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On Having Enough Socks (2019)

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Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#121
post #9

So, what's the solution to pairing socks? Buying many pairs from the same. Sure. That makes sense. But what happens when half of them are lost or damaged and you can't buy the same kind? Do you end up as someone pairing socks again or do you throw away half of your socks?

> what happens when half of them are lost or damaged and you can't buy the same kind?

I don't know. I've been doing this for 30 years or so, but haven't had that problem yet.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#122
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).

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.

Odd, because my experience in the US is that about 10% of men I know drink tea, and about 90% of the women I know drink tea. It's strangely gender-based. Kind of like yogurt.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Odd, because my experience in the US is that about 10% of men I know drink tea, and about 90% of the women I know drink tea. It's strangely gender-based. Kind of like yogurt.

I bet there are large regional differences, too. I know that tea-drinking in the southern US, for instance, is much more common than in the northern.

Curiosity got the better of me and I had to look this up. The US is the 35th most tea-drinking nation! And overall, there are slightly more male tea-drinkers than female. At least according to this site:

https://teahow.com/is-tea-popular-in-america-what-tea-they-d...

Also, looking at the age breakdown of US tea drinker perhaps explains the difference in our experiences. 18.5% of people in my age group (50+) drink tea. 46.2% of those in the 25-49 year age group drink tea.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#125

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.

Technology Connections on YouTube actually tested this and found electric to be slightly faster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUywI8YGy0Y

It's a one-hour-plus video of someone literally boiling water, so there may be issues with the testing setup that I skipped over.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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.

Sweet tea is quite regional (the South).

Iced tea's popular in much of the country, but I think making it at home has dropped off just like making many other things at home has (how many people make their own stock or broth anymore?). These days, a gallon of store-brand iced tea is just about the cheapest drink most grocery stores stock—barely more expensive than making it at home, really, so why bother?

[EDIT] For foreigners wondering WTF the difference is between proper sweet tea and normal iced tea with sugar added: you add the sugar during or before steeping, while the water's nice and hot, and, usually, you add a lot of it. The difference in the finished product is kinda like the difference between making a mixed drink with simple syrup, versus using granulated sugar. You can cleanly dissolve a lot more sugar in hot water than cold (see again: simple syrup), and it tends to stay well-dissolved even when it cools. It's commonly believed that it also affects the flavor, not just texture and level-of-sweetness, but that may just be in our heads (I think it does, too, but can't explain why—it's not like we caramelize the sugar or anything like that)

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#127

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.

I would accept your reasoning, except for the personal experience showing that it's very wrong.

Don't know where the heat is being lost, but an electric kettle is significantly faster despite its lower energy.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Odd, because my experience in the US is that about 10% of men I know drink tea, and about 90% of the women I know drink tea. It's strangely gender-based. Kind of like yogurt.

You'll see the inverse with (black or nearly-black) coffee, I bet.

Men drink (black or lightly sweetened/dairied) coffee or "energy drinks", women drink espresso-based mostly-milk drinks that don't taste like coffee, or tea (often green or herbal, and also often mixed with a bunch of milk or sugar, unless herbal). Not that there isn't plenty of overlap, but that's how the landscape looks to me, to call out the two big bubbles on this particular Venn diagram.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#129
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…

Excellent Technology Connections video on kettles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMMTVVJI4c

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Odd, because my experience in the US is that about 10% of men I know drink tea, and about 90% of the women I know drink tea. It's strangely gender-based. Kind of like yogurt.

I bet there are large regional differences, too. I know that tea-drinking in the southern US, for instance, is much more common than in the northern. Curiosity got the better of me and I had to look this up. The US is the 35th most tea-drinking nation! And overall, there are slightly more male tea-drinkers than female. At least according to this site: https://teahow.com/is-tea-popular-in-america-what-tea-they-d... Al…

I bet those stats are tea tea, not counting herbal tea. And the vast majority of consumed tea leaves by weight, in the US, almost certainly go to iced tea, not hot tea as is common in other countries. (I guarantee "tea-drinking in the southern US" is more than 95% consumed-cold "sweet tea" or iced tea; even if you make that yourself—and it's very, very cheap to buy pre-made—it's about as easy to do it in a pot on the stove as to use a kettle)
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