So I'm reading about the latest magical kitchen thing. Precision induction cooktop. So hyperbole, blah blah blah. One of the testimonials so far is "My husband loves it. He can grill indoors, rather than going outside. He can join us as a family." Suddenly his story is more interesting that the portable 1/4 stove. Why can't her husband go outside? What was happening beforehand? Were they repeatedly grilling outside, and he was stuck inside, pawing sadly at the patio door?

WHAT PROBLEM IS THIS SOLVING FOR YOU????

I find it fascinating in the age of TiVo and the web that they claim they have "act now" specials--my TV is counting down 7 minutes and lower, but the web page seems to be offering me the same (typically seductive, but with an unspecified "shipping and processing" charge) without any sort of time limit.

Why can't her husband go outside? What was happening beforehand?

I assumed his family were the ones inside, at the dinner table or such like, while he was stuck outside at the grill, cooking the meat as menfolk are wont to do.

You know what--every time I've seen (I've never lived it), the outdoor Daddy grilling also has outdoor eating.

So there's no separation.

Now, when the mother is cooking, she's typically alone in the kitchen. But the stereotypical weekend grill-up is a convivial everyone's around thing.

I mean, does anyone give a fuck if Mummy has company? Does she want company?

If Daddy wants company, then my question flips around: why can't the rest of the family just go the fuck outside? That's what's happening in the TV grill scenarios....

I heart my induction cooker, but there's no way it fills the same need as my Weber grill.

Although I would watch some Iron Chef: Astronaut vs Caveman pitting them head to head.

I heart my tea machine. It's brewing me some dragon pearl jasmine right now.

If it disappeared right now, I'd grab my 20% coupon and go get another one. It's made some of my experimental tea purchases not just drinkable--delicious--in a way my forgetful manual brewing wasn't pulling off consistently, and my favourite tea is now crack.

I;ve had the Jamaican national anthem going through my head--pure suggestion, since I haven't seen any medal ceremonies--and now a chant from sports day at my prep school is going over and over again:

You wrong fi trouble Sangsters, you wrong
You wrong fi trouble Sangsters, you wrong,
Cause Sangsters is top rankin',
And rankin' don't get spankin;
You wrong fi trouble Sangsters, you wrong.

Over and over and over again....

I'm going to have to try some Dragon Pearl Jasmine at some point, even without a magic tea maker of my own. I have yet to settle on my one true green tea, maybe that will be it.

Do you think maybe those Act Now offers never were really time critical? Those sneaky bastards.

What kind of tea machine do you have, ita? I'm generally not a fan of gadgety stuff for the kitchen, but I'm at a point where an electric kettle type thing and a Sodastream are sounding more and more appealing.

Anne, I have this Breville. It pretty much does everything other than bring the cup to me in bed, and it went pretty rapidly from "well, even with the discount coupon..." to "FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS MOTHAFUCKAS".

It helped me realise that I do tend to overbrew, because I get distracted during that step, but also that the temperature difference is important. The green tea I'm drinking is brewed at 175. The hibiscus rooibos, which is the other thing I'm drinking a huge amount of, is brewed at 205 I never actually tested my previous kettle to see what I had been brewing at before. But teas that had been overwhelming became delicate enough that I could properly taste them, and I really like it.

Everything I drink that's not brewed involves the Sodastream. Between the two of them, hydrated is easier, and low sugar hydration even easier.

Those sneaky bastards.

I HATE THEM.

I have a semantics question--what do you feel is the difference between describing someone as "one of the founders of" and "one of the co-founders of"?

Presumably he's supposed to shore up the base, then.

You are absolutely right. Maddow had a good program on Thursday (perhaps Wednesday) that analyzed the polls for both candidates and apparently there are very very few undecided people right now. Undecideds are not people either candidate is going after. Romney HAS to shore up the base to get them to the polls. Even including voter suppression issues - which are epic and terrible and the worst we have seen since the 1960s, this is not hyperbole - they still need to get the conservatives to the polls.

Oh, and conservatives have been giving Romney the side eye for months. Many of them hate Obama, but the people who HATE Obama aren't as numerous as those who are ENTHUSIASTIC about Romney. That's the problem. There is a serious lack of passion for Romney.

Plus, Romney's unfavorable ratings have gone UP since May. Which is kind of unusual apparently.