Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Second rate reporter says what?

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

The willow is too close to the house.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Bark louder, little dog.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

“woke” is the new caravan.

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Open Thread

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SO I’m looking at the Upton Tea Imports website, and I gotta say, it is a little daunting. So many choices and I don’t know what I want.

My kitchen is also giving me chest pains. I think I may need to buy a wall pot rack or something, but I just have to impose some kind of order on things. Every time I want to get a pot out, two more fall on my feet, I’ve got no logical place to put my tupperware, I have stuff I never use in places that stuff I use every day should be. Every time I open a cabinet I’m afraid a bag of flour or something will fall on my head. The whole place is just a damned disaster. Nothing is where is should be to the point that I simply can not think when I am in there.

In other news, I gave the girls baths today. I always enjoy that because Rosie hates them, and that brings me great pleasure. I also like it because when they are done, they both run around like crazy and I find that amusing. Still no takers on Rosie, and today when walking the dogs, I saw a moving van in front of a house down the street. I asked the movers “Do you know if the person moving in has any dogs” because if they didn’t, I was going to see to it that they soon did. My other plan is to sit outside Petco until someone with I HEART JRT stickers on their car goes in, and then I will throw Rosie in their car without her collar.

I can’t talk any more about politics today or I am going to stroke out. Think I will play some Warcrack or something.

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  3. 3.

    AliceBlue

    We finally got our kitchen organized properly when we remodeled last summer–everything had to be taken out of the cabinets and drawers. Stuff was spread out all over the living room and dining room, and searching for things like silverware and measuring cups became a real adventure. I think that’s what you’re going to have to do. Just take everything out and start over; it’s a pain but it’s worth it.

  6. 6.

    BruceFromOhio

    My other plan is to sit outside Petco until someone with I HEART JRT stickers on their car goes in, and then I will throw Rosie in their car without her collar.

    As I recall, that’s how she ended up in your care to begin with, no? Okay, maybe not that dramatic.

  7. 7.

    Measels Montgomery

    I can’t say enough about Todd & Holland teas in Franklin Park, IL. Really some lovely stuff. The green Morning Dew is probably my favorite, hot or iced. Get yerself a sampler pack.

  9. 9.

    parsimon

    Dear man, the kitchen disorganization is something you can handle! And it will be very pleasing to do so! Step one: put the stuff you hardly ever use in the dining room (if you have one) temporarily. Step two: put the stuff you use regularly where that stuff was.

    Flour can, and by some accounts should, be stored in the freezer (in a ziploc, or a plastic bag with a twist-tie). Instant cabinet space.

    This is gonna be great!

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    Heh. I had a similar problem in my kitchen after I moved this summer. The root of the problem was not enough storage space, especially tall and/or thin storage space for stuff like baking sheets and frying pans. There was, however, this alluring 6 inch wide 24 inch deep gap between the fridge and the sink…

    Solution: Some aluminum rods, some metal plate, and a few weekend hours in the machine shop at work, et voila my pans and cutting boards and baking sheets have a home, and all the cobbled-together storage that they were occupying can be put to more productive use.

    dms

  11. 11.

    jl

    I read this miserable lefty blog for posts like this.

    The first part was hilarious: sounds exactly exactly like my parents’ complaints about their kitchen when I visit, except they are like over 70 years old.

    Cole should consider giving away a few pans. You can cook a lot of stuff in just a few pots and pans. Ever notice those pot and pan household combo kits max out at ten or twelve, and not fifty, pieces?

    As for second part of post: what no Tunch news. Tunch get pissed and censoring the blog again?

  12. 12.

    Tulip

    You need to LEAN your kitchen.

    Anyway, I know WI polls just closed so it’s probably way to early for results, but anybody hear anything? All I’ve heard/read is that turn out was heavy.

  14. 14.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    I had the pleasure of voting against a Tea Partier in my local town council elections. I await with bated breath for the results. Turnout was particularly high in my ward. A good sign!

