A group for contestants and lovers of the Channel 4 game show 'Countdown'.
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Funny that you say that.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 12:08 pm Things that are obviously ridiculous but people seem to take seriously for some reason.
For example, spaghetti. It's a fun food for children to have but it's completely impractical, and yet adults sit down and eat it like it's a perfectly normal thing to do.
Very few people still use them though and those that do would be seen as a bit strange probably. Whereas people use fountain pens in all seriousness without expecting to be mocked. On that note:
Bow Ties , especially the non clip on variety.
Yes , anything with more than three buttons are a pain.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 2:57 pm Might as well go with shirts as well with all those pointless buttons to do up.
I bought one as a kid and then smashed a stink bomb next to it and thought I might as well have used dogshitMark James wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 8:52 pm Fake poo. Why would you pay for it when you can get the real stuff for free?
They fall into the same category as ties. Most joke objects are phalluses.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 9:53 pm Those giant pepper grinders they sometimes bring round in restaurants and use to offer you pepper on your food like it's some sort of delicacy. It's fucking pepper. Would you do the same with salt?
I use an analogue watch. I prefer it to digital as "about 6pm" is easier to see than looking at 17:58 and working it out. I also have a 1 handed watch which is nice for weekends when time doesn't have to be so precise.
I have dysgraphia (linked to dyspraxia) meaning my writing is a cursive, looking like a black spider memo scrawled by someone mid-seizure and my hand cramps up after half-a-page. I use cheap fountain pens because I find you don't have to press as hard, which lets me write longer and is slightly more legible.
We used to have one of them.Matt Rutherford wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 1:39 am Regarding novelty seasoning dispensers, my family have a salt cellar that mechanically grinds up rock salt. This thing exists. Because putting salt on your chips from a normal shaker was too easy apparently.
Exactly, in the same way that freshly ground pepper is different to the powdery stuff.Matt Morrison wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 11:35 pm Hang on, I'm confused. Is there an issue with salt grinders in general? The use of the word "mechanical" somehow puts me on edge and makes me think you might be talking about a particularly special kind of salt grinder. Because yes, freshly ground rock salt is an entirely different thing to powdered table salt.
Isn't it just sodium chloride?Matt Morrison wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 11:35 pm Hang on, I'm confused. Is there an issue with salt grinders in general? The use of the word "mechanical" somehow puts me on edge and makes me think you might be talking about a particularly special kind of salt grinder. Because yes, freshly ground rock salt is an entirely different thing to powdered table salt.
Well I'll take your word for it that some sort of scientific test has been done but I'm guessing "more readily" means that the brain is 0.1 seconds faster at processing it. I can generally figure out fairly quickly that it's nearly six o'clock if I see a watch that says 17:58 or 5:58. Sometimes more precision is required anyway and digital watches are more useful for that. Nothing here suggests to me we need to go back through the centuries. Maybe I think an old computer from 1980 looks nicer than my current laptop. Not going to use it instead though.Phil Reynolds wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 11:49 pm Also, analogue watches are better than digital watches for the reason already cited, viz. it's usually more useful to know that it's nearly six o'clock than that it's 17:58 or whatever, and the visual representation conveys this to most people's brains more readily than a digital readout does. And analogue watches look nicer.
That just shows that they don't make normal pens with this specific ink. I'm sure other inks also don't fade but if it's a legal thing then it's really the fault of the ink manufacturer for not putting their ink in pens.Fountain pens: I have to use one for work when I'm registering marriages as I'm obliged by law to use registration ink which doesn't fade.
Wash your mouth out (with whatever they used instead of soap in the dark ages).Basically, this topic is a joke item.
Analogue watches are obviously more precise than digital ones as digital can only show full elapsed units of time whereas an analogue moving needle has no such restrictions. Admittedly most "analogue" watches seem to have a jumping second hand though. And an nth degree of precision is useless if the watch isn't accurate enough for it to be meaningful.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 8:01 amSometimes more precision is required anyway and digital watches are more useful for that
I mean yes, but really I meant hand watches rather than analogue. And if you want precision rather than "Oh it's about 6:00" it's much easier to read off a digital watch. And by the way it isn't always about 6:00. If it's 5:42 and 30 seconds I'd rather just read that off a watch rather than think "It's about twenty to six. No wait, maybe it's more like quarter to. Somewhere in the middle then." Obviously you might argue that you don't have to go through the verbal thought process, but what if someone asks you the time? Much easier with a digital.Fred Mumford wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 9:13 amAnalogue watches are obviously more precise than digital ones as digital can only show full elapsed units of time whereas an analogue moving needle has no such restrictions. Admittedly most "analogue" watches seem to have a jumping second hand though. And an nth degree of precision is useless if the watch isn't accurate enough for it to be meaningful.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 8:01 amSometimes more precision is required anyway and digital watches are more useful for that
Yeah, that's fair enough. I normally take my watch off if I'm in one place for a while because I find it annoying, but when I'm moving around I find it easier to look at it on my wrist than get my phone out.Mark James wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 11:33 am I've always hated wearing a watch. I don't like the feeling of them on my wrist. And my mobile phone tells the time so watches are kind of redundant as far as I'm concerned.
