s been a big push for a while now to close the remaining institutions and place those people back in the community. The decimination of Medicaid will be a rock/stationary object situation for those in charge of meeting the court decrees.
On another note, the video makes a nice counterpoint to the conversation about whether Germans knew about the evil acts being perpetuated all around them. The people in the video certainly know what might soon start happening, they recognize it as cruel, and they are aghast.
Uncle Cosmo
@efgoldman:
I used to buy Hunt’s No Sugar Added canned spaghetti sauce until they stopped making it. Or at least stopped mark(et)ing it as such: I am right now holding a can of their Garlic & Herb version, which is as low in sugar as can be found – 4g per 1/2 cup serving – & added sugar is literally the last (& therefore least) ingredient listed. (I’m not sure how you could have sugar-free tomato sauce without removing the tomatoes, which after all are members of the berry fambly.) Total carbs 8g per serving, 3g of that dietary fiber. Less than 2% of the contents is salt but that’s still 610mg per serving. Available at $1 per 24 oz can at many Dollar Tree stores, sometimes can be found for as little as $0.88.
I enjoy this stuff over a bowl of Dreamfields low-GI pasta, particularly after adding a few good shakes of generic Italian seasoning to the mix. Over the last few decades it’s been a small but meaningful part of the reason I am comfortably retired vs uncomfortably. Enjoy!
Ruckus
@Older:
I may have misunderstood your comment. Sorry.
However there really aren’t all that many different sized threaded tops on plastic/glass containers. Yes the standards exist to allow them but all it does is add a lot to the mfg costs so there really are only a few sizes that get used.
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I see posters at corners every once in a while about free electronic recycling days at different schools and Home Depot in the San Gabriel valley. And the LA Sanitation dept has collection days at different facilities on a regular basis. If CA didn’t recycle and make it as painless as possible we’d be living on top of mountains of trash and broken TVs a mile high.
Mnemosyne
@Ohio Mom:
One of the reasons I so frequently recommend that book above is that they show that Nazi Germany was built on slavery and theft by design. They only started systematically killing the Jewish population when there was nothing left to steal from them and they had people who were unsuitable for use as slave laborers. The middle-class housewives were happy to suddenly have enslaved housemaids who didn’t dare complain about how they were treated lest they be shipped off to a labor camp, or straight to a death camp.
Also, I usually hear the number as 12 million killed overall: 6 million Jews and 6 million other assorted “undesirables,” including Roma (Gypsies), Slavs, LGBT, political prisoners, etc. But there’s been a lot more scholarship and digging into the archives, so the numbers may have shifted a bit.
Fair Economist
@rikyrah:
Sounds like part of the ongoing push to split off the Sanderites, trying to convince them if they support killing Ocare they’ll get single-payer.
MattF
@Uncle Cosmo: FYI, most (although not all) Classico brand tomato sauces have no added sugar.
Another Scott
@Bess: Ah. I may have even read that in the instructions years ago. Makes sense.
I’ll have to grind some more soon. I’ll give it a go.
Thanks!
Cheers,
Scott.
lgerard
I make lots of stocks, particularly chicken and poultry stock. I cook them down to 2 or 3 ounces so they are highly concentrated and perfect for sauces, then freeze them. I found that the best containers are the 2 or 3 dozen specimen cups my doctor gave me a while back.
Anyone who opens my freezer asks me why I have such an extensive collection of urine samples..
Ohio Mom
@Mnemosyne: I am not surprised the number of Holocaust victims has been adjusted upwards.
Gelfling 545
@Ruckus: Here in Buffalo, since the Common Council discovered that there’s money in that there trash, and after a couple of their landfills shut down, recycling is the order of the day. We don’t have to sort or even have the recyclables scrupulously clean ( that peanut butter jar!). A lovely company with computerized identification systems sorts everything including 6 different types of plastic and gives the city money. Billboards encouraging recycling abound and flyers turn up at the door periodically. They even take pizza boxes which used to be a definite no.
mai naem mobile
If you work at a job using disposable latex gloves and need a rubber band or hair band cut/tear the wrist part of a latex glove and voila! elastic band. Decent quality too. Also too,doesn’t stick to hair like a rubber band does.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@debit: Huh. I just refer to him as That Asshole We Kind of Tolerate Because Emma Bull Is Pretty Cool.
