Wednesday, July 24, 2013

I tried to clean again

My stove was long overdue for a good top to bottom cleaning. I decided that today was the day. I went at it in phases. First there was the wiping of crumbs. From there I moved to a lysol wipe. Then the big guns came out. I strapped on a mask and went hardcore with the nasty spray stuff. The only thing that none of that will touch is the strange funk that the burners get. Cue the googling. Everybody on the net says that the only way to get it done is to put the burners in a ziploc with a splash of ammonia. Left to sit overnight, the fumes eat away at the funk and make it slid right off in the morning. It is like magic, or so they say.
Here is my before (eeeewwwww!)

I am so sure this is going to work that I decide to make step by step pictures. This is the picture of putting them in the bag, and then the ammonia running out of the bags as if I had poked holes in them.

Here is a picture of the large trash bag I quickly tied them up in. Notice that it is now leaking also.

My garage now smells like a hair salon in the 80's or the house of that weird lady in the neighborhood who claims to breed cats. I haven't taken them out yet, mainly because if I get one more smell of ammonia I'm afraid the inside of my nose will catch on fire. I plan on sticking with it and washing them in the morning. If by some miracle they still get clean, I'll update the post.
I'm not sure why every time I try to really clean, bad comedy ensues, but I can only assume that it is because I was not meant to clean.
Update: There was enough ammonia left in the bags to reek when I got them out this morning. The gunk was falling off of them fairly well. I rinsed them off and then threw them in the dishwasher. Here is the official after shot



While it is obviously a lot better, it is not the magically delicious I was promised. A friend said she had better luck with putting them in the oven when she runs the self clean cycle. That trial will have to wait until the weather cools off. While I understand that the ammonia trick saved me some scrubbing, I don't think it was worth it. I've done almost as well with a magic eraser, and they don't smell.   

Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Reversal of Fortune

I had something pointed out to me recently and I felt like I should pass on the information. There has been a huge blow up revolving around the celebrity chef Paula Deen. This post is not about what she said, didn't say, guilt, or innocence. This post is about being tried in the media, sort of. Prior to this whole mess the media was content to use pictures of her supplied by her publicist. They were retouched to the extreme just as most celebrity pictures are. There were no signs of wrinkles, her skin was perfect, her eyes were bright. Now let's look at a comparison I worked up of that verses the images of her that are being used now.


That is a pretty big difference.  (Click on the image to make it bigger)
This got me to thinking. How often does the media decide to go with a bad picture when a pretty one is available or when do they pick a pretty one when they could have one that is a bit more realistic?

You can often tell a writer's political leanings just by the pictures that go with it. Is the president looking presidential or sweating? Poor Marko Rubio didn't even get a shot in focus when the author disagreed with him, but in a more favorable article he looks in charge. The message here seems to be that if the writer likes the person then the picture is pretty. If they want to sway you against someone they will go to extreme lengths to find an unflattering shot.
Just this past week Alec Baldwin got wrinkly bags under his eyes and thinning hair. Who'd have thought that the simple act of insulting a journalist on twitter could age someone so quickly.