    ETA: Because the TP in question is a controversial incumbent.

  15. 15.

    BruceFromOhio

    I’m a fan of Harney’s selection of green teas. After an initial introduction to a straight sencha that was akin to sucking on a pail of wet alfalfa, the chinese greens and the flavored greens are splendid.

    Saturday morning “hot shot”: any black and any chinese green brewed together, with a shot of aguave or honey. Set you right! Some good tunes and a clear deck, you can knock that kitchen into shape in no time.

  16. 16.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Tulip:

    Wisconsin:

    GOS is live blogging but there’s really nothing to tell yet. Some of the commenting folks live in Wisconsin and they are telling stories of heavy turnouts.

    Other than that . . . . . .

  17. 17.

    Sarah, Proud and Tall

    Oh for fuck’s sake.

    Back when you were first bitching about Rosie, back in about August 1897, I remember several threads where people seriously offered to take the damn dog to live with them on their farms with lots of room, then other people offered to drive the damn dog across the damn country … and all of them got ignored because you were having too much fun with your little pity party.

    Couldn’t you read through some of those old threads, find the people who offered to assist you and adopt the damn doggie you hate so much and beg them to reinstate their offer, instead of whining all the time?

    ETA: Forgive me – Paul Ryan is coming over to Shady Pines later today to talk about healthcare and I’m in a pissy mood.

  18. 18.

    jl

    I felt bad because my previous comment could be interpreted in a hurtful way by the long suffering Cole. I want to be constructive and helpful.

    RE “So many choices and I don’t know what I want.”

    Hint: Cole doesn’t want anything. Heat the water in one of the saucepans, and make the tea in some covered thing or other, that are falling out the cabinets and giving Cole chest pains.

    And why chest pains? Is the stuff falling out of the cabinets onto your chest? How does that work?

  19. 19.

    JPL

    Kitchen reorganizing…hahaha..I’m replacing my lower cabinets. The previous homeowner built cabinets and the drawers are falling apart. The upper cabinets have glass doors and are quite nice but I do have some minor adjustments because he or she didn’t use wood but they are workable. Anyway my kitchen is a mess.

    John, I had a neighbor with two goldens..one rosie type and one lily type. They could not find a home for Rosie and then decided to give up Lily. The rosie dog then became easier to handle. There is no moral to the story because you have to do what you have to do.

  21. 21.

    Garbo

    @parsimon: I second this sentiment. Disorder in your working areas is a drain on your energy. You will be shocked what a difference it makes. And, with everything so utterly fucked in the polical realm, something doable is a blessing.

  24. 24.

    shortstop

    Does anyone have a logical place to put tupperware? That stuff is a pain in the ass to store.

    In happy personal election runoff news, looks like my Chicago ward may have voted down the carpetbagging, anti-poor people, anti-affordable housing aldermanic candidate. And she got a LOT of money from slavering developers from outside the ward whose hot breathing we could actually feel on our necks, so we expected her to beat the candidate who takes a more balanced approach to development and social services. Glad we were wrong.

  31. 31.

    eemom

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall:

    Sarah, pleeez tell Morzie to come back. I misses him. : (

    (and DON’T pretend you’ve never heard of him…..sheeyit, you’ve made the personal acquaintance of everyone else ever mentioned on this blog.)

    kthxbai

  34. 34.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    Since it’s an open thread, the FL ACLU riffs off FL state Rep. Scott Randolph’s suggestion to his wife that she incorporate her uterus to keep the GOP out of her reproductive decisions, because they wouldn’t want to further regulate a Florida business. The ACLU is offering paperwork to help women incorporate; men can incorporate an honorary uterus.

  36. 36.

    Comrade Mary

    TPM has the latest results, with 2% reporting:

    Kloppenburg: 53% 16,868
    Prosser: 47% 14,828

  37. 37.