Mnemosyne
@p.a.:
It’s tricky, because the German people very clearly didn’t want to know because, especially at the beginning, that they were benefiting from the mass theft. And by the time some of them started to realize exactly what their new “prosperity” was built on, it was too late to stop it internally. The courts had been corrupted and protest was outlawed. They were speeding down the slippery slope with no chance to reverse course.
The people who lived near the labor camps had a decent idea of what was going on, but the outright death camps were very small — just a few outbuildings and crematoriums — because you didn’t need to house the thousands of people who were being brought there.
Gelfling 545
Vodka will remove the odor from cat pee “accidents”. If you happen to have any vodka to spare these days.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
This reminds me of something that has been bugging me lately: Trump and the Republicans routinely spout that Obamacare is a disaster and it’s dead, as a lead-in to why it must be repealed and replaced with the awesomeness that is the AHCA. And there never seems to be any push-back from the talking heads or even the Democrats on this obvious falsehood. Nobody defends Obamacare or mentions that a lot of its problems are the result of GOP sabotage.
Uncle Cosmo
@Barbara:
If like me you’re still retrograde enough to make your morning coffee in quantity in a drip machine, try adding 1/8 tsp of cinnamon on top of the grounds in the filter before brewing. IMO it really brightens the taste…& I don’t even much like cinnamon! (H/t to friend Bob G. in SanFran for showing me this.)
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: once the gays had recovered from the Nazi holocaust we got a second one from Ronald Reagan.
Happy pride!
NoraLenderbee
To clean stuck-on gunk from the inside of the microwave, put a bowl of water in the microwave and zap it for a minute or two. Let it sit for a while. The water vapor softens the gunk so it comes off more easily.
rikyrah
Kyle GriffinVerified account @kylegriffin1
Fmr. Watergate prosecutor to @MSNBC: “Basically threatening Comey as a witness amounted to nothing less than witness tampering.”
MattF
@Mnemosyne: Timothy Snyder is the real expert on what actually happened in the Holocaust. One of the main results of his historical research is that most of the killing took place in the ‘bloodlands’– the area between Poland, Belorussia, and Ukraine.
ETA: My point is that the old question of how much the German populace knew is somewhat irrelevant. Soldiers from the Eastern Front knew, their commanders knew, and when the soldiers came back to Germany, everyone knew.
rikyrah
LOLGOP @LOLGOP
TrumpCare makes sense if you realize that what the GOP hated most about Obamacare was that it taxed rich people to help everyone else.
Gelfling 545
@efgoldman: A can of crushed tomatoes and a can pf tomato puree plus whatever spices you like makes a perfectly good sauce..Wegmans brand largish ? cans are $0.79 each. Cheap, quick and good.
Kathleen
@ArchTeryx: I did not see that thread but I think you’re absolutely right. I respect the intelligence and expertise of most of the LGM commenters, and sometimes the threads are comedy gold. But by and large way too often they get caught up in these “how many unicorns can dance on a strand of Bernie’s hair” level of detail in their discussions which drives me crazy. I attribute it to so many of them being academics, which I don’t disparage but I think too much immersion in that life can sometimes blind one to the leopard which is staring you in the face because it wants to eat it. Glad EF was there for you!.
NoraLenderbee
For women: Back in the day, I stashed 1-2 tampons in every backpack, purse, and suitcase I owned, plus the glove compartment in the car. If I needed one suddenly while out and about, I always had one. If I ran out at home, they were my emergency backup supply. Saved my butt and those of several friends a number of times.
rikyrah
Swing LeftVerified account @swingleft
There are 435 House districts. We believe 64 are swingable, and we only need to flip to 24 to take back the House. We can win this fight.
MoxieM
@Gelfling 545: Oh, yeah. Daughter’s BF (she lives in Germany) simply cannot comprehend how US healthcare (i.e., insurance) works. He’s a very smart guy, but each time I try to explain it, he just … goes blank. Like, “how could civilized people live like that?” (Good question, sez me.)
