Oh, I’m not disputing it’s usefulness.
I’m just saying, where I live there is no greater humiliation than still wearing your ‘lanyard’ into the fourth grade.
Keep it in mind if you find yourself north of the border, you might want to stay away from schoolyards and keep an eye open for bullies.
Don’t think just 'cause you paid lots of money for it, or cause you’re calling in a lanyard
that they’ll go easy on ya. They’re mean.
With a screen name like mine, I have to weight in on the egg quesiton:
Eggs can be stored at room temperature if they haven’t already been refrigerated. Once they have been refrigerated, the pores in the shell contract. If you leave out refrigerated eggs, the pores will open again. This shifting, combined with condensation on the shell, will encourage ever-present bacteria to go into the egg where it could make you sick or just rot the egg faster.
So yeah, you can keep eggs that have never seen a 'fridge on the counter. But they will eventually turn. Don’t expect them to live as long as eggs kept in the fridge. Refridgerated eggs can be good for months.
Elbows,
So, who did you think I was kidding? Exactly.
I don’t doubt you get foul weather in London, or Ontario, but you slammed me for no good reason. This is a thread about differences. Differences about where we live.
I’m sure I wouldn’t need $180 dollar mittens in Ontario. I bought the OR mittens when I was doing search and rescue work. They’re great. The lanyards that go over the wrist are a damn good idea.
I still use them when I’m plowing or cleaning off cars after a storm.
You seem to think it’s silly. It’s not. Live at 11,200 feet for twelve years and you would understand.
And don’t, for any reason, no matter what they tell you, lick the metal posts of the swings. (It’s a good thing tongues don’t scar easily, or every Canadian would have a scarred tongue from our childhoods.)
Do you have a cite for that? I’ve never heard that before.
I don’t think Elbows was trying to slam you - it’s just that most Canadian kids wouldn’t be caught dead with strings on their mittens - sort of a rite of passage for us. I agree that mittens with lanyards would be very useful; I would have to overcome my distaste for them to use them, because no one wants to use them here after Grade 3.
Re: taking off your shoes,
It’s not just a Canada thing, it’s (in my experience anyways) common all over northern US, or at least the north east. Think about it:
If it’s all snowy outside, do you want to track snow all over your house? No! So you take off your shoes. And in the spring, when it’s all muddy, same concept. And come summer and fall, we’re already so ingrained to take off our shoes that we don’t think to not take them off.
Many long distance sailors don’t refrigerate the eggs. You just can’t. Not enough room or refrigeration.
Hawaii counts as a foreign country some times. More on shoes:
In Hawaii it is common practice to take your shoes off before going in the house. Heavy Japanese influence in the Islands and all. Has nothing to do with the weather. People don’t tend to wear shoes with lots of laces or complicated straps unless they can slip them on and off or unless they are being deliberatly individualistic.
Despite living in the Islands for some time and running a home service business, my mom still can’t get used to displaying her bare feet for strangers. She carries socks.
Me and the fiance tried to get our Mainland friends to take off their shoes when the come in our house, but it’s no use. Damned savages.
Also, very few home windows in Hawaii are made of panes of glass. Almost all of them have louvers (with screens) because the wind is always going.
And a food difference: there is a whole division of restaurants that serve Plate Lunch. Plate Lunch consists of rice, macaroni salad, and meat. The meat can be fish, beef stew, chicken katsu, or Loco Moco (two fried eggs, two hamburger patties, covered in gravy). My California friends couldn’t believe that Hawaii is not heavily vegetarian. With such beautiful naturall scenery, how could people not be vegetarian? :wally
No, specifically the pores closing then opening again and drawing in condensation. Not the eggs stored at room temperature.
Enipla
So very sorry to tread on your sensitivities, I was, indeed not trying to ‘slam’ you.
I was just illustrating, y’know, differences, mostly in how this accessory is viewed from one place to another.
I was just teasing, please accept my apology, it was not my intention to get your dander up.
I promise to hold my tongue in future.
Forgive me.
I think a lot depends on the conditions in which the eggs are collected, too.
In the US, most eggs are collected from large chicken farms, where the chickens who lay the eggs rarely get the chance to stray from their eggs. This means that the eggs often have chicken sht on them at some point. This creates an ideal environment for salmonella, which can multiply quickly on the outside of the eggshell at room temperature. These eggs are wiped clean before being packaged (who on Earth would by eggs with chicken sht on them!?), but not well enough to remove the salmonella bacteria. (Washing eggs with water increases the chance of transferring the bacteria to the inside of the egg through the pores, so it is never recommended to wash eggs before storing them.)
