Kettle & Times

You know those little box sets of kitchen items you can get when you go off to college? The ones that always have a coffee maker and a toaster? They have those here, only instead of a coffee maker there is an electric kettle. For some reason, one does not make their tea here on a regular stove-top kettle (on a "hob"). Right now in my kitchen (used by six people), there are three of these kettles. Which is especially miraculous because only one of these people is actually English. When you are at other peoples' homes and they are making tea, you never get the warning call that it will be done in a moment. I think it actually requires sitting there and watching. I do not understand this appliance. You can't even make ramen in these kettles. Speaking of appliances, I must grab my coffee.

There is an episode of friends where Rachel buys a bunch of items from Pottery Barns and has to pretend all of the items are antiques, telling Phoebe things are from "colonial times", and when asked what other times there were her best answer is "times of yore". A) It is sad that I know that. B) It is sad because it is true. In America we are somewhat without defined 'times'. This is primarily because we are a wee, sprightly young country that doesn't get bogged down with these sorts of mundane details. Here on the other hand, they have actual defined 'times'. Those most frequently mentioned would be 'Roman times' and 'Saxon times', and everyones more recent favorites 'Elizabethan times' and 'Victorian times' (note: kings are not worthy of getting their names added to the word 'times', they have eras and periods, like the 'Edwardian era' and the 'Regency period'). While I sometimes get the impression that no one really knows what any of these thigns mean, this does not make it any less impressive that they exist and still manage to be relevant on a recurring basis.

I hear the Colts won the Superbowl. This occurred in my sleep, so I'm not sure if it was a good game or not. England beat Scotland this past Saturday at rugby. Apparently we are pleased, but it seems like a country of 50 million people should be able to beat a country of 5 million people. Do we consider it a triumph when we beat Canada at anything? Eh?