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On Having Enough Socks (2019)

gwern.net

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Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#111

Post by _mj0m »

caturopath wrote: post #74
inconceivable wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

more americans have kettles now because they're cheap and easy to buy on amazon. and home-made real coffee is more popular. also there are more 2nd gen americans these days with parents from asia. i think the venn diagram of rice cooker owners and kettle owners is pretty large. i think it's the brick and mortar retailers that never caught onto the idea.

I would be pretty surprised to walk into a Target or a Bed, Bath, and Beyond and not find multiple electric kettle options.

>Bed, Bath, and Beyond

RIP strangely named store that carried emergency mothers day gifts for all these years.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#112

Post by jerf »

jefftk wrote: post #102
jerf wrote: post #77

> be gwern > notice I don't have socks > write 10,000+ words on not having socks > four years later > still haven't bought socks I believe there's a sci-fi/fantasy novel by Alan Dean Foster in which he writes about a trap in a standard dungeon on a mountain which is a path that just very slowly gets steeper and steeper. At first, you don't think you need anything to deal with it, so you're not in mountaineering gear,…

> still haven't bought socks Am I missing something? The intro paragraph includes that he "immediately went on Amazon & bought a pack of 30 pairs".

Just a joke.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#113

Post by throwaheyy »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #106
yamtaddle wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're a waste of space if you don't make tea much, or one of the fancier and more-manual coffee-making methods. Most people in the US don't make tea much, and just use an automatic drip machine or a keurig for coffee, so of course they don't have a kettle. We have one, but it's because we drink more tea than most Americans, and since we have it for that, it's space-saving for me to also use it for pourover coffee (…

It's the "don't drink tea much" that is surprising!

They might not drink tea much for having dumped all their kettles into the Boston Harbor back in 1773 or something.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#114

Post by Arrath »

Jedd wrote: post #18

There's a few comments - seemingly from our American friends - that seem to suggest that left / right socks are a thing. I'm hoping I'm parsing those comments poorly, but ever since the revelation that Americans don't have kettles , I'm prepared for the worst. I got fed up with poor socks a few years ago and embarked on a project to try to find the best, or at least consistently decent, work socks. That's work in the…

> There's a few comments - seemingly from our American friends - that seem to suggest that left / right socks are a thing. I'm hoping I'm parsing those comments poorly, but ever since the revelation that Americans don't have kettles, I'm prepared for the worst.

There can be. Typically fancy athletic socks with more fitted toe areas than normal.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#115

Post by yamtaddle »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #106
yamtaddle wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're a waste of space if you don't make tea much, or one of the fancier and more-manual coffee-making methods. Most people in the US don't make tea much, and just use an automatic drip machine or a keurig for coffee, so of course they don't have a kettle. We have one, but it's because we drink more tea than most Americans, and since we have it for that, it's space-saving for me to also use it for pourover coffee (…

It's the "don't drink tea much" that is surprising!

We drink tons and tons of iced tea, but that's about as easy to make in a large pot on the stove as it is to make with a kettle, and most folks already have a large pot. Plus you can buy large containers of it already made at the grocery store.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#116

Post by grogenaut »

In 2003 I bought a gross of socks from bulk-bargain-sock-sales.com which sadly is no longer with us. A paypal checkout and $60 got me a gross of dress socks and a gross of athletic. Took me till 2013 to run out of the athletics, I'm 1/8th of the way through the dress. I did one more re-up on the athletics (my daily driver). and am now buying off amazon in large packs. I basically have hiking socks (all rei), dress socks (all the same), athletics (all the same), and specialty socks like hand knit and or snowboarding. It's great. I just chuck out socks and pull new ones from the bag.

I played ball in college. They'd give us a new set of socks before every game. It was such a nice small luxury. I have that again. A gross of socks doesn't take up that much space (1' cube) in storage. If you have the space I recommend it and just chuck or goodwill all of your non-compliant socks.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#117

Post by JohnFen »

Aeolun wrote: post #96
yamtaddle wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're a waste of space if you don't make tea much, or one of the fancier and more-manual coffee-making methods. Most people in the US don't make tea much, and just use an automatic drip machine or a keurig for coffee, so of course they don't have a kettle. We have one, but it's because we drink more tea than most Americans, and since we have it for that, it's space-saving for me to also use it for pourover coffee (…

It’s absurd that as a country you drink so little tea that you wouldn’t need electric kettles. At least, I can totally see how it would seem as such to anyone from the UK (and most of the world).

Out of all of my US friends, only two drink tea on a fairly regular basis. The rest either never drink it, or drink it rarely.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#118

Post by Macha »

stephen_g wrote: post #100
ajkjk wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a kettle and it has never occurred to me to use it for cooking food.

Just to be clear, don’t put food in the kettle! It’s just a lot faster to get water boiling than starting from cold on the stove.

Especially if you have an induction stove, where the stove itself is hot instantly so you can pretty much just pour the water from the kettle into the pot and start cooking (unlike a resistive stove, where the water often cools quite a bit before the stove catches up so you end up waiting a couple of minutes after boiling the water in the kettle for it to be boiling on the stove again - still faster than going from room temp on the stove though).

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#119

Post by JohnFen »

yamtaddle wrote: post #97
Aeolun wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s absurd that as a country you drink so little tea that you wouldn’t need electric kettles. At least, I can totally see how it would seem as such to anyone from the UK (and most of the world).

Ted Lasso's reaction to hot tea is probably about the median US attitude toward it. We're just not used to it, and those of us who dive into that world usually have to kinda acquire the taste through some effort, before we start enjoying it. Very few of us take our first sip of typical black or green tea and go "oh yes, that's delicious, I'd love to drink that every day". Black coffee's not far off, but it's more cul…

> We drink a ton of iced tea

I forgot about iced tea, but I'm under the impression that how popular it is depends on the region of the US you're talking about. I don't see a lot of people drinking iced tea in my area, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone make it for themselves.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#120

Post by trowawee »

staringback wrote: post #82
throwaheyy wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m Australian, it is mildly surprising. America is the land of convenience, and I’ve found an electric kettle even at 120v is still faster than boiling water on an electric stove, and much faster than boiling on a gas stove.

> much faster than boiling on a gas stove. There is no way an electric stove is quicker than a gas stove. I did a quick google search and a standard gas stove on high is 12,000-18,000 BTU, which is 3.5-5.4kw.

It's quite fast if you've got 240v outlets in your kitchen. Otherwise it's a little slower, altho I do like being able to hit a button and wander away to do something else, which I never feel comfortable doing when something's on the flame.
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