But yeah, even then – and we’re talking 25-30 years ago here – there was a bunch of silly stuff. Back then my eyes just sort of passed over without seeing it. They also had good solid kitchen tools that appealed to the ex-mechanic in me. I took my first bread-baking class at a Williams-Sonoma.
Still, making fun of silly stuff never gets old. And I guess the W-S catalog hasn’t gotten any more no-nonsense in all these years. Enjoy.
Price: $99.95
Copy: “Digital screen shows number of cork pulls left in charger.”
Drew says: Well, thank God for THAT. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had the electric corkscrew go out on me right in the middle of opening bottles of emergency Chianti for UNICEF kids.
Bah. During the same period, I’ll have you know, I was well aware that the corkscrew on my Swiss Army Knife actually worked very well for its chosen task – though a good waiter’s corkscrew was better by far, and I did possess a good one.
Tools, people. Tools. They separate us from the animals.
That at least seems more useful than the $85 stone in a leather pouch offered by Nordstrom’s.
Tools, people tools: They allow us to harvest edible animals, and reduce them to large enough portions to cook and eat.
Once in my youth I was in the Mill Valley store on my way to somewhere else, read the catalog faithfully. Still have garden and kitchen tools bought from them a very very long time ago. Unlike S&H kitchen tools, the ones I buy from King Arthur Flour don’t last more than a few years and are guaranteed for just one year. Good quality tools are a joy.