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Post by pooka on Oct 1, 2017 14:45:50 GMT -5
Well today is my birthday, not that I usually like to point it out. Once you get a certain age, they tend to lose there meaning, or we shun them, because we don't care for the ever increasing digit they add up to. Anyway I usually say I want nothing. For one, I really don't need anything, & two, I have very particular taste. Mom always insisted on baking a cake. A few of her last cognizant years, she made cupcakes. I've gotten a few gift cards from one of the thrift stores in recent years from my sister. That way if I find some things I like, I get to choose my own gifts. She also insists on baking a cake of my choice too. Well this year when she asked what I wanted, I initially said nothing, then I thought for a moment & said let me check. I'm always trolling eBay & the internet for something. Well I've lamented not buying three copper pans that were for sale locally on Craigslist for a good price. I've had my roving eye on a search every since then. I found a little copper frying or omelet pan at Goodwill for a few bucks. It even has a lid. It makes superior scrambled eggs, but I really want a sauce pan or two. It's a frivolous want I know, but it's something I'd like to have some experience with, because they are touted as the best pans made for cooking. Well back to me checking. I had recently come across this nice antique copper pan at a great price, but I didn't know if it had sold yet or if the price got bid up out of sight like they frequently do. The ad was still up at the ridiculously low price of $22.06 plus $12.66 shipping from Catholic Charities. I let my sister know, & she snapped it up in a flash. I got it from her yesterday on the way to work, so I was able to give it a good soak & scrubbing to get any crude off from being a decorator piece for a while. Usually they say to steer clear of soap & water on these, & only use salt & vinegar to clean them. That way they last forever. Should the zinc coating on the inside ever wear through, you just have them re-coated by you neighborhood tinker, or someone who specializes in this task. They go by the square inch, so it can cost $100 or more to do a decent sized pan. The coating is good to go on this one, so I can forgo rehabbing it. I'll have to see about finding a lid for it, though it won't be copper. The lids alone can cost more that this pan did. Here's a link to the auction. e87i ANTIQUE LARGE 8.5" HEAVY COPPER PAN W/ HAND WROUGHT IRON HANDLE TIN LININGHere it is on my stove along with a Descoware pan I got a while back, my medium sized commercial aluminum pan & a few small old Wear-Ever pans I've collected recently. The inside cleaned up nicely. The bottom looks good. It's not signed anywhere. The only makers mark I can find is a small punched center mark on the bottom from where it was laid out when being fashioned. The handle is hand wrought iron. When it was made, being a utilitarian piece, the craftsman didn't take great care making the part that attached to the body to be a great work of art. It's functional. But when it came to the other end is where he showed his skill & pride with this whimsical little loop & curlicue where you'd really see it. This is a good sized pan. A little bigger than I was thinking. It's perhaps four quarts, so It's a size I can use a lot. I think I test it out by making some plain old potato soup in the next few days. Here's that other little copper omelet pan & lid I spoke of. The bottom was a bit rumpled, so I put it on a block of wood & gave it a few good whacks with the end of a 2x4 to smooth it out. Both of these must be pretty old. The sauce pan must be a century or two old, but I don't know. I wish I did. To most people, these would be museum pieces, or at the very least, pretty decorator pieces. To me, they are top quality tools to be used to truly appreciate them. I'm sure there are some who would think ICK!!! at the thought of actually cooking in these. They're all fools. But then aren't we all at one time or another. Ta Ta folks. I may have a few more posts coming up, so stay tuned. For now, I'm tickled pink at my new gift.
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Post by Chuckie on Oct 1, 2017 15:21:47 GMT -5
Well today is my birthday, not that I usually like to point it out. Once you get a certain age, they tend to lose there meaning, or we shun them, because we don't care for the ever increasing digit they add up to. First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Pooka!!!! And MANY more!!! Secondly, LOVE your copper pot--and that place (Overland Park, KS) is like 30 minutes from our house!!! Enjoy your day--AND your new pot!!! CHEERS! Chuckie (& Monkey)
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Post by nana on Oct 1, 2017 18:01:29 GMT -5
Happy Birthday from me too! I bet your soup will come out great. I'll also bet your sister was glad to be able to get you something you really liked and wanted. A good gift makes both the giver and the receiver happy!
