Four Nifty Things

A Friday Hodgepodge

Editor's Note: I will be recovering from a minor medical procedure next week and will not be blogging, although I will probably post on X/Twitter most days. I plan to be back here on August 24.

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1. Some time ago, I encountered a kitchen gadget site called the Blind Kitchen, which I used to give my wife gift ideas for Christmas that year.

One such gift was this wide-mouthed funnel, which is excellent for transferring hot food and liquids into thermoses. It's faster, eliminates messes, and prevents scalded fingers.

2. When using thermoses for lunches, I like to add hot water to them for a few minutes before the food, so as to conserve the heat in the food.

One day, I remembered a small appliance a grad school friend used for keeping hot water handy for tea, and realized that would save time in the morning and make it easier to enjoy tea later in the day. Based on excellent reviews, I purchased a three liter Zojirushi water boiler/warmer.

I just fill it first thing in the morning, plug it in, and set the desired temperature. In less than half an hour, I have all the near-boiling water I need available when I want it for the rest of the day.

3. Another item I learned about from the Blind Kitchen, but couldn't find there later was a meat chopper similar to this one.

I'd never seen or heard of these before, but I bought one.

It's low-level amazing how much faster, easier, and more effective this is than the end of a spatula on the way to producing a uniform texture when cooking ground meat.

4. Stymied by an impenetrable wall of AI agents which kept telling me to do the same (ineffective) thing when I needed to gain access to one of my online accounts, I recalled a site I can't believe I've never mentioned here before: GetHuman.

This site tells you how to reach an actual human at a business of your choice.

I was on hold for about fifteen minutes, but we were able to fix the very odd and rare problem with my particular account.

-- CAV