# Mayday! I've been shanghaied to... mulch! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 2, 2005, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041 "2005-05-02T12:09:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/61 "2005-05-03T17:52:12Z")
> [@Kallessa](#): > > The poo of Pooh, however, is just poo. And you find it in the woods because he is, technically, a bear and all. ---
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/62 "2005-05-03T18:01:07Z")
I think in addition to it being National Eat Dessert First week (glad to see that this gets the attention that it deserves!), it is also MMPer’s Bring Your Cat to the (Really Expensive) Cat Dentist week. Those who do not personally own a cat are excused this year, with a warning. I had to get my cat in this morning to get some teeth extracted and lasered - she has feline oral resorptive lesion - it’s very common, I guess. Anyway, spent the morning waiting for her - and she’s fine. Loopy from the drugs, but fine. I got a little head start/preview on tomorrow’s chocolate goodness by going over and having a Boston Kreme from Dunkin’ Donuts while waiting for kitty. I haven’t had one in like seems like forever. It was sooooo good - the chocolate was so sweet. I was happy. Susan ---
**Author:** ![Tupug\_Anachi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/63 "2005-05-03T18:26:13Z")
Okay, somebody please help me here. How zactly do ya use the bottle and the angel food cake pan. I bought a pan for a recipe for Easter and it’s the kind what has two parts (bottom/center cone and sides). The recipe said to do the bottle thing but wasn’t very descriptive so I ended up just turning the pan over onto a plate like I allus do and it worked okay. So what’s up with the bottle??? So is tomorrow the day you’re supposed to eat dessert first? Does it count if you have dessert for lunch and then have a regular dinner at the appropriate time? Maybe we should start breeding some little gummy kitties what doesn’t gots teefies to same them the trouble of kittie dentistry later in life. They’d prolly thank us. Tupug ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/64 "2005-05-03T19:05:53Z")
MMMM… gummi kitties! I don’t know why a bottle is needed to get a cake out of a pan. Since, as a rule, I don’t bake cakes, I guess I’ll never know. **FCM** makes cakes. Maybe she uses a bottle to get em out of the pan. Aren’t you supposed to like flour the pan or sump’n like that so the cake won’t stick? Aren’t cake pans nonstick anyways? Does the bottle intimidate the cake and scare it out of the pan? This is all so intriguing! I called ACBG and told him it’s eat dessert first week and we should celebrate. He agrees. He even said he’d go get the angel food cake and he’d get some fresh strawberries to slice and sugar to go on the cake. I already got some whipped cream. Well, ok, it’s Cool Whip [sup]TM[/sup]. It’s close enough. And I got some good 'niller ice cream too. And some chocolate syrup. We’re having dessert first tonight! Then we’re having grilled cheese sammiches and veggie soup. Then we’ll have “dessert.” ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/65 "2005-05-03T19:08:39Z")
Mom would take the 7-Up bottle and stick it, top down, into the angel food cake pan, in the hole in the middle. Then she’d flip the whole thing over so the pan was balanced on the bottle. It looked like a really weird lamp. She’d let it cool all inverted like that and then she’d get the cake out of the pan and ice it. Or frost it. Mom always used the drizzley icing on angel food cake, so whatever that’s called. I have no idea why she did this, but she always did, so there _must_ be a good reason for it. Or not. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/66 "2005-05-03T19:14:32Z")
**Rue** ask your mom why she did that and then tell up please. I really wanna know now. While you’re at it, ask her if she’d like an angel food cake pan seven up bottle lamp for Mother’s Day. If she likes the idea you still got time to make one. You’d just have to figure out how to wire up the seven up bottle is all. You don’t have to make the cake, just use the pan as a lampshade. I bet she’d put it in her living room and show it off to everybody. She’d say, “My boy **Rue** made this for me. Ya know, he ain’t ever been what you’d call right.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kallessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7993a0/32.png) [@Kallessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kallessa)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/67 "2005-05-03T19:17:42Z")
> [@Rue DeDay](#): > > And you find it in the woods because he is, technically, a bear and all. True, but poo doesn’t stick to the fur on Pooh Bear, so the rabbits are safe. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/68 "2005-05-03T19:20:28Z")
> [@Kallessa](#): > > The poo of Pooh, however, is just poo. Isn’t there a _Tao of Pooh_? I’m wondering if that’s a load of Pooh poo. Anyone know for sure? Sunny today here. No rain in the forecast until this weekend (of course.) And now snow or sleet in the forecast for quite some time, I’d believe (but I haven’t checked it specifically for that.) If you don’t hear from me after today, it’s because the dentist disconnected something vital tomorrow. I’m getting half my mouth sliced open and then packed with pulverized bone. It’s supposed to keep my jawbone from disintegrating. Sounds like a _Saturday Night Live_ skit to me, to be honest with ya. ---