If there is enough salmonella bacteria on the outside of the shell, the bacteria can be transferred to the raw egg yolk and egg white when the egg is broken. This is the main reason you don’t want to 1) buy eggs with broken shells, or 2) use bulk-bred eggs for recipes where the egg is not completely cooked through.
Refrigeration controls the reproduction of the salmonella bacteria on the outside of the egg shell, which is why refrigeration is strongly recommended, especially in the US. Cooking the egg completely (both the white and the yolk) kills off the bacteria, which is why US recommendations state that no part of the egg should be consumed raw, including meringues and runny yolks in fried eggs.
Free-range chickens and back-yard chickens, who are not confined to laying cells or coops, are much less likely to poop on eggs that are not actively being hatched, so the risk of salmonella contamination is significantly lower.
Even in refrigeration, a completely-salmonella-free egg will go bad within a couple or three months outside of refrigeration, and will last just a few weeks longer with refrigeration. Rotten eggs, though, are immediately recognizable by their smell (unlike contaminated eggs), making it much less unlikely that a person will eat an egg that is too old to be safe in and of itself.
I keep eggs in the fridge, but never for more than a month. I don’t pay any attention to the expiration date on the egg carton, since that date is pretty arbitrary. However, I cannot STAND the smell of rotten eggs, and I would rather throw away a good egg (which generally costs less than a dime) than have to tolerate the smell of a bad egg.
On the other hand, if I am making mousse or another recipe that requires raw or under-cooked eggs, I buy free-range eggs that are only a day or two old and use them immediately.
I don’t know how to post a link to these PDFs, so I’ll have to describe how to navagate to them. Click on this link, then click on the “Egg Basics for the Consumer” PDF link.
The following quote is under the Cleaning Eggs subtitle and talks about fresh eggs collected from the chicken, which is essentially the situation you have if the eggs have not been refrigerated yet
Another paper from the same cite titled “Egg Processing; Ideas for the Future” talks about how washing an egg will take off a protective cuticle on the outside of the shell, making an easier passage for bacteria. Later, they mention that certain refrigeration levels are used to minimize condensation on the shell.
A third paper from that same site titled “The Effect of Temperature and Storage Time on Weight Loss of Table Eggs” goes on about how eggs maintain their size and low bacteria counts longer when refrigerated.
So no, I can’t find an internet cite right now that can confirm precisely what I said above. I got it from one of the top poultry veterinarians in California. I know that does you no good, being hersay and all. I’ll keep digging.
And Kiminy, you are somewhat incorrect. Check out the “Egg Basics for the Consumer” paper. Laying facilities that keep birds in cages use cages where the floor is slanted, so the egg rolls to the front after it is laid. Easier to collect and less likely that they will get dirty. No poop to roll through since the bottoms are wire mesh and all. The eggs are washed to make really sure there is no crap on them and then chilled to keep the bacteria count down. While it is true that passage through the shell is one way that eggs get Salmonella, the bacteria can also be put inside the egg my the hen if she is already infected (check out my second cite). Reduction in the Salmonella load of commercial eggs has been achieved and is maintained by the raising of laying hens that are utterly devoid of the bacteria. Doing this would be very difficult with birds raised on the ground or free range.
And this is what amazed me upon moving to the US. Sure, most Australian homes probably have clothes dryers now, but when the weather is fine a huge number of Australians still dry their clothes on outdoor clotheslines, with the most popular type being some sort of variant on the Hills Hoist.
In my opinion, clothes dried out in the sun and the wind smell much fresher and are more pleasant to wear than clothes dried in an electric dryer. Not to mention the energy savings that accrue by allowing naturally-occurring wind and sunlight to dry your clothes. I’ve even heard of neighbourhoods in the US where such clotheslines are banned as an eyesore. I find it hard to conceive of a policy more ridiculous in its privileging of aesthetics over responsbile energy use.
It’s pretty amazing what lengths some neighborhoods will go to in the name of preserving aesthetic. I’ve heard of neighborhood associations that specify what kind of plants you can have in your yard, the outward color of the curtains, and how many cars you can have in your driveway. Craziness.
The bamboo laundry poles sound tricky, but very elegant. Anyone got photos?
Those cites are certainly good advice but I don’t see anything in them that supports your claim that a previously refridgerated egg is unsafe to leave outside. If I get you correctly:
leaving outside is okay
leaving in the fridge is okay
leaving outside and then putting in the fridge is okay
but leaving in the fridge and then taking outside is bad
Evidently, you seem to be a bit of an egg expert so I’m not doubting your judgement, I just never heard of this before. How long does it take for contamination to occur? Can I leave them on the counter for 2 hours and then cook for them? Or are you saying I should crack eggs straight from the fridge?
Just came up against one of these yesterday: bayonet fitting on lightbulbs.
Haven’t seen them anywhere except the UK and Ireland.