For a counter-example, his mom fell and broke a rib. Part of her treatment was being sent to a spa for 3 weeks to recuperate. It was an Rx.
dr. luba
@schrodingers_cat: A coffee grinder is also great for grinding peanuts, as I do for some Asian dishes.
efgoldman
@Fair Economist:
The only Sanderite in the senate is Bernie his own self, and even he’s not that deluded.
Mnemosyne
@MattF:
Christopher Browning is also doing excellent work. He’s done a lot of research into the slow build-up of the regime and is one of the co-authors of the book I recommended, which is probably why it emphasizes that aspect of it. He’s also done a lot of research on the Einsatzgruppen, which were the mobile murder squads that preceded the death camps.
Kathleen
@Ohio Mom: @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
Are either of you ladies interested in micro meet up in Cincinnati sooner the better? Ms. Bela and I had a lovely time (well, at least I did!) a couple of weeks ago and I desperately need one especially after the Tensing mistrial.
efgoldman
@MattF:
True, but the point of eating the Hunts’ all those years ago was that it was wicked cheap.
dr. luba
@Major Major Major Major: I’ve been using my coffee grinder for this purpose for years. I’m a tea drinker, so grinding spices is the only reason I even own one. Of course, I spend a month in India every other year, so maybe that’s where I picked it up…….
Ruckus
@Sab:
I didn’t say LA proper, I said greater LA. Which is what the people who say LA mean. Most of greater LA is incorporated cities or LA county (which I could have used as a better term) and it would still hold. BTW I lived in OH for 11 yrs, believe me it is far less packed than greater LA is. Even in the 3 big cities. A side note Columbus is the15th largest city in the US, San Francisco is the 13th, so it isn’t as if no one lives in OH (7th most pop state), like say Montana (44th). Or Alaska (48th). Or Wyoming (50th). Columbus has a larger population than the last 4 states. The city of LA has a greater population than states 28-50. Notice that’s LA proper, not greater LA. LA county is larger in population than 42 states. Just misses being bigger than OH.
Thoughtful David
@Another Scott:
I voted for Northam. I also voted for Clinton in the primary (and in November), so I guess that makes me an “establishment voter.” But what I don’t get is why the hate on Northam? He’s smart as hell, has stood up repeatedly to the NRA, has fought like hell for Medicaid expansion and health care issues as well, and he hasn’t been afraid call a narcissistic maniac a narcissistic maniac, and say he would stand up to Trump. He has not been playing it safe like Ossoff did*. The only thing that seemed to matter to some people was his taking money from Dominion Power. That seems like something that’s going to happen to anyone who is a politician long enough and wants to win against well-funded Republicans: you’re going to have to take some corporate money. One thing about Periello is that: he simply hasn’t been around much, besides as a 1-term Congressman.
Now against Periello: I’ve personally met both Northam and Periello. As people, Northam comes across way more as a relatable human being. I personally found Mr. Periello a little off-putting.
* Of course, VA is blue, not like GA-6, so he doesn’t have to, but anyway.
MoxieM
@MattF: That’s assuming they talked about what they did at the front, to anyone besides their soldier buddies. I’ve read some Snyder (Bloodlands, and am in the middle of Black Earth right now). So really– how much do US– or other– soldiers talk in detail about what they do on patrol in the ongoing wars in the Middle East? (No I am by no means comparing Nazi atrocities to US army actions — more like asking a question about how much soldiers talk to civilians about what real combat is like?) It’s a sincere question. And of course a fraught one.
Mike in NC
@MattF: “Bloodlands” was an outstanding read.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Spanky:
Something very seductive, I suppose, about thinking you have special intelligence, Kern insight… conspiracy theory psychology is interesting stuff. Wing nuts really dig them some CT!
Mnemosyne
@MattF:
Browning has some interesting discussion of the code words that the Einsatzgruppen soldiers would use when writing home to tell their families what they were doing. I think “wild ducks” was one of the most common, but I can’t remember.
A lot of it really does parallel with what white Americans “knew” during slavery and Jim Crow — they knew it was “bad,” but they made excuses and closed their eyes to how bad it actually was, because that system also benefited them.
Parallels to today are available for the drawing.
rikyrah
Jason Le MiereVerified account @JasonLeMiere
White House confirmed to me that Trump won’t be hosting a Ramadan/Eid al-Fitr dinner, breaking a 20-year tradition
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
Sorry for the bold facing. Wasn’t intentional.
