Ha, I was also going to write “whinging” but I didn’t want to do any “cultural appropriation “. I never heard that word until I started working with some Brits but it’s an excellent one we should all adopt

Maybe that’s the real reason for the focus on tariffs. People don’t understand it and don’t see it directly: it’s easier to lie about

Their issue might be that carbon steel can be expensive. Meanwhile you have some great cast iron for reasonable prices and are much more likely to find “heirloom” pieces

While I’ve been tempted to try carbon steel, I invested in cast iron and am very happy with that. No reason to spend more money.

I’ve never tried ceramic non-stick because

1. Aluminum pans don’t sear well
2. I read reviews questioning the durability of the surface

So I’m at

• cast iron skillets
• 5 ply stainless steel set of pans
• a couple non-stick skillets for company or my kids who want to cook with it
• bakeware: glass, stainless, non-stick, porcelain

Next

• when I need to replace my rice maker, I’ll trade up to a stainless pot

In particular non-stick pans are aluminum and induction-ready ones might be quite a bit more expensive. Just another reason for any other type of pan

And that’s another advantage of cast iron for me: cost.

• For non-stick I spent more money for the coating to last longer and an anodized outside to reduce scratches and mars.
• For cast iron my brand of choice is similar or lower cost, yet more scratch resistant and a significantly increased expected life

I hope so, and I just watched a video of a Tesla self driving on 6” of snow, but there are still way too many places they don’t work

Cast iron is extremely forgiving of improper treatment. And even if it eventually rusts, you can fix it. I’ve been using cast iron as my primary skillets since pandemic. I know I don’t treat them like I should, but they’re not yet rusted, still have an easy to clean surface that food doesn’t stick to. I’ll probably have to reseason eventually but if that’s not until I’d normally have to replace non-stick, I’m way ahead without putting in any extra work

Edit: sure, standard three cast iron skillets, and cast iron Dutch oven. I also have a set of stainless pans, and some induction ready non-stick for company

Speak for yourself: I don’t intend to keep mine nearly as long. “Buy it for life” is not usually multiple centuries

May be a little expensive but they sell batteries to run a home, usually in connection with solar but doesn’t have to be. You should be able to handle a power outage for a day or two (and after that is when it’s great have solar to recharge them).

For a house in town it’s likely expensive but you also are less likely to have long outages. For a rural house it may be cheaper than the alternative of propane

I don’t know what you consider good quality stainless but my 5 layer stainless pans are almost as heavy as my cast iron

Really not. See the lye comments.

I generally wash with dish soap and a chainmail scrubber, then dry with a paper towel. If I remember I might spread a tiny amount of oil.

Yeah I could do better but the point is I’ve done almost nothing to care for them in years.

• You can use metal flippers.
• you can scour
• you can sandblast
• you can stack them inside each other without eating teflon flakes

And most importantly they can last a lifetime. I got frustrated replacing non-stick pans every decade or so, now I expect not ever to do that again

Of the boomers I know

• one neighbor was a spiteful asshole, the other not
• my ex’s father is a fairly liberal vet
• my exs mother is not just liberal but is still at her age motivated by how much she can help people working at social services
• my mom is the most liberal in our family and frequently argues with my conservative brother

And boomers are NOT all the same

Google search tells me 48% Democrat, 46% Republican and the remaining undecided

That was one of my objections to replacing kitchen appliances for all too long. I’m not even going to consider all the same brand. But they’ve added enough “styling elements” that it’s tougher to fill a kitchen with similar appliances from different manufacturers

The problem is it’s not really people’s choice. Companies have gotten very good at disguising quality tradoffs and marketing has got very good at muddying the waters.

Since this is about tools, I’ll bring up Craftsman as an example. For many years, it was a quality brand accessible to homeowners. But as they changed to be cheaper they still marketed themselves as a quality brand and they seemed like the same price. It was only after the brand value was destroyed, that it became clear how “cheap” the tools had become and people were able to make a legitimate decision to move on

I hope so. It seems like she deserves at least that for the way they acted. If nothing else works to restore law, justice, morality, maybe enough large judgements will hurt their budgets enough to change things

Do you have a chance to watch more live sports locally? I’m more interested in college hockey and every year take at least on road trip to see my college team play. Locally my town has a college with an older rink that has no moving ads. Now that my kids are in college, I make at least one road trip to see their school team play.

College hockey is much less expensive to see in person and their rinks are a lot less commercialized. Given the ages and much shorter career you can get more invested in a player developing, improving, and get excited if they make the Bigs. My youngest has team autographs from road trips where we happened to use the same hotel as the team!

And to be clear: it’s not just you or your condition. Ads are getting obnoxious and distracting for everyone

Edit: a couple years back I went to see the Islanders in their new rink and it was horrible. The noise wasn’t just loud but painful (my watch repeatedly flashed dangerous noise levels). Everything moved or flashed. It was not enjoyable and I’m never going back

Edit2: I have no idea what streaming college hockey is like but maybe that’s less obnoxious. Might be worth a try

Especially not true if the second strike. It’s such a farce to claim “they’re still trafficking” when it is just a few survivors out in the ocean clinging to the wreckage

If they want people to believe them, they need to share a sanitized version of their intel, and send a cutter over to pull heroin out of the water. Go through the effort of identifying the victims and justify that they were indeed cartel members

I realize all of that can be faked too, and I’m not sure I trust this administration even if they showed ”evidence”, but at least it would be an attempt to justify murder