# What ordinary every day items impress you?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 27, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956 "2013-11-27T22:15:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Earth001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earth001)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/1 "2013-11-27T22:15:03Z")
We always talk about items that impress us that are electronic in nature. Such as Television, movies, or video games etc. But what are some ordinary every day items that just amaze you.
For me: it would be the Spork!
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### Author:  [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/2 "2013-11-27T22:51:20Z")
plumbing!
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### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2013, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/3 "2013-11-27T23:01:17Z")
Paved roads-they are AMAZING. lOOK AT WHAT LIFE WAS LIKE IN AN 1890’S TOWN…WITH UNPAVED STREETS!
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/4 "2013-11-27T23:12:41Z")
adhesives
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### Author:  [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/5 "2013-11-27T23:26:23Z")
Running hot water, hell running water in general…
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/6 "2013-11-27T23:41:04Z")
> [@carlotta](#):
>
> plumbing!
INDOOR plumbing!
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### Author:  [@LouLou7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouLou7)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/7 "2013-11-27T23:44:24Z")
Velcro.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [November 27, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/8 "2013-11-27T23:47:33Z")
Contact lenses. I often imagine what it would be like to explain contact lenses to an alien. “It’s this little piece of plastic, see? And I stick it on my eyeball. What? Oh, yeah, \*most \*things hurt when they touch my eyeball, but not this. This just makes me see better. Wait…where are you going?”
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### Author:  [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/9 "2013-11-28T00:32:23Z")
Several years ago I crashed a bicycle and the end result was that my right knee looked like a pizza (fortunately my bike was unhurt). After a few messy and failed experiments with gauze and tape I decided to try this product I had never heard of before. Tegaderm, for those unfamiliar with it, is like a thin cellophane in an adhesive paper frame. It breathes, you can shower with it, and you can leave it on for a week. So I put this on my knee and watched the pizza visibly decrease, without scabbing, over the course of a week or two. I was really impressed.
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### Author:  [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/10 "2013-11-28T00:32:58Z")
> [@Yllaria](#):
>
> INDOOR plumbing!
Toilet paper!
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### Author:  [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/11 "2013-11-28T01:19:00Z")
Two things -
GPS units:see, its this little machine that tells me how to get to places I want to go - this is particularly when coupled with google maps. It’s just amazing to me
Digital Cameras: no reason why, but they just constantly amaze me
Thumbdrives: So much information on such a small thing, and so so convenient.
Then my current toy is a flucard - it will insert into my Digital Camera and then wirelessly send pix to multiple wireless devices (like my laptop or phone)
Note: In the interests of full disclosure I maintain the [facebook page](http://www.facebook.com/trekkians) for TREK - who invented the flucard.
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### Author:  [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/12 "2013-11-28T01:40:07Z")
Air conditioning.
Try explaining to someone raised in a remote Saharan village that at your home you can flick a switch and it gets cold. “No shit, I push a button and it’s not hot anymore. Really!”
Now explain to them car air conditioning. “Yeah - I can do it in the car too! Yep, on the move we can drive in the cold even when it’s hot outside.”
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### Author:  [@Waxwinged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waxwinged)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/13 "2013-11-28T01:42:18Z")
Definitely indoor plumbing. The only thing that lets people live in the density that they do.
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### Author:  [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/14 "2013-11-28T02:16:02Z")
I have to admit that indoor plumbing is impressive as hell.
It would be impressive if it was instituted in even a small community, but to pull it off reliably in a huge urban area like the cities we have today is truly an engineering marvel.
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### Author:  [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/15 "2013-11-28T02:17:58Z")
Cup-holders in cars!
I remember as a kid if you were driving long-distances and needed a drink you had to hold the cup or bottle. Being the driver was worse, sure you could balance it on the steering wheel or rest it between your legs but a bump or having to hit the breaks and it’s spillage everywhere.
When I got my first car with a cup-holder I went for a drive just so I could use it!
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### Author:  [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/16 "2013-11-28T02:22:30Z")
I hired a Mexican off the street corner to help me at work. Stopped at the store to take a call and gave him a couple dollars to get something to eat. He stopped in front of the doors to the store and didn’t go in til somebody came out. When he got back in the truck I was teasing him, what’s the deal, never seen a door before? He just said real simply, we didn’t have doors in my village.
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### Author:  [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/17 "2013-11-28T03:23:29Z")
Zippers still fascinate me, but I’m known to be easily amused.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/18 "2013-11-28T03:26:48Z")
Plastics, man.
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### Author:  [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/19 "2013-11-28T03:30:58Z")
Colour TV. Analogue or digital, but [**analogue was neater**](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMVrVAmlreo).
Colour signals and sound fly through the air? How cool is that?!
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2013, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-ordinary-every-day-items-impress-you/674956/20 "2013-11-28T03:32:31Z")
From my grandmother, modern feminine hygiene products.
For me, writing “stuff”: notebooks, pens, pencils, mechanical pencils… just the wire binding in a school notebook is a pretty amazing piece of technology (plus the [paperblanks](http://www.paperblanks.com/us/en) line is just gorgeous and no I don’t need another one).
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