They are so annoying.
Firstly because the screw-in kind exists as well so you inevitably have the wrong kind at hand.
Secondly, they are fussy to change. No really, they are.
I feel like I’m the butt o some international practical lightbulb joke.
I loves me my bayonet bulbs.
They were the ONLY type available in Australia all my life, until a few years ago when the US screw type started appearing. My house now has about half and half, and that is annoying.
I definitely find them easier to install though. Push, twist, done. This isn’t to say that screwing in a US one is rocket science, but it does take a little bit longer, which is annoying when you’re balancing on a chair, and holding a rapidly-falling-asleep arm over your head,
I’ve also found that sometimes the screw type fittings don’t make a good connection. You just keep turning until it kinda just “stops” and you have to assume it’s in properly - but sometimes I’ve done it and the light flickers and hums and I’ve had to go and twist it harder. The bayonet fitting is locked in tight.
Having been to a few places in my life, here are some of the things I found interesting:
South Africa
Fries: Were known as Chips (yeah, it’s a pretty common difference between countries, but I didn’t know at the time). I tried to buy a bag of the stuff for dinner and the clerk was absolutely dumbfounded. I had to explain how you cut a potato up and then fry it.
Security: Instead of fences or barbed wire or barbed wire, many South African houses (in the richer areas) had electrified fences. Sweet stuff – straight out of Jurassic Park. Try to climb one and you’d get zapped.
Taiwan (having spent several years there, I noticed quite a few differences)
Shoes: Like the Canadians, everyone would take off their shoes when entering a house. There’s usually a tiled (as opposed to carpeted/hardwood) section of floor space right next to the door that you can step onto. Then you’d take off your shoes and either place them on a shoe rack or just leave them on the floor and walk around the rest of the house either barefoot or wearing slippers.
Water heaters: Instead of the big cylindrical things you find in America, the water heaters there were relatively small boxes (about the size of a backpack) that had no tanks. Instead, they heated water as it came through the pipes, a little at a time. They worked about as well as the other kind.
Hot water in the kitchen: Instead of kettles, everyone had electric water boilers that sat on the counters much like coffee machines. It held about a gallon of water that would be kept at near-boiling temperatures (perfect for coffee, hot chocolate, ramen, etc.). If necessary, you could also push a button to bring the water to a boil within a few minutes.
Toilets 1: In a lot of public areas (especially older places), the toilets didn’t have seats. Instead, they were simply small ceramic tubs built into a hole in the ground. You, uh, had to squat down to do your stuff. See this picture. I often had to run from store to store to find a seated one. Believe me, you don’t know how much of a blessing they are until you find yourself needing one.
Toilets 2: Some places, instead of having urinals, would simply have one big wall with water flowing down its side. Everyone would just stand next to each other and piss. Thankfully, they were getting less and less common.
Toilets 3: All public toilet stalls would have doors that completely sealed the stall, much like in a regular house. (As opposed to the public restrooms here which usually leave a little opening between the door and the door frame and also a big gap at the bottom).
Movie theaters: Seats were always assigned with your ticket. You’d choose from the available ones at the moment you purchase your ticket, instead of walking in at showtime and finding an open one. If somebody else is in your pre-assigned seat, you can either ask them to move or get a theater employee to do it for you.
Security: Instead of fences or barbed wire, many houses had broken bottle fragments cemented to the top of their walls. Cheap security.
Food on the go: Instead of hot dog stands, there were a variety of sit-down stands that would sell things like noodles, rice bowls, and other traditional foods. They were usually mobile and would show up at night and the owner would set it up and place the seats out.
Tipping: Was almost always unnecessary. You would never tip for pizza, haircuts, taxis, and most restaraunts except expensive Western-style ones (and even then it’s just added to your bill as a gratuity; you wouldn’t leave money on the table).
7-11s: Were EVERYWHERE. They were as common as Starbucks + McDonalds put together here. They were also localized and sold all sorts of stuff you wouldn’t find in American stores, especially ready-to-eat hot foods of various sorts.
Buses: Followed no schedule of any sort. They just came and went as they pleased (along their routes, of course). Sometimes you wouldn’t see one for half an hour; other times you’d see three from the same route one after another.
Japan (probably deserves a lot more, but I wasn’t there long enough to know):
Toilets: Sometimes came with a small faucet with continually-running water (or, in more recent times, a speaker that mimiced the sound). Supposedly, it was to hide the mask of your own piss.
Bowing: Every store employee who served you would bow when saying thinks.
Vending machines: Were uber beyond belief. They sold everything from soda to hot drinks to ice cream to hot food. There were even some stores with nothing but a bunch of self-serve vending machines. Who needs humans?
Anyway, that’s enough for now 
