"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...
Ed Huntress wrote:
"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...

Ed Huntress wrote:


snip

It's a mixed bag. Cars are much better, and fishing reels are, too. But
wooden matches have gone to hell. Toasters today are complete crap
compared to the old ones.

Actually, good toasters are out there. I just bought one where all the
parts are individually replaceable and I'm really pleased with it. Here's
a pictu
http://www.mythic-beasts.com/~cdt22/...t_4ATW-131.jpg


Umm....look sturdy, Boris. Not like those weak and effeminate appliances
made by the degenerate capitalist imperialists...


It's a Rowlett Rutland "Regent" 4ATW-131. I got it at more than 50% off.
Not sure if they export to the USA, though.

Damn, I love the evocative, romantic English names for their machines.
"Vincent Black Shadow." "Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud." "Coventry Climax."
"Adrian Squire." And now, "Rowlett Rutland Regent."

It sounds like a fighter plane that saved London from the blitz. How could a
country that names its machines so majestically ever have lost its empire?
g



It looks like something made in a country we're boycotting. But I'll bet
it would stand up in a hurricane.

It does look a bit Eastern Bloc, doesn't it?

You said it, not me. d8-)

But actually it's made in England.

It's a magnificent toaster, Chris. I really do appreciate quality, but it
does evoke images of English craftsmen working in dim shops with little
hammers and steam-powered machinery in the background. There will always be
an England. ggg

You're not boycotting England just yet, are you?

Heck, no. You're one of only three or four countries from which we can buy
something for which we can read the instruction manuals. The other ones are
your former colonies. We'd lose our minds without a *few* of them that were
readable.

It's just the kind of thing that appeals to the kinds of people who read
this newsgroup. It makes us long for the handcranks that came with a Morris
Minor. Forget the fact that you needed the crank because the Morris had a
Lucas battery...

I'll tell you what else that toaster makes me think about. Someday a team of
archaeologists will unearth an English kitchen, and try to figure out what
kinds of rituals went on there. The knives and pots will be ambiguous and it
will remain a mystery -- until they see your Rowlett Rutland Regent sitting
proudly on the altar. Suddenly, it will all fall into place: It's a room for
ritual sacrifice, and the toaster was a machine for making burnt offerings
to the gods...

--
Ed Huntress