Chyron HR
@Thoughtful David:
All Democratic nominations (and functionary positions such as DNC chairperson) are now gifts for the senator from Vermont to bestow upon the people who endorsed him in the 2016 primary. The neoliberal corporatist establishment shills running the Democrat party still insist on defiantly giving them to whoever actually got the most votes.
Redshift
@Another Scott:
I must point out that the reason none of them was Wilmer was that they cited endorsements from Virginia Democratic officials as a significant factor for Northam, but didn’t question why endorsements from national Democrats weren’t a significant factor for Perriello. That seems like a significant blind spot. He was obviously hoping they would be, and analyzing what didn’t work is important if you want to do better.
In my view, the most significant item missing from the list is the possibility that the polling was just wrong. Primaries below the presidential level are hard to poll, especially off-year ones. If you start with the assumption that the race was neck and neck, as the post does, them you have to look for powerful reasons the result was so different. But the polling wasn’t all that clear, it may well be that none of these were all that powerful except the boring baked-in ones that Northam had been running for longer and was the heir apparent to as popular governor.
JR in WV
@SWMBO:
You are wrong about the wax rings under toilets. I used a giant stock pot full of nearly boiling water with a real big squeeze of Dawn in it repeatedly to clear clogs in the toilet. I finally got tired of that, it’s work and a little dangerous if you were to drop that 3 or 4 gallons of boiling soapy water. So I ordered a Toto toilet, an expensive one, as I have learned that $90 toilets are worth every penny, or not.
I hired the company I always hire for mechanical issues around the house. Two guys came out, and the younger guy was a trainee. Neither of them had ever installed a Toto before, so we all followed along in the directions book step by step.
I had cleaned the installed toilet really well, so it wasn’t gross to deal with. When it was removed, they pulled the original wax ring out, which had been through dozens of boiling water purges. It was not stinky, not melted, not dis-functional in any way shape or form. He dropped it into the trash can/waste basket, and took out a new one that looked about the same.
It would take a huge amount of heat to get the actual ceramic toilet parts up to a temperature where the wax would met. unless your toilet was installed wrong so that sewage was in direct contact with the wax, which it should not be, you shouldn’t have any problem using hot water and Dawn to clean out a clog. End of story.
Also true for other toilets I have installed/replaced over the years. Wax rings always in good shape after we pulled out the old toilet. Not that it couldn’t be messed up, anything can be.
MoxieM
@NoraLenderbee: Similarly, with a regular saucepan or frying pan (but not a well seasoned cast iron one! for God’s sake!!), put about 1/4 inch of water in it, add a few drops of dish detergent, and heat to a simmer. It will loosen any cooked on crud–you can scrape the most of it off with a spatula and then use a scrubby thing to clean the rest off.
And if it hasn’t already been posted, to clean to copper bottoms of pans (works on stainless sinks as well), use vinegar on a paper towel to get it damp, sprinkle with salt, scrub with same towel. It will shine up nicely. (My mom’s Revere pots from the 1940s were significantly heavier duty than the crap they sell now–they rarely scorched or had hot spots. Worked great.)
Kathleen
@Mnemosyne: Didn’t scholars discover there were more camps than originally thought? Would that be added for a new total?
efgoldman
@Thoughtful David:
From the outside, two strange things about VA politics: 1) the odd year elections (yes, I know, designed to keep turnout low and advantage incumbents) and 2) The single four-year term limit for governor, which limits what they are ablecto do and how they are able plan. Also very weird that the consecutive term restriction ONLY applies to the governor.
MattF
@MoxieM: There was a lot of willful amnesia– and you didn’t talk about it with the Kinder… But my intuition is that everyone in that generation knew. And their children figured it out, eventually.
Mnemosyne
@MoxieM:
As I understand it, there was a lot of the usual glossing over — families were told that the soldiers were killing “partisans” or “undesirables,” and they didn’t ask any questions that they didn’t want to know the answers to.
Which, in a weird way, leads one to the definition of an “open secret.” What, exactly, does that mean? How many details does someone need to know before you can say that they knew that “open secret”? What lengths will people go to in order to shy away from knowledge they don’t want to acknowledge?