    Maude

    I did get my apartment kitchen straightened around because pest control had to have every last thing out of the cabinets and drawers. The tupperware is a pain and always will be.
    I’d think about the kitchen and how you use pots, utensils, flour and all the other things. I’d try to make a list of what need to be near the sink if I couldn’t keep all the stuff straight in my head. Once I had it ordered in my mind, I’d do a bit at a time, a form of testing it out. I keep flour in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.
    It is a good idea to keep stuff that isn’t any type of spices or stuff over the stove as it gets hot.
    A junk drawer should be left alone on a general priciple.

  40. 40.

    MikeJ

    Take everything out of the kitchen. Put it all some place where you will have to expend at least a bit of effort to go get it when you need it. When you use something, go get it, put it away in the kitchen.

    Anything you haven’t used in a month goes in the attic. After six months, to Goodwill.

  42. 42.

    Tulip

    I’m looking at results via GOS:

    by county (I think)

    here

    J. Kloppenburg is up currently. I guess I was hoping for a landslide in her favor.

    Here’s overall (also from GOS):

    here

  43. 43.

    BruceFromOhio

    A junk drawer should be left alone on a general priciple.

    The junk drawer serves as an anti-catalyst for real, undiluted chaos. It’s like the oracle unbalancing the equation in The Matrix – you gotta have it to survive.

    Or something.

  44. 44.

    Martin

    Instead of tupperware, just put your largest pot in the refrigerator. Whenever you have leftovers, dump it in the pot. When the pot is almost full, cook it.

    1) No more tupperware storage issues
    2) Your largest pot is no longer in the way
    3) Free meal about every week
    4) Every week brings a dining surprise. You like surprises, right?

  45. 45.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall: I’ve missed you. It seems just a few days ago I was wondering what you thought about something, and now I’ve forgotten what that was. Damn. I got distracted by the crush of media rushing to fellate Paul Ryan, nearly trampling the women in line waiting to incorporate their reproductive tracts.

  48. 48.

    greennotGreen

    John, find a good no-kill rescue organization in your area and surrender Rosie to them. Perhaps you could do some fostering for them in return, or perhaps you’ll just have to pay a placement fee. Somewhere out there is the right home for Rosie, someone who cannot *imagine* why anyone would give her up. As long as you have her, that perfect person for Rosie doesn’t.

  50. 50.

    PurpleGirl

    I have a 5-drawer cabinet unit and I put the tupperware and other containers in it. Covers go in one drawer and the container in another (actually two drawers). Flatware is the top drawer. Extra towels and potholders in the bottom-most drawer. Within the drawers I have long, thin dividers. I also have rubbermaid-like dividers and racks holding dishes and pots/pans in cabinets.

    JC — take some time to survey where you use what item, take notes on what you come up with and then plan how to store everything. It won’t take that long and you’ll be more efficient in kitchen.

  53. 53.

    Church Lady

    Good gravy Cole, just take Rosie to some dog rescue organization or a no-kill shelter. It would be better for her than the hatred you direct at her on a daily basis and then your readers wouldn’t have to deal with your constant bitching about her. I really, really feel sorry for that dog.

  56. 56.

    shortstop

    @PurpleGirl: Well, maybe we just have too much tupperware — or, to be more accurate, too many pieces of some poor man’s fake tupperware brand. I like to make supergigantico pots of various vegetable soups and freeze portions of two or three servings each, which takes a lot of containerage. I could keep the extra Not Tupperware a couple floors down from our condo in our basement storage room, but then I’d have to trot up and down the stairs getting and returning it all the time.

    Gosh, I’m glad there are no real problems in the world so we can all turn our attention to my (one word for you) plastics.

  58. 58.

    AkaDad

    Supreme Court REPORTING 8%

    David Prosser (inc) 71,736 50%

    Joanne Kloppenburg 71,502 50%

    Edit: Just noticed there’s an election thread.

