Oxtoberfest

We have unfortunately not been to very many pubs while in Oxford, so Oxtoberfest, a four day charity pub crawl event, was a good excuse to go check out some of the places we always walk past and never go into. It also gave us a chance to see the English in their natural environment, slightly drunk but happy instead of the usual sober and sour. The challenge was a fairly short order: a pint from each participating pub and we would get a free t-shirt and brewery tour which I thought would be fantastic. The five participating pubs and our experience with each are below in the order we visited.

Silly British Design - The horizontal can opener

This can opener design might win the triumphant perfection of inconvenience award for reasons you will see in the video. If you’re from the States, and have never seen a horizontal can opener, it is for a very good reason: they suck. Granted this isn’t necessarily a British design so I can hardly blame them, but we are here and it’s the first time we’ve seen it. When figuring out how to use it, Julianne sat in the kitchen for 30 minutes trying desperately to get the can open. Instead of cutting the top of the lid portion of the can, it cuts below it completely taking the lid off. As you can see in the video, it also fails to actually cut the damn can without a force keeping the can still or turning in the opposite direction. So in essence, you need three hands to effectively use the can opener. You also get the added bonus of slivers of can inside of your soup, peaches, or coconut milk in the case of the video. An unwelcome surprise during your dining experience. In celebration of our move from a very uncivilized part of town to a perfectly civilized one, we have retired our horizontal can opener for one that functions as advertised.

Paris je t'aime

I’ve been reading a bunch of books lately that happen to involve historic Paris – first “A Tale of Two Cities”, when Parisian heads are getting cut off, then “Les Miserables”, when French butt gets kicked by English people at Waterloo and then by French people in the streets of Paris, and most recently “Vanity Fair”, when French politics ruin the main character’s dad. Victor Hugo’s book especially made me excited to visit Paris, since he can’t stop talking about how great it is. So I was the most excited of the three of us when our train arrived at Paris Lyon from Avignon.

Silly British Design - Cardboard juice carton

For my first installment of Silly British Designs, I am reviewing the juice carton: a rather simple everyday item designed to provide a solid container you can use to store and pour liquids. A simple idea that has been around at least since the flask and, I imagine, longer than that. Unfortunately, a few companies seem to have oversimplified the design a bit and opted for a lift tab rather than a liquid tight screw top. Why they chose a spout design that does not adequately hold liquid at bay is beyond me.