Kathleen
@Gelfling 545: Or if you drink enough vodka you won’t care if the cat peed.(Cat pee is the absolute worst, as I recall from our taking cat on cross country car trip in the summer of 1959 days)
Ruckus
@MoxieM:
Most who have seen combat don’t actually discuss what they’ve seen with anyone, including vets like me that didn’t see combat. They will discuss some things occasionally with me at the VA, but only after they get to know me pretty well. And I never ask, opening old wounds that someone has taken years to heal is not good.
Another Scott
@rikyrah: We have rarely in our history been in a situation as off-the-charts messed up as right now. Even in 2006 there were Republican who weren’t insane, a president who wasn’t demented, and a fully-staffed federal government, and Democrats picked up 31 seats in the House. If the Teabaggers really do gut Medicaid, Obamacare, and all the rest, and then pass their zillion dollar tax cut for the 0.01%, I wouldn’t be astounded (surprised, but not astounded) if 2018 turned into a rout approaching the one in 1932.
1932 – before the election:
GOP – 218 === Democrats – 216
1933 – after the election:
GOP – 117 === Democrats – 313
Yes, that was also the year FDR won, and there was (or soon to be) 25% unemployment, and all the rest, so it’s a little different. But look at how closely things were divided before the election – it’s not so different now (especially in the Senate). And look at the way the GOP is trying to destroy everything….
Things can change dramatically, and quickly. We have to lay the foundation for a blowout if we want one to happen. “Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@mai naem mobile: I do too. I have two of them! The big bottles and jars are for the bulk spices. I usually by them by the pound or half pound.
@Another Scott: Sumeet should be easily able handle the coffee beans. I haven’t tried it myself.
efgoldman
@JR in WV:
When we bought our house, some previous owner had installed the $29.95 outlet store special. It clogged if you looked at it sideways. I got sick of plunging it, so went to big box and bought one of the then-new Kohler clogproof models for a couple of hundred bucks. I think it’s clogged maybe twice in the 12-14 years we’ve had it.
Only problem is, i wasn’t paying attention, and bought the one with the curved (instead of flat) tank top. Stuff slips off.
MoxieM
@Mnemosyne: I always thought the primary reason was eugenics (but also including the other reasons like cost, since they already had, oh! irony! a form of state health care, no?) .
And, you know, I’m just waiting for eugenics arguments to start bubbling out around the edges of the Trumpeteria. For a while there the Media was carrying the story that a form of “social Darwinism” (so called), more correctly a eugenic-colored world, was the Trump family world view shaped by Fred Sr. : the most fit would make the most money, have the most power, blergh and so on. I mean, is there really a form of racism which is not informed by eugenics at some level?
Sab
@Ruckus: Okay. You know what you are talking about. I’mean sensitive to comments from now midwesterners about the Midwest who know nothing about us. For exampke, I haven’t seen a live cow in years.
schrodingers_cat
@MoxieM: I have already heard it. Overpopulation of the “wrong” kind of people is causing global warming.
Mnemosyne
@MoxieM:
Eugenics was always an economic argument at its base: How do we stop wasting society’s time and money on all of these undesirables? How do we produce a better population with maximum efficiency? It’s a very industrial way of thinking about human beings.
Another Scott
@Thoughtful David: I voted for Perriello. I don’t “hate” Northam, I’ll be donating to him and voting for him in the fall (we must win). Personally (as I’ve expressed here a few times before), I thought Perriello was a long shot (for lots of the reasons given in the BlueVirginia piece). But I thought he had a better chance of getting people to fight to win in November. Mark Warner just barely winning reelection in 2014 shows, I think, that Virginia voters are ready to move farther left and to fight the GOP harder in the legislature and that being “moderate” and “bipartisan” and “reasonable” isn’t necessarily a guaranteed winning strategy in Virginia any more.
Northam just doesn’t seem to me to have fire-in-the-belly. He seems to me to be too willing to say (as he has – paraphrasing) – “I’m a progressive just like Tom, but we can’t get Tom’s proposals through the GOP legislature so we shouldn’t even try.” I thought Tom had better proposals on taxes and education (requiring community service for “free” community college is a bad bargain, IMO), etc.