  59. 59.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @John Cole: I *knew* it. But, please, don’t chase her with the vacuum. It’s hard on all of us, especially Tunch.

  62. 62.

    eemom

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall:

    I know whatcha mean. Couldn’t take the news any more this evening so I switched over to The Military Channel and watched “Hitler’s Last Days” to cheer myself up.

  63. 63.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @efgoldman: Many years ago we did something similar: moved from a 2 BR Cape Cod with no dining room to a 3 BR rowhouse. When the movers were done, we had furniture in every room, including dining room table and chairs in our new DR.

    How’d we do it? Well, at one point I was in the converted attic in the Cape Cod watching the movers keep pulling more furniture out from the eaves. We seem to have stashed a hell of a lot of stuff in that tiny little house.

  67. 67.

    Sarah, Proud and Tall

    @John Cole:

    I actually love Rosie. I just like bitching.

    Um….

    “Oh no- Rosie made it across the creek and Lily drowned and I am going to be stuck with this god damned dog I hate while the one I love is dead.” Then I saw Lily, so the panic left. Lily jumped in the car, and I had to spend five minutes getting Rosie in. That is my biggest fear- that Lily will some day die and I will be stuck with only asshole. I seriously would not be upset if that damned dog disappeared in the middle of the night. Just run away, already. It is someone else’s turn.

    I can’t take it any more. I’ve earned my star in heaven 72 virgins paid my debts to society and now I need this dog out of my life. I want my old life back with just Tunch and Lily and a happy and calm household.

    Hopefully in a couple weeks I can send that picture back and have him airbrush out the asshole in the lower right.

    Yeah, it’s love.

    And I’m an 18 year old Spanish supermodel with clinical nymphomania and a trust fund.

  68. 68.

    fraught

    It takes ten years to really organizise a kitchen. Put Rosie in there and close the door. There are better things to have chest pains about.

  72. 72.

    John Cole

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall: All of those were taken out of context. The context being that I was angry/joking each time.

    I do actually love Rosie. So I may or may not have had a few parental “I wish you had never been born” moments, but I do love her. And I never abuse her, she is constantly sitting on my lap and I pet her, and she is obviously not underfed.

  74. 74.

    Sarah, Proud and Tall

    @gogol’s wife:

    I think we all believe that John loves Rosie, even if he doesn’t like her very much.

    I think what most of us take issue with is the fact that he enjoys bitching about how much he hates her SO much that it’s taken him about 14 years to get off his ass and actually try to get her out of his house and into an environment where she’s actually happy, in circumstances where many people were telling him to do that back before the great war and even offered to make it happen but were simply ignored in favour of more bitching by Cole.

    When Cole first started complaining about the fucking dog, I had my libido AND the use of both of my feet.

  77. 77.

    jl

    Some kind reader should send Cole this book. It got good reviews.

    The Jack Russell Terrier: Canine Companion Or Demon Dog [Paperback]
    Don Rainwater (Author) Kellie Rainwater (Author)
    http://www.amazon.com/Russell-Terrier-Canine-Companion-Demon/dp/1434848906/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1302055721&sr=1-2-fkmr0

    If that doesn’t work, then maybe some exciting dog detective novels will help Cole cope with his love/hate relationship with his little demon dog.

    Dog Den Mystery (Jack Russell, Dog Detective #1)
    Darrel Odgers (Author), Sally Odgers (Author)
    http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Mystery-Jack-Russell-Detective/dp/1933605189/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1302055570&sr=8-3

    I would send one or both, but I am too cheap, and Cole would just insult me.

  78. 78.

    Sarah, Proud and Tall

    @John Cole:

    I know you love her. It’s clear you are a good man and want to get her into an environment where she and you are both happy, but that in the meantime you take good care of her.

    My point is merely that it’s also clear you don’t like her very much and we’re all relieved you’ve finally fucking done something about finding her a new home before you actually do come to hate her.

