On Sunday, July 15, 2018 at 1:35:59 AM UTC-5, peterwezeman@hotmail.com wrote:
> A few weeks ago TCM was running a series of movies starring Jack Lemon,
> including Billy Wilder's 1960 multi-Oscar winner (including best picture)
> _The Apartment_, where Lemon played bachelor and corporate climber
> Baxter. I happened to tune in at the famous scene where he is using
> a tennis racket to strain spaghetti, to the amusement of his guest
> Fran, played by Shirley MacLaine.
>
> Many years ago this was used as an intro for a humorous article in
> _Reader's Digest_ about interesting ways that bachelors have devised
> to do various household tasks. The author claimed that he had a
> friend who used his fencing mask to strain spaghetti, and he
> himself used a strip of window screen.
>
> Another trick that I remember was the author's way of making ice
> cubes, or rather ice chunks. Modern plastic ice cube trays are
> flexible, and each compartment has angled walls so that if you
> hold the tray upside down and twist it the ice cubes will drop
> free. Back in 1960 ice cube trays were made of aluminum with a
> single large watertight compartment, divided up by a separate
> aluminum grid to form smaller spaces for the individual ice cubes.
> Once the water was frozen, you pulled a lever attached to the grid
> and this would theoretically tilt each of the cross partitions
> slightly and free up the ice cubes. In practice the ice could
> bind to the rather flimsy partition structure and make this difficult.
>
> The author would simply use the ice cube tray without the partitions.
> The resulting slab of ice would pop free of the tray with just a
> slight tap, and he would stab it into appropriately sized chunks
> with a Japanese commando knife he'd brought back from World War 2.
>
> Innovative domestic techniques devised by bachelors have appeared
> in science fiction stories. In Robert Heinlein's short novel
> _Waldo_ the title character has myesthemia gravis and lives
> in his own space station in free fall. When his physician friend
> visits and they have dinner together, Waldo is shown eating his
> steak with a surgical shears and a pair of forceps.
>
> I would be interested in other non-traditional ways of performing
> household tasks, either from science fiction or from real life.

Several years ago, the cause of problems with using a microwave oven to prepare
tea or coffee was publicized in mass media, specifically erratic water temperature.
With a conventional teapot or kettle, a heating element or stove burner heats the water
from the bottom, and convection distributes the heat fairly evenly, so when a kettle or
teapot steams or whistles the entire volume of water is at local boiling temperature.
In contrast, microwaves penetrate water to a limited extent, preferentially delivering
energy to the upper, lower, and side surfaces of the water. When bubbles of steam are
first seen, the average temperature of the water is significantly below boiling.

Taking note of this, I now keep a dial-type meat thermometer on a saucer on top of the
microwave oven. When I am reheating coffee, typically with milk, I make an educated
guess as to the required microwave time, and then use the thermometer to first stir
the coffee and then check that the temperature is at least 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
A digital thermometer might be faster but I have tried a few brands of inexpensive
dial instruments and found one that is easy to see even without my glasses and
gives a reading within fifteen seconds.

Peter Wezeman
anti-social Darwinist