Donations from Dominion aren’t necessarily a big deal to me, but he has to show that he’s willing to fight for the people in spite of those donations if/when necessary.
And there’s still the fact that Ralph claims to be a strong progressive who has always fought for women yet voted for W twice still doesn’t make sense to me. But it is what it is.
It’s great that the party is now lined up behind Ralph – he beat Tom fair and square (mostly) and by a big margin. I hope he uses that unity to fight for every HoD seat and not just take it as a coronation for himself. We need to fight for every bit of representation and every seat that we can get.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
MoxieM
@MattF: Willful amnesia for sure. But if you scroll down you’ll see Ruckus’s comment about being a vet during combat times. I know lots of guys my dad’s age–WWII–who were also in the Pacific Theatre (but in combat) never did speak about their experiences. Understandably.
OTOH, there must have been some general sense–my grandfather was born in the US, educated in Germany, back here for good in 1909, (except for summers until about 1930… hmmm). He never called Hitler anything except “the Beast”. Clearly, he had some idea of the horrors, and my sense was that it was contemporaneous. I wish I had known enough while he was alive to ask more informed questions; although he lived to 96, well, he was born in the 1880s!
MattF
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, there’s an ‘ecological’ side to Nazi ideology. This interview with Snyder lays it out in gruesome detai.
MoxieM
@Mnemosyne: That’s a very interesting take on it. I see your point. I have always felt there was also a warped morality at play — TR’s race suicide rhetoric, for example. None of it is good.
schrodingers_cat
@MoxieM: TR?
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Teddy Roosevelt, I believe.
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: Teddy Roosevelt.
(I haven’t read the link, myself.)
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Another Scott: One of the commenters pointed out something that’s true in every state, every race these days: it feels “progressive” just trying to defend the status quo when everything else is moving backwards.
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
We can and we will!
My own congressman is a) blue and b) completely safe, but I can’t wait to help flip Barbara Comstock right out on her mean, lying ass.
debit
Thread is probably dead, but here is a life hack. If you have rusty, crusty bits and pieces of stuff that can’t easily be replaced (or can be, but you’re cheap) put ’em in a glass container, cover with vinegar, seal the container and give between 4 and 24 hours. The rust will come right off. Pour off the vinegar (or keep to use again) sprinkle the shiny clean metal with baking soda, add enough water to cover, shake then rinse off, dry and you’re done. I know this why? Work on older bikes that always have some weird fucking thing with a weird fucking thread or size that can’t be easily be replaced.
Jeffro
@Thoughtful David: There were only a small % of Virginia Ds who felt extremely strongly about either guy, and/or used it as a HRC/Wilmer proxy fight. The vast majority of fellow Dems I talked to might have leaned towards one candidate or the other, but more importantly, just want to keep Virginia blue.
We will.
Ohio Mom
@Kathleen: Sounds like fun! Yes!
CarolDuhart2
@Kathleen: Cincinnatian too. I am interested in meeting you in real life.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Wow, just reading that one sentence – 1 in 4 – I felt like a balloon losing all its air. That is beyond depressing. I cannot fathom how people can deprive others of the right to vote and still live with themselves. How can their families can want to have anything to do with them? Ugh. I hate that I have to keep downgrading my opinion of at least half the people in this country.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker @ Top:
Slice English Muffins before putting them in the freezer. That way, you don’t have to wait for them to thaw out before putting them in the toaster oven.
JGabriel
@WaterGirl:
To be fair, it’s more like 40%-46% of the country. Which is still about 39%-45% higher than it should be, but at least it’s under half.
Phred
I’m very late to this, but what I do when cleaning edible veggies is…
Wash my hands with antibacterial soap, and dry them on a clean paper towel.
Take the veggie-to-clean and strip any stickers, placing them onto the paper towel.
Spray the veggie with a ‘veggie soap’ spray… rub clean… then rinse.
Repeat the last two steps until done.
Ruckus
@MoxieM:
My dad was in the navy during WWII, served in the Pacific and he would not talk about his service to me even while I was in the navy or after being discharged. Most of the WWII vets that I have known have been similar, no matter their service. The big takeaway for me is that combat troops wanted to forget and move on with their lives, but could not forget. The trick seems to be learning to live with that knowledge, because forgetting it is not possible. I have been in situations in a military hospital while still on active duty and at the VA where combat vets would talk with me present. You don’t want to hear the stories. You really don’t. In the end I sure didn’t and I didn’t live them, only heard second hand. Some of them I’ll never forget.