  79. 79.

    Gina

    We redid the kitchen, finished this past December. Before that, the lack of cabinets meant stacking pots and pans, and having avalanches every time the doors opened too.

    It’s a small kitchen, barely a galley style, so there was no room to add any extra real cabinets. First I built a sort of open cabinet/bookcase thing that I have a butcher block on top of. It’s only 18″ deep, since the space wasn’t there for a full depth counter. I got rid of less useful pans and pots, and put up pegboard with hooks. I have all my stovetop cookware, colanders, some utensils (including big knives on a magnet strip) and pot lids (in a storage rack that is installed on the pegboard) all on the wall space, and it’s been wonderful.

    I looked at metal pegboard at first, but it was too pricey, so I went with the regular cheap stuff and spent the money on great durable paint, and did meticulous prep work (two coats primer, sanded between, three coats paint, ditto) to make sure it’d hold up.

    So far so good, I’m very tough on things and it’s still looking good and working perfectly.

  81. 81.

    MazeDancer

    The sample packets are fun at Upton. Being organically biased, I just ordered every black organic tea – but only in varieties I knew I preferred – in the buck something sample size. And a box of tea bag filters. Liked some. Didn’t others. Found the Nilgiri’s quite good.

    Think of it as a panoply of adventures.

    (And always remember to check the OMIT catalogue box with your order. No one needs repeated printed copies of the zillions of Upton offerings on the web.)

  82. 82.

    darkmatter

    @Martin: Well, if Cole forgets what was put in the pot during the week, he will definitely be surprised come the end of the week.

  83. 83.

    Skepticat

    @BruceFromOhio: I’ve had the great pleasure of spending some time with Mr. John Harney himself, a gentleman who really knows and appreciates fine tea (without being snotty about it). Fine tea, a fine company.

    JC, don’t bother looking for the I heart JRT bumper sticker; just find an unlocked car.

  84. 84.

    eemom

    @Church Lady:

    The man is over forty and never married. I’m guessing no woman will have him.

    Good heavens Church. There is no such thing as a man no woman will have. Single men ALWAYS profit by the laws of supply and demand.

  85. 85.

    Sarah in Brooklyn

    I’m a huge fan of Upton. I tend to read the reviews a lot, and try the sample packs if I’m unsure. I love their Breakfast Teas – the English Breakfast and the Kensington Blend are really great. Just explore, try a bit of this and that, you’ll have some favorites in no time.

  89. 89.

    smedley

    @greennotGreen: Excellent.
    We had a Rosie lab many years ago. A wonderful HYPER dog. The kids would beg us to bring her in the house so they could safely play outside. We found a non killing org; and besides her blankie and a check , guilt added 100 pounds of dog food. Later learned she has her own farm.

  93. 93.

    4jkb4ia

    @Church Lady:

    My husband was forty-two when I met him, and never married. This didn’t mean it wasn’t obvious after a few months that he would make somebody a good husband, just the opportunity hadn’t come along yet. Now, a tikkun leil shavuot as an opportunity to meet someone won’t work for everybody.

    /third version of this comment

  94. 94.

    justawriter

    For a little help on the teas, use the information tab on the upton tea website and scroll down to general tea information. There’s a lot of good info there. I ditto Sarah in Brooklyn about ordering samples to figure out what you like. In general, black teas in the order strong flavor are Assam > Keemun > Darjeeling. English Breakfast is a blend that tries to mimic Assam. Oolong teas are milder and IMO better balanced than black teas. Green teas are generally divided between China and Japan and how they are processed. I find gunpowder teas (steamed and rolled teas) stronger than pan fired teas. White teas are basically dried tea leaves and are the mildest of all. I would completely avoid the Pu-ehr teas to start with, these are fermented teas and are the stinky cheeses of the tea world. Hope this helps. Try lots of stuff, figure out what you like and enjoy. With your order they will send you a paper catalog. You may find that less intimidating and better organized.