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/69 "2005-05-03T19:38:51Z")
> [@swampbear](#): > > I don’t know why a bottle is needed to get a cake out of a pan. Since, as a rule, I don’t bake cakes, I guess I’ll never know. **FCM** makes cakes. Maybe she uses a bottle to get em out of the pan. Aren’t you supposed to like flour the pan or sump’n like that so the cake won’t stick? Aren’t cake pans nonstick anyways? Does the bottle intimidate the cake and scare it out of the pan? This is all so intriguing! If you are making an angel food cake, you do not want a nonstick pan and you don’t want to grease it! Angel food cake needs to climb the walls of the pan to get that nice structure. And I just looked it up - the reason to invert angel food cakes is because it can’t support its own weight until it sets - those egg whites just aren’t strong enough! Susan ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/70 "2005-05-03T19:43:42Z")
> [@swampbear](#): > > **Rue** ask your mom why she did that and then tell up please. I really wanna know now. I b’lieve I can answer this - it’s for quicker cooling. If the pan is sitting on the counter, the bottom side stays hotter longer. But when you raise the pan on a bottle, or if you set it on a cooling rack so air can get all around it, it will cool faster. I have part of an angel food cake pan. I no longer have the middle part. I don’t know if the packing guys just didn’t pack it or if it got accidentally thrown out or what, but I haven’t tossed the main body part, just in case the middle shows up. Not that I ever made an angel food cake, but I have a good pound cake recipe that would work good in that pan. If I find the middle. That’s all I got… ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/71 "2005-05-03T19:45:29Z")
> [@susan\_foster](#): > > - the reason to invert angel food cakes is because it can’t support its own weight until it sets - those egg whites just aren’t strong enough! > > Susan OK, so what do I know… I make devil’s food cakes. ---
**Author:** ![Kallessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7993a0/32.png) [@Kallessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kallessa)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/72 "2005-05-03T19:45:30Z")
> [@swampbear](#): > > **Rue** ask your mom why she did that and then tell up please. I really wanna know now. While you’re at it, ask her if she’d like an angel food cake pan seven up bottle lamp for Mother’s Day. If she likes the idea you still got time to make one. You’d just have to figure out how to wire up the seven up bottle is all. You don’t have to make the cake, just use the pan as a lampshade. I bet she’d put it in her living room and show it off to everybody. She’d say, “My boy **Rue** made this for me. Ya know, he ain’t ever been what you’d call right.” 😃 People, back in the day angel food cake pans were all of one piece, making removal of said cake difficult (because the cake is so tall it exerts more pressure on the sides of the pan, therefore making it less able to release itself and just pop on out of the pan. In fact, even with a removable middle part it quite possible to leave big old chunks of angel food cake sticking to the sides of the pan). Coupled with angel food cake’s inherent lightness, this makes it very probable that some of the cake will come out, and a lot won’t come out (and, like snowflakes, angel food cake never splits the same way twice–the first one will split into an upper and a lower level, the next, three-quarters of the round and one-quarter of the round, the third will do a little of both of the first two and the fourth one just disintergrates into atomic particles). If you were simply to turn the hot angel food cake pan over onto a plate or rack, you run the risk of trapping heat which may serve to toughen the cake edges, without sufficient gravity to encourage the cake to slide on out of the pan all in one piece (yes, obviously it will\* work to just turn the pan over, but the risk of a split, a crack, a fissure is always present). By placing the inverted angel food cake pan over a bottle (I believe a Coke bottle is more traditional, but whatever), air is allowed to assist with the cooling of the cake and gravity’s persistent pull has just that much more space, (but not too much space, we don’t want the cake to have to fall a great distance now do we? Hence, the shape of the pop bottle allows for the cake to be elevated, but not too much) in which to coax the little darling down all in one piece. Of course, the conscientious baker always removes the cake from the bottle before gravity has completely done its thing and gently assists the cake in freeing itself from the pan once the bond 'twixt pan and cake is suuficiently weakened. Unlike those of matrimony, some bonds are meant to be broken. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/73 "2005-05-03T19:51:32Z")
If you prefer the smell of a Haitan protest to the smell of poo§, there’s always the [Rubber Mulch](http://www.rubberificmulch.com/index.asp) option. But be prepared to shell out a few, it costs 10x more than hardwood mulch. ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/74 "2005-05-03T19:51:44Z")