Uncle Cosmo
@Ruckus: Told this story a long time back but in the context of your comment it bears repeating:
Dad was a motor pool mechanic. He landed on Leyte and Okinawa but never saw front-line action – happy to say that he never fired a shot in anger. The entire detachment made it to V-J Day with the loss of one man (shot, I was told, that first night on Leyte by one of his own when he forgot the password as they lay in slit trenches, scared shitless & clutching their M-1s, waiting for the Japs to try & infiltrate. He told me later that he was so afraid of having his throat slit in his sleep he never slept a wink at night onshore – caught catnaps during the day.
By no means was he at “the tip of the spear.” And yet. And yet.
He told a few stories – but only funny ones. I found out much later that once onshore while the motor pool to was setting up they’d work as stevedores, unloading landing craft as they came in. I wonder how much blood & bone & body parts were still on those beaches awaiting Graves Reg. I wonder what that did to him…I lost my chance to ask him nearly 20 years ago. But I still wonder.
MoxieM
@Another Scott: sorry– Yes Teddy Roosevelt. He felt strongly that white wimmins was letting down the side on not having enough babies. We would soon be overrun with brown people, which he thought was bad, bad thing. The whole stinking Progressive Era (so called) was shot through with obsessions of hygiene in weird and destructive ways–‘racial hygiene’; bodily hygiene -no masturbation!! – (earlier origins, but I particularly remember a photo of aluminum mittens to put on baby’s hands so they wouldn’t–horrors! –touch themselves); food hygiene–all that white goo passing as food (even a la Fannie Farmer and her systematization) was meant to be hygienic, and created in a hygienic green or all white kitchen–also hygienic. The whole nuttiness (in hindsight) goes hand in hand with rationalization–Taylorizing, and deskilling at work. And applying eugenics an entire population. If you can do it with putting white sauce all over everything, (spicy food leads to impure thoughts), well then.
Actually, a generation earlier, Mary Peabody, sister of Elizabeth Peabody (publisher of the Transcendentalist Dial, and 1st to publish Thoreau’s essay on Civil disobedience), and wife of Theodore Mann, wrote a handy tome just full of Life Hacks called the “Christianity in the Kitchen: A Physiological Cookbook,”
Am I up not sleeping? why yes, yes I am. Prepping for move to Hamp on Thursday — @Schrodingers_Cat, I believe you live out in the Valley or am I wrong?
dance around in your bones
@Major Major Major Major: dead thread, but just wanted to say that I’m one of those Americans with two coffee grinders, one (old) one for spices, one (newer) one for coffee. Wasn’t planned, just worked out that way.
Also, the pulse method for grinding coffee beans is simply logical so I always do that. No fuss, no muss.
Back to Lurkistan!
mlass
the stickers are edible
Older
@Ruckus: You should see my “reusable jars” shelf. Maybe I will count the varieties of jars I am saving. I don’t save all of them. Standardization is good, but we could really use more of it. Why should individualizing the jars be that important to the marketing of the various brands? They manage without it in other countries.
@mlass: No, they are not “edible” — some of them are made of non-recyclable plastic. What they are is “not actually poisonous”. But there are people with medical conditions which make it a very bad idea to consume small, non-digestible bits of stuff like that. Me, for instance. I also cannot eat popped corn because of the indigestible hulls.
The useful thing I have learned about those little labels is that they are easy to remove immediately after you get them home from the store, but close to impossible after they have absorbed the humidity of the refrigerator. So I try to get them off quickly, as otherwise I will forget til it’s too late.
Clem
The produce stickers are made from a material that does not break down in the compost. So if you don’t remove them before adding to the compost pile, you end up with compost that is full of stupid white produce stickers. It looks bad in the garden or flower beds and it is a pain to remove them. So I take the stickers off and accumulate them like you but I always throw the sticker pile away because I’m not sure the stickers are recyclable. Would hate to corrupt the plastic recycle bin.