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Post by mach12 on Oct 1, 2017 21:09:01 GMT -5
Happy birthday Pooka! Those copper pots and pans sure look great and it makes sense that they cook so well. I've never had any though, so don't know the first thing about buying or using them. I've seen them for sale for what seemed like a good price but with my luck and total ignorance about them they could easily be Chinese knockoffs made out of waste depleted uranium or something. I started going through the pots and pans I have right now and have to really get serious about getting rid of duplicates and stuff. I probably should just cover my eyes when I see any for sale, at least until I get what I have under control.
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Post by pooka on Oct 2, 2017 7:21:27 GMT -5
Copper pans are a study all to themselves. The standard for the best ones is 2.5 mm thick copper. This one appears to be 1.5 mm. French ones are some of the best, but some English & American ones are good too. The very best have either cast or wrought iron handles, but some good ones have bronze handles too. I'd avoid anything made in Spain or Korea. They tend to be more recently made of thinner copper, plus they just aren't made very well. To be honest, most chefs use commercial aluminum pots & pans. They're almost as good. They're a lot cheaper, & you don't have to be as fussy about taking care of them properly. But if you've got deep enough pockets, & are a truly gourmet chef, you'll spring for the copper ones. The best copper ones will outlive you if properly cared for. They may require re-tinning once in a while if used enough, but that's just the price of upkeep for the best money can buy. Oh & you should NEVER use metal utensils in a copper pan, because you may damage the tinning on the inside. Plus, NEVER heat them up while empty for the same reason. I'm not a snob about my pots & pans. I like what works well & feel good to use. I really like the old 30s & 40s Wear-Ever pans that have the wooden handles with a loop on the end for hanging. They're as heavy as today's commercial grade pans. The upward angle of the wood handles feel nice to use, & the bulbous shaped wood feel good in the hand. I'd like to put two sets of them together. One for upstairs, & one for downstairs. The 2 1/2, 3 1/2 & 4 1/2 quart ones are the toughest to find. I think those sizes are the sizes that got used the most, & were worn out over time. You see lots of the 1 & 1 1/2 quart ones. That's what I've got. mach12, I'm like you in that I've got a motley collection of pots & pans, though perhaps not as large a collection as you may have. I need to start editing out what I don't & wont use of them & other things. I'm thinking of putting up my hand made coffee mugs for anyone that wants one. I'm driven to collect them, but sixty or more is too many for someone like me who only occasionally drinks coffee. I have a few favorites. I also like to change up which I use for a change of pace too. Most just collect dust though. I love hand made things. This pan is especially nice to me. It's a utilitarian piece from a time when most or many everyday things still were hand made, even in a factory. But there were many skilled crafts people working making the everyday things we need for life, so the day to day items were unique because they were hand wrought. Think the tinker, tailor, candlestick maker of the nursery rhyme. In a quote from Bon Appetit.com, "While it’s not as hardy as cast iron or as cheap as aluminum cookware, the pieces are the embodiments of good science and craftsmanship." It further says, "This combination of high quality metals means that copper cookware will not only heat quickly and evenly, but that it’ll maintain that heat. You don’t have to worry about anything sticking to the bottom of the pot, no matter how slowly or quickly you cook everything from a savory risotto to a thick fruit jam."
It also says, "Just remember two extremely important things: (1) Don’t ever heat an empty copper pan, as they tend to melt at around 425˚F or 450˚F. You can heat up your copper at about half the heat level you would use for an average pot or pan because it just conducts energy very efficiently—thus its frequent use in electrical wiring. And (2) Regularly shine your copper with a lightly acidic solution (like vinegar or lemon juice) or with copper cleaner to prevent tarnishing. Alternatively, take a page from Grandmère Lefebvre and use a combination of flour, lemon juice, vinegar, and egg whites."
