Behold the gently used piece of tinfoil.
"Gently used" refers to bits of tinfoil (and yes, while at a party last weekend, I was looking for a bit of tinfoil to cover a piece of cake to take home to the Goat and, when I inquired, "do you have a piece of tinfoil?"I was met with the guffaws of at least one guest who informed me that tinfoil hadn't been made from tin in decades, to which I responded that I knew tinfoil is actually aluminum foil, but I call it tinfoil anyway and then I went on to search the drawer next to the icebox before retrieving my pocketbook, which was on the davenport, and setting out for home) that are used, but not used to capacity. Most people would simply throw such an item away, but I do not allow a gently used piece of tinfoil to go gentle into that goodnight.
The tinfoil pictured herein was initially used to cover a rectangular container onto which a grater fits. Having used the grater to grate cheddar cheese (for addition to mashed potatoes), and having intentionally grated extra (for my daughter to sprinkle on top of her cheddar mashed potatoes despite the cheese already in the potato dish), but having grated even more than she prefers, some grated cheddar remained in the container, which I duly covered with a piece of tinfoil.
Since the container is fairly deep, the tinfoil did not contact the leftover cheese. Hence, when I removed it to use the cheese in the composition of a grilled ham and cheddar sandwich a day or two later, I examined the foil, deemed it reusable, and set it aside.
The rest of the story has yet to play out, but is obvious enough. This piece of tinfoil will hang around for a day or two, irritating the hell out of me because, although it is obviously not a piece of trash, it looks like a piece of trash on the counter. Eventually, I'll get fed up with the situation and violently crumple the foil into a ball while muttering to myself, JeSUS enough already, and toss it into the trash.
The sad inevitable truth will unfold in the following several minutes, or maybe an hour. Either the Goat will wander in and ask for a piece of tinfoil to scrub the grill (As is abundantly apparent, I've got plenty of problems of my own. Ask him if you want details on how to use tinfoil to scrub your grill), or a leftover chicken leg will be relieved of its meat rendering it ready for discard, or some other use for a gently used piece of tinfoil will present itself. (I should duly note that, although I will happily wrap a gnawed chicken bone in a gently used piece of tinfoil and then discard it, I would never use a new piece of tinfoil for this purpose.) I wish things were different, but they are not. Life is this way and it will always be this way.
Thusly, I succumb.
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23 comments:
Hey, I am the same way too.. When I line my baking sheet to put a casserole dish on- so if by chance it should drip it will land on the foil.. If the foil is spotless I will find other uses for it... We're also conserving all those 'tin trees' aren't we? lol
Maybe they should start making aluminum foil out of tin. The use of aluminum in the form of antacids, deodorant, and for cooking has been associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Wife: What are you doing?
Bill: Reading about used tinfoil.
Wife: Oh.
Did you wear a pair of nylons and your pantygirdle to the party, Erin? Wore your hair in a Bubble after sporting scarf-covered rollers all day and dabbed on a little Evening in Paris behind the ears?
Who knew tinfoil could be so entertaining. I hate counter clutter too.
strosion sez:
@ JEFF9K:
Associated with, but never proven. Kinda like the powerlines=cancer and vaccines=mercury poisoning/autism, mysteries, et al ad nauseam proported links. I know we all live with the oft-insisted (and sometimes erroneously published) Hype, but that does not mean we have to believe it either.
Anyway ...
@Erin:
I probably need not implore that you ignore said candyasses, as we know that these noms des objets domestiques are also generational, as I assure you that I would not have been the one scoffing.
;-)
Tinfoil is still used to make the hats worn by today's Republicans.
Hal: Of course. Although I'm not a member of the Republican party, a tinfoil hat is very easily adjusted to fit my head as it gets bigger as we get closer to November.
Erin: Tinfoil is a catalyst for polital debate? You're good.
Alan has an obsession with saving plastic bags: ziplock bags and also those flimsy plastic bags you use in the vegetable isle, like say when you buy a bunch of carrots. He assures me that they are perfectly reusable, but he never actually does. They pile up on the counter, in the drawers, stuck in the little space beside the fridge. He even will go so far as to *wash* a ziplock bag for later use. Erf! This drives me up the wall to no end. Eventually, when he's not looking, I throw them all out. (This has one side benefit: it makes it look like I cleaned the kitchen, when I really didn't!) And then it starts all over again! Oy.
Your tin-instead-of-aluminum story reminded me of a similar conversation at my former workplace. I had to help this girl, who was about 15 years younger than me, mark some boxes. I asked her if I should get a magic marker. Her reply: "You can get a marker, but it doesn't have to be magic."
They were called Magic Markers when I was a kid. Somewhere along the way, they became ordinary markers.
I am here. Exhausted, but here. The good news is that I was obliged to used the gently used piece of tinfoil to line a pan for heating up a couple of chicken patties.
Thank Christ for that.
My Mom used to call it 'silver paper.' I've even caught myself calling it this. You should see the look you get in a restaurant when you ask for a piece of silver paper to wrap up that left over piece of meat.
Wonder what would happen if you wrapped a nick clegg in tinfoil?
RJ
He would probably transmit Beatles songs.
I'm a fan of that Daisy cottage cheese.
I am compelled to save strange things. For instance, I cannot throw away a gift bag to save my life.
I don't know why.
I never re-use them.
Somehow it just seems rude to throw them out.
You know?
we should try to re-use what we have.
can you say hoarder?
I, too, reuse gently used foil; I, though, smmoth it and fold it and stash it in that drawer--you know, the one next to the icebox that contains the fresh foil and wax paper and parchment paper and sandwich bags and cellophane...
... AND the freezer paper!
Two things: my nieces and nephew call cabinets cupboards- it is so cute and nursery book-like. I remembered my grandmother keeping us busy by giving us a spoon and a piece of used tinfoil- we were to smooth it out with the back of the spoon. It would look better than brand-new when we were done! Save the TinFoil (the name and the object)!
Were you wearing your dungarees and saddle shoes when you got your pocketbook off of the davenport?
hmmmm ... I might have been in my peddle-pushers and sneakers ...
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