Grave of the Teapots
Apr. 4th, 2003 12:35 amThe first teapot I had in this house was metal, and built up a truly bizarre form of corrosion. Many more metallic trace elements than my diet called for. I kept using it anyway, until my significant other got totally grossed out.
The next was Pyrex. A feline event precipitated its violent expulsion from the rangetop and relocation to the floor. Gravity assist. The "deci" in "decimation" is not a big enough number.
The next was metal again, for reduced breakability. I really don't remember what happened to that one. It's just gone. Does St. Peter have it? Why did we always say, when I was a kid, that anything missing was with St. Peter? St. Peter has not only that teapot but also a large number of unpaired socks, the really good steak knife, a cabbage my mom was cooking once that was simply no longer in the pot (no explanation ever discovered), and Butchy Boo Baby.
The next two teapots--Pyrex again--went the way of the forgetfulness that inexorably leads to empty-pot-on-flame. To their credit, they didn't crack. That wasn't the problem. What happened was, the plastic whistler pourspout-lid thingies melted into the pots. It was fascinating effect, like sculpture, a frozen drip. In fact, they looked remarkably like the pitch drop experiment. I saved one of them as an objet d'art, but St. Peter took it.
This last time, I went back to metal. And yesterday the spring popped right out of the thing you push down to open the lid on the pourspout. Now when you push down to pour the water, the expected resistance of the spring is not there, and the lid flips up with alarming violence. To nerves already frayed by a recent unprovoked attack of the Screaming Bungee Monkey, this can be debilitating.
Given the fates of the other pots, given that the current one is still functional, and given the absence of sufficiently destruction-proof commercial-teapot materials, I'm afraid to get a new one.
Maybe I'll just boil water in the little saucepan from now on....
The next was Pyrex. A feline event precipitated its violent expulsion from the rangetop and relocation to the floor. Gravity assist. The "deci" in "decimation" is not a big enough number.
The next was metal again, for reduced breakability. I really don't remember what happened to that one. It's just gone. Does St. Peter have it? Why did we always say, when I was a kid, that anything missing was with St. Peter? St. Peter has not only that teapot but also a large number of unpaired socks, the really good steak knife, a cabbage my mom was cooking once that was simply no longer in the pot (no explanation ever discovered), and Butchy Boo Baby.
The next two teapots--Pyrex again--went the way of the forgetfulness that inexorably leads to empty-pot-on-flame. To their credit, they didn't crack. That wasn't the problem. What happened was, the plastic whistler pourspout-lid thingies melted into the pots. It was fascinating effect, like sculpture, a frozen drip. In fact, they looked remarkably like the pitch drop experiment. I saved one of them as an objet d'art, but St. Peter took it.
This last time, I went back to metal. And yesterday the spring popped right out of the thing you push down to open the lid on the pourspout. Now when you push down to pour the water, the expected resistance of the spring is not there, and the lid flips up with alarming violence. To nerves already frayed by a recent unprovoked attack of the Screaming Bungee Monkey, this can be debilitating.
Given the fates of the other pots, given that the current one is still functional, and given the absence of sufficiently destruction-proof commercial-teapot materials, I'm afraid to get a new one.
Maybe I'll just boil water in the little saucepan from now on....
no subject
Date: 2003-04-03 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-04-04 06:18 am (UTC)I wouldn't mind there being a patron saint of misplaced things. I think that would be poetic.
Sympathies on the teapotttyness
Date: 2003-04-04 07:12 am (UTC)I totlaly sympathize with you on the problematic teapot deal, since I too have gone through teapot corrosion, meltdown, destruction, obliteration, and other various kinds of molecular disassociation. ;-) Will there ever be a decent teapot out there that actually lasts? Currently we have a metal one in the ealry stages of corrosion. I often just stick a cup of water into the microwave for about 3 minutes to boil.
:-)
Vi
Re: Sympathies on the teapotttyness
Date: 2003-04-04 08:35 am (UTC)Of course, I neglected to mention that being anything in my kitchen is really a recipe for disaster. But I'm glad I'm not the only teapotkiller. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-04-04 07:11 pm (UTC)I finally had to get a coffeemaker with a termal carafe because I cannot have the glass carafes for any length of time without whacking them against the sink and breaking them into many pieces. Usually when I was really looking forward to that pot of coffee.
Deb
no subject
Date: 2003-04-05 11:30 am (UTC)I like the Borrowers--I may start blaming lost items on them, too, at least sometimes, to give poor St. Peter a break.