I've often thought it would be cool if we could find a craftsman to make a copper pots for the Thermowell. That would be fireless cooking in style. I found this website that sells something they call "Nesting Boilers". They come in three sizes, 5 cup, 11 cup & 21 cup. The biggest is 7 ½ inches in Diameter & 7 inches tall & costs $60.50 currently. They also make a tin one for $55.00. That's not such a bad price given what you usually have to pay for an aluminum pot made for fireless cooking. Copper Boilers Muckets Coffee Pots Reflector Ovens Insulated Mugs Here's a pic linked from their website. For our purposes, the bale would need to be a bit smaller to fold down out of the way..
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Post by evangeline on Oct 2, 2017 8:04:44 GMT -5
Hi Pooka! YOu know I'm a big fan of copper & those look very nice! Beautiful! I have a question. The omelet pan - that tin looks so perfect and shiny...any chance that's silver? Silver is used, just not commonly, as I understand. Soy, a Turkish maker, offers silver. It's great because it isn't as fragile as tin. Just asking because ...that shine! Maybe it's just the light. Anyway, marvelous gifts!
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Post by dwayner2 on Oct 2, 2017 9:30:12 GMT -5
Happy Birthday!!!
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Post by pooka on Oct 2, 2017 10:17:35 GMT -5
You may be correct. I was a bit wary because I thought it might have some lead in it. It could very well be a Turkish pan with a silver coating, though I really don't know. The pan has no markings aside from a JAM scratched on the underside of the handle. It's thinner copper too. Perhaps only 1 mm. It looks much used from the dinged up bottom I spoke of. I need to find a rounded block of wood to do some more fine tuning with a mallet to flatten it out a bit more. It looks obviously older The wooden knob on the lid looks like something from the teens to 30s from my experience. The brass handle almost looks like it came off of something else, & has somewhat crudely been riveted onto the body of this pan. As I said, it makes great scrambled eggs. For year I'd always used an old Wagner Ware square skillet to cook my bacon & eggs, but then I found a small 7" Wear-Ever skillet that worked better for the eggs. Then I found this copper one, so now it's my go to pan for eggs. It makes me feel downright high class frying my eggs in copper like the finest chefs. It makes sense to use silver to line a pan rather than the traditional tin, though more expensive. Tin's melting point is 449.5 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas silver is 1763 degrees Fahrenheit. In searching a brand name of Cohr silver lined copper pan from Denmark shows up. I also find Duparquet Copper Cookware that's silver lined. They are very expensive though. An 8.25 inch saute pan is $800. Silver-Lined Copper Cookware — Duparquet Copper Cookware Here's a quote I found at brooklyncoppercookware.com that blows my mind about copper pans. “Copper is king here: It has nearly twice the thermal conductivity of aluminum… is five times more conductive than cast iron and 25 times more than stainless steel. Serious cooks love copper for this quality.” Nina Shen Rastogi, Slate.com Most of us may never know the joy of using copper pans because of their high cost. But I'd like to have a chance to try it out a least a little if I can. At the above link to Brooklyn Copper Cookware they quote Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, 1961. “Copper pots are the most satisfactory of all to cook in, as they hold and spread the heat well and their tin lining does not discolor food….. To get the full benefit of cooking in copper, the metal must be 1/8 inch thick, and the handle should be of heavy iron.” An 1/8 inches is 3.18 millimeters. That's a pretty heavy copper pan. With the high price of copper, it's no wonder they're so expensive.
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Post by evangeline on Oct 2, 2017 19:02:57 GMT -5
The thing I appreciate about copper is that it cools off fast. I mean, any metal can get screaming hot but then woof, once it's hot, that's it, and your butter's burned, your garlic's putting off a foul smell. . . Your eggs are rubber.
