Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Uses for binder clips: Coping with a dead microwave

Toque on a teapot
If you have a spare microwave oven, you might consider giving it to my sad, tea-drinking friend. Do you see the arrangement he has had to make to keep his tea warm?

As you can see, he is resourcefully adaptable. But this arrangement is not going to help him if he wants to warm up a slice of pizza in a hurry or cook a potato in 5 minutes.

And while we're on this topic, perhaps we can start a movement to convince the Americans that there is a common Canadian expression about putting a toque on a teapot. I welcome your thoughts on how it would be phrased and what it might mean.

5 comments:

RealGrouchy said...

To "put a toque on [one's] teapot" is a Canadian expression that means to wear a condom, in reference to the Canadian practice of using a toque as a tea cozy. The expression originates in southeastern Ontario, along the St-Lawrence seaway, where cottages are common and temperatures are relatively moderate during most of the cottage season, thus toques are generally not needed as headgear most of the time.

- RG>

David Scrimshaw said...

Somehow, I thought "that's like putting a toque on a teapot" would have a more innocent meaning.

Thank you, Real, for teaching me that I should always check with my resident expert on dirty meanings before I pose a question on the internet.

David Scrimshaw said...

p.s. While the Americans might believe the story you propose, I can assure you that growing up in the Seaway City, I wore my toque a whole lot more often than I drank tea.

RealGrouchy said...

Heh.

- RG>

Milan said...

Worth a look:

http://boingboing.net/2014/08/15/binder-clip-sphere.html