Appropriate Technology

[Opsa]

Okay, I take it back!

The hand-cranking looks like it would be hard on my back.

The foot-pedaled model looked a little easier, though. Assuming it was foot-powered. Maybe I assumed too much.

It also looks like it may use less water than modern electricackle machines.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

actually my ex did the cooking

We tried it that way (me and my ex) .... and she managed to destroy more than one cooking pot, in a vain (and futile) attempt at boiling water...

... meh.

If she'd been a wee bit less of a lazy sort? 

.... what was I thinking?  The universe would'a collapsed...

[Griffin NoName]

If she'd been a wee bit less of a lazy sort? 

I wasn't allowed to do the cooking. If I tried, the knife would literally be taken out of my hand.

[Lindorm]

Believe it or not, I got married so long ago that for the first year I handwashed everything in the sink, put them through a mangle and hung them on a pulley rope that went from out first floor flat along to the end of the garden.

Interesting. I have never heard of a mangle used in this way, instead of a centrifuge -though it does make sense. Over here, a mangle is something you use to flatten and crisp up your washing after it has been dried, especially bed linen, tablecloths and similar stuff. I try to mangle most of our laundry, especially since the stuff takes up som much less space in the cupboards afterwards. And mangled linen looks and feels sooo nice! 

[Sibling DavidH]

Most people today have never heard of mangles, which spoils one of my favourite sayings: "I haven't laughed so much since Grandma caught her tits in the mangle." 

[Swatopluk]

Today 'mangle' is mainly used as a verb.
In German of course one has to distinguish between Die Mangel (mangle) and Der Mangel (defect, need, lack of something)

So, the 23rd psalm is not about treating cloth

Der Herr ist mein Hirte, mir wird nichts mangeln does not mean 'nothing of mine will get mangled'
While we are at it, one should also not confuse weiden (graze) with (aus)weiden (gut, disembowel).
Er weidet mich auf einer grünen Aue does not translate as 'he disembowels me on the green with great pain'

[Opsa]

So is a mangel-wurzel what we call one of Grandma's tits after it's been caught in the linen-flattener?

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Over here, 'cross the pond, we'd call it a roller, or a washing machine. 

"mangle".  Heh.  That's apt.   My grandma had one (an old fashioned machine with a mangle/roller up top).  Come to think on it?  That machine is probably still there on the farm, even though both gran'ma & pa have long since passed...  I wonder who bought the place-- it was a junkman's treasure-trove, and anyone else's nightmare.

[Swatopluk]

So is a mangel-wurzel what we call one of Grandma's tits after it's been caught in the linen-flattener?

No that would be an old man's private part

[pieces o nine]

There was a mangle -- we called it a "wringer" in the laundry room when I was a wee pirate lass. We were Not To Touch it.

[Aggie]

Ayuh, we called it a wringer-washer.

[Griffin NoName]

As in "to put through the wringer".

[Swatopluk]

In die Mangel nehmen