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Post by mach12 on Oct 3, 2017 0:00:05 GMT -5
Dang - You guys are going to get me in trouble. I guess I'd better grab the next one I find that's a decent deal and give it a try.
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Post by pooka on Oct 3, 2017 16:07:00 GMT -5
evangeline, you make the best argument for copper. It not only cooks well by transferring the heat from the burner to the food, but when your done cooking, & turn the burner off, it doesn't hold the heat like other materials. It then starts transferring the heat from the food through the pan to it's surrounding environment, cooling it. Copper is such a great conductor, for pans, it's actually more economical than other materials for cooking. You don't need a fire breathing blow torch of a stove to get through a less conducting pan like aluminum, cast iron or the worst, stainless steel. Stainless looks good, & is bullet proof for durability, but it doesn't cook that well. With a copper pan, you can use less heat, so lower fuel usage, & your getting more benefit from the heat you are generating, so your being more efficient with you fuel usage. It's just the best tool for the job in many cases. For some things, heavy aluminum or cast iron are OK, because you want something that will pick up the heat & hold it for slow cooking, or in our ovens with the heavy cast iron baffle plate that holds the heat for fireless cooking. Heavy pans like this will also diffuse the heat too, so you're less likely to have hot spots so you can heat more evenly. There's one company, BellaCopper that sells what they call "High Performance Solid Copper Heat Diffusers / Defroster Plates". You can use the plate under you burner as a diffuser, but you can also use them to defrost things more quickly by utilizing copper's conductive properties to draw the cold out of frozen food, thawing it more quickly. Having a few copper pans just puts a few more varied arrows in your quiver of cookware. Just another tool when it's the best choice for the job at hand. There's no one right kind of pan for all things. The down side if there is one to copper pans is that they usually cost so much up front, much like our Chambers stoves did when new. But in the long run, having a few copper pans for things that benefit most from their particular cooking properties is a plus. Too many might want a whole set of copper for the prestige, or others crave a whole set of stainless for their gleaming hint of pro style cooking. Some would be happy with a pedestrian set of aluminum pots & pans. But as I said, they all have their good point for some uses. Better to have a varied palette of different pans for different tasks. I like my old cast iron skillets for some things. Unfortunately, I have to be cost conscious, but that doesn't mean I settle for less if I can help it. I just have a keen eye for the bargains to get the best stuff I can, like this pan. If you spend your money wisely up front, you only have to spend it once. If you can, buy the best, & you'll never have to replace it, what ever it is. This nonsense of people throwing their money away on a succession of products because they wear out before they should, or never was as good as advertised is crazy. Being frugal I've learned isn't being cheap. It's getting the most out of what you do have, or can obtain. Quite honestly, copper pans will always suffer because of their high price. For most, a nondescript set of ordinary pans will surface for them. For some of us though that care more about our food, & how it's prepared, having good tools is always a plus. Not many have the caring & patience to use & care for fine tools like copper pans. That's lost on the masses. I'd just like to have a chance to live to at least be able to try out some of the finer things in life. I may not live the life of Riley, but I can enjoy a few of the high points anyway. Now bitten by the copper bug, my roving eye is zeroing in on a few more pieces like this pan. But they've got to be cheap. Mom always used to say she had champagne taste on a bottle beer pocketbook. I take after her. In this life, it's not how much money you have. It's in how you enjoy what you do have. Sometimes a derelict loner with his one treasure is happier than the the wealthiest kings in all the lands. Some people torture themselves striving for things they'll never have, & never stop to enjoy the life that they do have. Reaching for a goal is all fine & good for many, but when that stretch becomes all consuming that you neglect to just stop now & then to just take a breath, feel the cool breeze on a summer day & listen to the birds sing while smelling the roses along the way, life becomes a farce. Life is meat to be lived to the hilt if you can. Not used up in misery pining for things that will never be. Contentment is life's greatest gift. Some of us may enjoy utter joy for brief times. We may withstand great pits of anguish on occasions. But to be content in between is much harder than it seems. For some, life is a boring flat ride that never fulfills them. For others, it's rolling hills of highs & lows. Still other live breath taking heights, & bone crushing lows with the adjoining climbs & falls. I've been everywhere in that scheme. But you live & learn on the journey if you're paying attention. You learn to try to focus & take a measured pace. Not so fast that you forget to enjoy the scenery & sites along the ride, but not such a drag that life itself seems a never ending agony. Contentment is a thing much underrated, but a thing to be hoped for & sot after. Robin Williams said in the movie "Dead Poets Society", "Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone." He also said, "Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.' Don't be resigned to that. Break out!" I've only found my voice in very recent years, yet I'm still unsure what it sounds like. I'm so use to hearing it in my own head, I'm not sure what it sounds like when it resounds out there in the ether. You know, I'll bet this pan makes great Mac & Cheese.