  95. 95.

    Kathryn

    Hey can somebody get me out of moderation in the “So Very Serious” thread? I am having a lovely conversation with HGW and for some reason the Tuareg got moderated.

  96. 96.

    justawriter

    Oh, and one more bit of advice on tea, start with the cheaper offerings and when you figure out what varieties you like you can explore the higher end offerings. We won’t judge you. Really. :)

  97. 97.

    Anne Laurie

    @efgoldman:

    When we moved here, we left a smallish 5-room half of a two family, with half the basement.
    We moved into this small, but significantly larger, 3-bedroom house with a garage, shed, and full basement.
    We threw out approximately 100 green trash bags o’stuff before we moved.
    We didn’t have enough room here for what was left.
    Nine years later, I’m still trying to figure out how she did that.

    What a coincidence, I think we may be related by marriage! The Spousal Unit inherited what he refers to as “Junk Goblin genes”. We were housemates (actually, he was my landlord) when we started dating 30+ years ago, so I can’t claim ignorance… I knew what I was getting into, but not how deep it would get. I was also vaguely aware that his father had ‘a warehouse full of stuff waiting to be found a use for’… but it wasn’t until some years later that we visited the ancestral home and discovered that, hand to gods, when the man needed a larger building for his small manufacturing facility, he kept the old warehouse and filled it up with cruft! Imagine Fibber McGee’s closet on a 12,000sq. ft. scale!

    We moved into this 900sq.ft. house almost 20 years ago, it was theoretically empty when we moved in, and yet we keep turning up half-empty paint cans and plastic bits from objects neither of us remember buying. I’m a packrat myself, but when something emerges from my share of the clutter, at least I can tell you what it is and why I brought it home in the first place…

  98. 98.

    metalgirl

    Here’s a quote to remember about the Ryan economic plan: “What the Republicans are proposing is a an economic Katrina for everyone who is NOT rich.”

    “If you tell the truth, you’ll eventually be found out.” Mark Twain

  99. 99.

    Comrade Luke

    Can you make

    I’ve got no logical place to put my tupperware

    a rotating headline? I’M BEGGING YOU.

  100. 100.

    Corner Stone

    @Comrade Luke: I just know that normal human beings sort their shit out by what they use.
    If I reach around something twice to get some other item, I move that front fucking thing to some other location.
    Cole is just a dumbass troll.

  101. 101.

    Montarvillois

    A too small kitchen, one good pet the other bad, politics overload — you have plenty of company. Cheer up. As for tea, I stick with Tetley.

  102. 102.

    Ria

    So, don’t want to toot my own horn or anything, and so far I’ve held back on commenting on tea issues, but I think I must. I used to be a tea taster. Can I help?

    The basics: there really are only two teas, green and black. They differ only by when the fermentation process is stopped. My expertise, such as it is, is in black tea, so I’ll stick to that. The best black teas in the world come from India. Ignore all claims of fine Ceylon or Kenyan or the outer rings of Saturn teas. No such thing–that is, you can’t combine “fine tea” with any location other than India. And within Indian teas there are so many to explore, by the time you work through all of them you’re not going to even want to look at the copies elsewhere.

    Want more?

  103. 103.

    Don

    A hanging pot rack is one of those things you will wonder how you ever did without. If you’re particular about eyesores then you might not like it if you’ve accumulated a variety of mismatched pans over the years, but somehow I doubt that’s you.

  105. 105.

    Richard Webb

    Late to the party (story of my life) but also hop over and check out Stash Tea and Adagio Teas.

    The Ceylon Breakfast from Stash is great stuff.

    And to second other recommendations, start with the loose tea samplers.