Pardon me, I wasn't clear. It's a battery-powered thing. You need 6 AAA's to operate the bloody thing and buy the salt rocks to grind up-more of a faff and more expensive than buying table salt outright. I have no issue with rock salt-not that I can tell the difference in taste. It's the fact there exists a salt cellar that needs 6 batteries before it works.Matt Morrison wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 11:35 pm Hang on, I'm confused. Is there an issue with salt grinders in general? The use of the word "mechanical" somehow puts me on edge and makes me think you might be talking about a particularly special kind of salt grinder. Because yes, freshly ground rock salt is an entirely different thing to powdered table salt.
John Lewis sells them......along with onion gogglesMatt Rutherford wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 2:52 pmPardon me, I wasn't clear. It's a battery-powered thing. You need 6 AAA's to operate the bloody thing and buy the salt rocks to grind up-more of a faff and more expensive than buying table salt outright. I have no issue with rock salt-not that I can tell the difference in taste. It's the fact there exists a salt cellar that needs 6 batteries before it works.Matt Morrison wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 11:35 pm Hang on, I'm confused. Is there an issue with salt grinders in general? The use of the word "mechanical" somehow puts me on edge and makes me think you might be talking about a particularly special kind of salt grinder. Because yes, freshly ground rock salt is an entirely different thing to powdered table salt.
Yes, I remember.
Tins that don't need them are bloody annoying because they have a lip that means it's more difficult to get all of the liquid out. Bad design.
I did have a nice tin openers that cut around the outer edge rather than the top but when I last moved I didn't take it with me.Ian Volante wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 11:51 amTins that don't need them are bloody annoying because they have a lip that means it's more difficult to get all of the liquid out. Bad design.
Similarly, such tins which have one of those thicker bottoms meaning that you have to use an opener around the ring pull rather than having a choice.
Too lazy to click but i'm talking more about texture than anything - you, like the fucking prick you are, seem to think that powdered stuff is better because (scientific or otherwise) a smaller amount is required for a more consistent and even saltiness. A more consistent and even saltiness is exactly what many uses of salt are trying not to achieve. Good examples that you must (but obviously won't) be able to appreciate would be chocolate stuff - a bar of dark chocolate with sea salt or sea salt in a brownie or something. You don't want to make the chocolate salty, you want to be able to taste the chocolate and the salt separately at the same time.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 11:24 am If you go to about 19:30 in this episode of Trust Me, I'm a Doctor, all forms of poncy salt are revealed to be joke items.
I have eaten sweet things that have the odd bit of salt in them (which isn't uniformly distributed), so I acknowledge that there could be a small use case. However, it would only be a small use case because you certainly wouldn't use it for 99% of salt uses cases (on chips basically) and where I have experienced such things, I haven't generally been overly impressed with them. A chocolate bar that randomly tastes salty in part of it - you're just a hipster. Interestingly that episode also had a bit on that hipster gruel stuff that you have.Matt Morrison wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 8:11 pmToo lazy to click but i'm talking more about texture than anything - you, like the fucking prick you are, seem to think that powdered stuff is better because (scientific or otherwise) a smaller amount is required for a more consistent and even saltiness. A more consistent and even saltiness is exactly what many uses of salt are trying not to achieve. Good examples that you must (but obviously won't) be able to appreciate would be chocolate stuff - a bar of dark chocolate with sea salt or sea salt in a brownie or something. You don't want to make the chocolate salty, you want to be able to taste the chocolate and the salt separately at the same time.Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 11:24 am If you go to about 19:30 in this episode of Trust Me, I'm a Doctor, all forms of poncy salt are revealed to be joke items.
ButMatt Morrison wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 8:11 pmA more consistent and even saltiness is exactly what many uses of salt are trying not to achieve. Good examples that you must (but obviously won't) be able to appreciate would be chocolate stuff - a bar of dark chocolate with sea salt or sea salt in a brownie or something. You don't want to make the chocolate salty, you want to be able to taste the chocolate and the salt separately at the same time.
So not only do you think rock salt goes off after you grind it, you presumably make your own bars of chocolate?Matt Morrison also wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 11:35 pmBecause yes, freshly ground rock salt is an entirely different thing to powdered table salt.
i'd much rather have to change a battery every few months than have to deal with another unnecessary wire coming out my laptop/mouse
How many wires do you have coming out of your laptop, and perhaps more intriguingly, how many do you have coming out of your mouse?Thomas Carey wrote: ↑Tue May 26, 2020 3:44 pmi'd much rather have to change a battery every few months than have to deal with another unnecessary wire coming out my laptop/mouse
Manual razors generally. Move into modern times and use an electric one where using foam would just be weird anyway.
If you shave every day then electric is best .Gavin Chipper wrote: ↑Tue Jun 09, 2020 12:51 pmManual razors generally. Move into modern times and use an electric one where using foam would just be weird anyway.
There are definitely situations in which having a manual helps. If you need a quick burst of acceleration it can help to downshift, for example. But yeah, it would probably be easier if cars were automatic by default, with the option of manually selecting a gear on the odd occasion you really needed to.Matt Rutherford wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 12:16 am Manual gearboxes (for your average car-lorries and other vehicles are a different story, I know). Automatic is far easier to deal with, not having to fuck about with the clutch and it makes roundabouts much simpler to navigate. About the only thing the US has got right is the demise of 'stickshift.'
(N.B-This was written by a learner driver who has the general co-ordination of an orangutan on a step-ladder)