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Post by nana on Oct 3, 2017 18:45:54 GMT -5
Now bitten by the copper bug, my roving eye is zeroing in on a few more pieces like this pan. But they've got to be cheap. Mom always used to say she had champagne taste on a bottle beer pocketbook. I take after her. You know, I'll bet this pan makes great Mac & Cheese. In our neck of the woods we always said it was Donald Trump tastes and a Mickey Mouse pocketbook, but I don't want to give that man one more iota of attention so I don't say that anymore. I think I'll step up to your mom's saying! A classic comfort food for a classic pan. I like the way you think!
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Post by Chuckie on Oct 3, 2017 21:19:53 GMT -5
Now bitten by the copper bug, my roving eye is zeroing in on a few more pieces like this pan. But they've got to be cheap. Mom always used to say she had champagne taste on a bottle beer pocketbook. I take after her. You know, I'll bet this pan makes great Mac & Cheese. In our neck of the woods we always said it was Donald Trump tastes and a Mickey Mouse pocketbook, but I don't want to give that man one more iota of attention so I don't say that anymore. I think I'll step up to your mom's saying! A classic comfort food for a classic pan. I like the way you think! A variation on Pooka's post was what MY Mater always said---"you have a CHAMPAGNE appetite on a BEER budget!!!" Pretty much the same as Pooka's just a variant on the verbiage!!! Monkey says no truer words were EVER said!!! CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by evangeline on Oct 6, 2017 8:57:33 GMT -5
Hey. I'm not really convinced that copper is prohibitively expensive. You just have to dig in and shop. And you don't need twenty pieces. If you use black steel or cast iron for screaming hot preps, all you need is a few pieces for finesse work.
There's a wealth of discussion in the archives of Chowhound about essential items and how to find them for reasonable prices on the web (search for Kaleokahu, Centurylife, Alexander rander for knowledgeable posts). For instance Kaleo turned us on to a stock of old pots at Rocky Mountain Tinning. I bought three 3mm copper saucers for $200 total. I could have spent the same amount of $ on All-Clad, easily. Easily. And now I have all the saucers I will ever need and they are an absolute joy. Kaleo and Alexander also advise on size/weight ratios so you know if you're getting the real deal (as opposed to serving pieces, which are very thin & not meant to cook in).
( if I could have back all the five bucks here, twenty bucks there I've spent at garage sales on crap Calphalon etc. I'd have a kitchen full of the best copperware on earth. Dang!)
PS: the stuff is addictive. That's where the money goes. Restraint, people! Ok, I'm talking to folks who have TWO CHAMBERS and want MORE! ;-)
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Post by nana on Oct 6, 2017 17:28:29 GMT -5
Yeah, we are definitely are not a group who will be chastened by a lecture on restraint!!