  106. 106.

    dianne

    I’m reading a Barry Eisler novel called Fault Line and he has one of the main characters say thay she likes the bloggers but rarely reads the MSM. Then a minor character comes along named Josh Marshall, a few pages later, John Cole, and I’m beginning to get the idea and finally Jane Hamsher makes an entry. Pretty funny, I thought. I’m only a hundred pages in, so I wonder how many more bloggers he’ll name. I assume these are his faves since they aren’t bad guys, at least not yet.

  107. 107.

    tess

    I love our base corner cabinet with the lazy susan installed in it. That’s where all our tupperware lives, right next to the stove where leftovers are created, nested nicely so none of it flies toward the inaccessible back corner of the cabinet,and full & unsteady enough that I’ve never had a cat think going inside it was a good idea.

    We also installed in our giant pantry cabinets (that inexplicably came with only one shelf each) wire basket storage with tiered canned good storage on top, and wire shelving for the back of them that’s removable. It’s a great place to toss things like bags of beans or pasta where nothing gets crushed or can escape. Sealed cannisters help, too. They don’t have to be fancy, just sealable. I use rubbermaid for my flour and sugar, but they stack, which is convenient, and we put a 2-tiered lazy susan behind them in that cabinet where I keep vanilla, baking powder, etc.

    Most of these items were bought at Bed, Bath, & Beyond or Lowe’s, so they were pretty cheap, too.

  108. 108.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    @Ria:

    The basics: there really are only two teas, green and black.

    And Oolong. And Pu-erh. Who did you do tasting for, Salada?

    Also,

    The best black teas in the world come from India. Ignore all claims of fine Ceylon or Kenyan or the outer rings of Saturn teas. No such thing—that is, you can’t combine “fine tea” with any location other than India.

    This is bullshit. Keemun Hao Ya A, bitchez. Also, Yunnan Jinya Dianhong.

  110. 110.

    Ria

    Hello, Aardvark Cheeselog, it’s nice to meet you.

    I’m sorry, I should have been more precise.

    Tea = camellia sinensis

    Oxidation process = two large classifications, green and black. So, the teas you mention are black, with the exception of Pu-erh. The latter, because of its minimal oxidation and despite its dark color, is green. And it’s considered a tea product, not really tea. That is, although it begins its life as camellia sinensis, things are done to it that are not normally done to tea leaves. So it falls outside the dominant classification system. But that doesn’t mean it’s not good, of course.

    Same for liking non-Indian black teas–of course, plenty of people do. Perhaps it only a convention to call something the best, as in saying that the best sparkling white wine comes from Champagne. I’m sure lots of people disagree. And since this is all a matter of taste, they are not wrong. Maybe we’re operating with two definitions of “best”: stuff conventionally considered superior and the stuff we actually like. For instance, I actually prefer the medium elevation Darjeeling to the high elevation, although the latter is considered “the best.” But I thought for a quick, introductory glance that would be too much detail.

    I’m not accustomed to being called a bitch, at least not at first meeting, but maybe I’ll get used to it.

  111. 111.

    justawriter

    @Ria: Hello Ria, I hope you are having a pleasant day.
    I hope, since you backed off your categorical statements in your second comment that you realized that passing off your opinions as facts would draw a hostile response. Some might even call it trollish. Now honestly, saying:

    you can’t combine “fine tea” with any location other than India

    makes you sound like Colonel Blimp pontificating on the glories of the Raj. While Darjeeling is my favorite black tea, dismissing Chinese blacks and “not fine tea” makes it difficult to take your comments and expertise seriously. Also, dismissing oolong as just a variety of black tea (and I would assume you think white tea is just a sort of green tea) is troublesome. These teas have a very different mouth feel and flavor profile than ordinary black and green tea. It is much the same as lumping merlot and port together.
    You may want to consider qualifying your statements with “I consider”, “In my opinion” or “to my taste” when discussing such subjective topics.
    One more thing, I don’t believe you were being insulted personally. The term Aardvark Cheeselog used has unfortunately become a generic intensifier in popular culture, as demonstrated by this front page post on this very web site.

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