Geez **Kalley** you channeling Alton Brown? 😃 Like I said, it’s just easier to go buy the dang thing. Or let ACBG buy it, which is even easier. Thanks for the explanation though everybody. I’ll never use it but now I knows it. I still think **Rue** should make his mother an angel food cake pan and seven up bottle lamp for Mother’s Day. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/75 "2005-05-03T19:54:17Z")
I’ve seen _The Tao of Pooh_. There’s another one called [t]The Te of Piglet\*. I think they are really both about Buddhism. Serious books, not joke books. Aerin and Bailey are **not allowed** to need any more expensive vet stuff ever. Bailey used it all up in the first two months after we got married. So I will resolutely ingore whatever evil things are happening to their teeth as a result of this thread. I went to have a little short nap at 1:00. It’s now 3:43. Exactly what happened? I never nap for more than an hour. Yeesh. And it hailed while I was sleeping. I woke up briefly to the sound of ice pellets on the window. Maybe it’s a good day to spend in bed. Hail. Cold. Rain. Guys, you don’t even know if you _like_ my music. The first cd I made (after being cd-softwareless for ages) had: Diesel Power- The Prodigy Kingdom- VNV Nation Home Stay- Yokko Kanno Divide- Assemblage 23 No Man’s Land- Covenant Le It Go- Fiction8 Floorkiller- Icon of Coil The Fires Within- This Morn 'Omina Solitary- VNV Nation Let The Wind Erase Me- Assemblage 23 Fun With Drugs- Velvet Acid Christ (with _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_ quotes. It starts with, \*"Oh, God. Did you eat all this acid?) Ground- Assemblage 23 Unicorn- Apoptygma Berzerk Document- Assemblage 23 I’m not sure I like the _Document_ remix. Oh, well. So, you see, I don’t think any of you are into EBM and Industrial music with no actual instruments. Correct me if I’m wrong- is anyone else here a rabid Assemblage/Seabound/Strormkern fan? ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/76 "2005-05-03T19:56:12Z")
I _can_ code. I really can. Must be the nap. ---
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/77 "2005-05-03T20:41:59Z")
> [@MagicEyes](#): > > **susan\_foster,** I have some cocoa nibs, and I’m not sure what to do with them. I’m thinking ultra-decadent chocolate chip cookies, but maybe I’ll do something else. Hey MagicEyes - where did you find the nibs? Second - if I had nibs I would: 1. Make [Muffins à la Framboise, Eclats de Fève de Cacao](http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2005/03/muffins_a_la_framboise_eclats_de_feve_de_cacao_imbb13.php) . 2. Make one of the many recipes with cacao nibs in [Bittersweet](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1579651607/qid=1115153157/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-0410180-9717738?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) . I’m planning on making the Tiger Cake from that book next Thursday, because I’m going visiting. Should be interesting - the recipe calls for Extra-Virgin Olive Oil & white pepper. Susan ---
**Author:** ![Tupug\_Anachi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/78 "2005-05-03T20:53:20Z")
Ahhhhhhhhhhh, thanks everybody for the info. It now makes sense for using the bottle. Do you think I should demand my money back from Target for selling me a non-stick angel food cake pan? :dubious: **swampy** , I had a recipe for an angelfood cake that had marschino cherries an some other stuff in it so I had to make my own. It came out tasty but, ya know, it did sink a little while it was cooling on the rack. **lissla** …HUH? 😕 Those are bands? Okay, since you folks is so cooking knowledgeable, what is farmer cheese like? What would make an acceptable substitute if your local grocery is “land o the bland” when it comes to cheese? ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/79 "2005-05-03T21:02:05Z")
\*The Tao of Pooh \* was pretty good, \*The Te of Piglet \* slightly less. That may be because they actually \*are \* that way or I just like Tao more than Te. My kitties are waaaay over due for their vet visit. They’re supposed to go on their birthday which was April first, last year. Please throw only soft rocks at me. My excuse is… erm… their carry cage is very heavy and doesn’t fit in my car so I have to stuff both of them in the small cardboard carrier they fit in quite nicely as kittens but is rather like clowns getting out of a clown car since they’re both very full grown and it makes me laugh to see them do that and so then I get distracted and just keep stuffing them in the small box until the office closes and then it’s too late. Yeah, that’s it. Pierogies for dinner! No angel food cake, which my mom always cooled off upside down over any old bottle because we never \*ever \* had soda in the house. Kool aid either. And the little paper cups were plain flowers, not with jokes, and we couldn’t have even that if we were wet and had grass stickin’ to us. The hose was good enough for us then. Cruelty to children, I tells ya. ---
**Author:** ![ems](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@ems](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ems)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041/80 "2005-05-03T21:04:03Z")
Angel food cake sounds yum. I have never had that before. mmmmm cake Oh and I decided (for better or worse) to take the promotion and my bosses job and all the stress that goes along with it. This is a good thing. I think [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mayday-ive-been-shanghaied-to-mulch/302041.md?page=5)