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Post by pooka on Oct 7, 2017 4:16:36 GMT -5
Yeah, I think we all get out of hand on some things now & again. I do it on a small scale because of economics, but I'll do without for something special.
evangeline, you got the top of the heap with the 3mm copper saucers. That's about as good as it gets, but they'll last you forever. If you're careful, you may never have to have them re-tinned. If you do, it's just the price of servicing the best. Over A lifetime, you're spending less overall. And as you say, you only need a few for things that benefit the most. That All-Clad, or many pricey sets of pans aren't worth it. They may look pretty at first, but then the nonstick coating on some goes bad, & it becomes trash. Or they just don't cook as well as you'd like. I see lots of them at the thrift stores. The metal lids are the only part worth having. I've got a few I bought to fit other pans. I guess some stainless steel pans have their place, but I've not found it myself.
I suppose some of the higher end carbon steel, or anodized aluminum is serviceable. You might as well buy commercial pans though. They aren't as pretty on the cook-top, but they work well, & wear like iron. For too many, pans have to be pretty first. How well they cook seems secondary.
If I was going to start with nothing, I'd get a small set of commercial aluminum sauce pans. I found a 2 3/4 quart one a while back, & it's the one I use most because I like it so much. I'd then get a few good old cast iron frying pans. Maybe a carbon steel one too, & one or two aluminum ones of various sizes. And as you've said evangeline, a few copper ones for special purposes. The pan I & my mom seemed to use most is the big 11 1/2" Wear-Ever skillet & lid. When she gave me her old Wear-Ever set, it's the one piece she kept. I had to find my own.
I was really tempted the other day at the World Wide Missions thrift store. I saw a nice really heavy 12 1/2" carbon steel commercial skillet. I don't remember how much it was. It's just way too big for me. It'd never get used. It was a lot like the skillet Chuckie posted that he'd got some time ago. It's kind of the modern version of the really good old cast iron ones.
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Post by mach12 on Oct 7, 2017 9:28:25 GMT -5
Man, that 12 1/2" skillet would have been in my shopping cart in a heartbeat! My dad had one that we always took camping and we have all kinds of pictures of it full of frying fish. When he passed my brother ended up with it and I keep thinking I'll get one. My brother lives up in Alaska so I don't know what he needs a fish frying pan for...
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Post by pooka on Oct 7, 2017 14:42:07 GMT -5
mach12, If it's there next time I go, I could pick it up for you if it's cheap enough. I'll add it to the care package I've got for you so far. I should have sent it off already. The postage is going to be more than I paid for all this stuff. I'll have to find a bigger box.
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Post by evangeline on Oct 7, 2017 18:36:42 GMT -5
Wowza, yes, a carbon-steel skillet for cheap! Those things are big bucks. And very handy, I use an All-clad anodized skillet for high heat searing - the neighbor, who is a dumpster diver - found it on the trash pile (we're a college town, the kids leave amazing stuff behind!). But it has ridges and that screws up making a reduction.
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Post by mach12 on Oct 7, 2017 19:57:10 GMT -5
mach12, If it's there next time I go, I could pick it up for you if it's cheap enough. I'll add it to the care package I've got for you so far. I should have sent it off already. The postage is going to be more than I paid for all this stuff. I'll have to find a bigger box. That'd be great Pooka. I was looking at one at Bargreen Ellingson the other day when I picked up some other stuff and even with my little bit of a discount it was still beyond my retiree's budget. Especially with the kitchen expenses. If it's there then great. If it's not then I obviously didn't need it lol. No hurry on sending that stuff. You've been busy so whenever is good for you is just fine.
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Post by pooka on Oct 8, 2017 9:28:13 GMT -5
Often when I see something nice that I'm interested in, but unsure whether I should take the plunge, I'll leave it for the next day, or another day. If it's still there, I'll consider it again. Often when the moment passes, I rethink that I really don't need it. Other times, I can't grab it fast enough.
That frying pan caught my eye, because I saw the forged steel handle with three rivets like that used on commercial pans. It was tipped on the pile of pans so it wasn't quite so obvious what I was looking at, but I recognized the handle. When I grabbed it to look at it, it was really heavy like the one Chuckie raved about & showed me when I visited him. I then had to think twice. It was really nice, but not something I'd get any use of.
If I was a picker who resells stuff, I'd have grabbed it in a heart beat. When I look at things, I see the useful value or aesthetic beauty, not it's dollar & cents resale value. I don't have the head for the marketing & selling side of that game. I'm just so knowledgeable about so many things, I often know what I'm looking at, whereas many don't know what things are. My criteria when thrift store & antique shopping are, is it useful enough to me that I could or would use it, or is it beautiful enough that it draw my eye for more than a passing glance.
I'm just an uncommon kind of guy who has refined taste & knowledge above my humble station in life. There are very few things I don't have some knowledge of. I often have more questions than answers, but frequently have more answers than most. I'm perplexed that the average person don't know more, but I guess it takes all kinds of people to make the world go round.
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Post by mach12 on Oct 8, 2017 12:32:38 GMT -5
Pooka, I'm not sure why some of us have the appreciation for these things but I was kind of forced into it, and am glad I was. I've been poor, then had a successful career, and as a retiree am living on a pretty tight budget again. When I was about 6 years old my dad was diagnosed with tuberculosis and went into a TB sanatorium. My brother and I just thought he was in the hospital for treatment but at that time there wasn't a treatment and people went in there to spend their last days. For us it was a tough time and we really struggled. We mowed lawns, trimmed hedges, did fence work, delivered newspapers, anything to add nickels and dimes to the jar. I started dragging old TV's home and fixing them and then reselling them and that brought in some decent money. I don't know how many hours I spent at the drugstore using the TV tube tester. I think that's where I learned an appreciation for quality, repurposing, and recycling and in a lot of cases I'd prefer to have those old used pans and stuff than the latest super deluxe magic-coated whiz bang ones. We do have a set of Costco pans hanging from the pot rack because that's what my wife prefers to use and if that makes her smile I'm fine with that. More and more I see her using my Wear-ever and Magnalite cookware but I think she's nervous about messing it up because she knows how much I like my old cookware. For the Paul Harvey part, my dad was one of the first to be treated when they developed the TB drugs and he lived into his eighties. He even got back to backpacking into the high lakes in the Olympic mountains - in spite of a missing lung that was removed due to the TB. I was in excellent shape and had a heck of a time keeping up with him!
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Post by pooka on Oct 9, 2017 8:31:12 GMT -5
First of all, good for your dad. He was one of the lucky ones. We had one of those TB sanatorium on the near west side. After the need passed away it got converted to something else. I don't recall what.
My excuse for knowing so much is that I always wanted to know. That is know about everything. How things work. What things are. Really, the whole ball of wax. I was brought up to have an inquiring mind, & to ask questions. Growing up, we had those orange Childcraft books of nursery rhymes, story's, poetry & story telling & many more subjects about the world around us, natural & man made. After that, it was the Time Life books on evolution, science, nature & the cosmos. It become a lust to know! It's a never ending thirst that is never quenched. Understanding is tougher though.
Many regular people sleep walk through life in blissful oblivion while perusing their chosen paths. They barely scratch the surface of the depth & breath of what there is. That's fine for them, but some like me want to grasp more. I just heard last week that scientists had just proven another aspect of Einstein's Theory that predicted gravity waves. It was long believed to be true, but was just observed by an instrument in Italy. They said the gravity waves were produced by two colossal black holes colliding billions of years ago. That's the kind of news I like. It doesn't change my life, but it put perspective on our every day existence. We are merely fleas on an infinite dog, scratching out our lives oblivious the the great beast.
This is why we should live our lives with zeal if we can or dare. Enjoy most what you know & love. Get the most of what there is, because you're only passing this way once. Enjoy the ride.
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