So finally it's Black Friday. It didn't start last Monday, and it certainly didn't start at the beginning of November. Call me a curmudgeon, but I'm old school and I think Black Friday should be Black Friday and that Christmas doesn't start until after Thanksgiving. And that means the day after, not the afternoon of. Shame on retail businesses that make their employees work on Thanksgiving evening.
Soapbox again? I'll quiet down now. :-)
Anyway, it's shopping time. Here are a few of my favorite purchases over the past few years—things which made life better, or that solved a problem or exceeded expectations. Many were originally recommended by readers and friends. Plus, a few new recommendations are mixed in. A couple of readers wrote whole lists, so I'll publish theirs separately eventually (I like "other voices"). This one's a general grab-bag, not photo-related.
Dusk-to-dawn lightbulbs. I knew there were fixtures that will sense the light levels and come on when it gets dark and turn off again at dawn, but I didn't know there are now bulbs that can be screwed into any ordinary light fixture that can do the same. I had an issue because the two lights on my barn are only switched from inside the barn—which does little good, since the primary time you want the light is when you're going out to the barn in the dark. For years I worked around the problem by keeping the front light perpetually off and the back light perpetually on. Then my friend Mike Santelli told me about dusk-to-dawn lightbulbs like these 6-watt Bluex Solray LED dusk-to-dawn lightbulbs. They come in white-light versions too, if you insist—I use yellow bulbs outside because they're kinder to the bugs and birds. The sensor is inside the bulb itself. Now the barn lights turn on automatically when it gets dark and turn off by themselves after dawn. Perfect.
WFPB living. I'm 11/12ths finished with the latest in a long line of diet experiments I started in about 2012—this go-'round, a whole year on whole-food plant-based (WFPB). I'll do a proper wrap-up this coming December 19th when my year officially ends, but I've loved eating for health and it's made big differences in my life that I'm grateful for. If you're interested in a food-for-health approach, start by watching Forks Over Knives. It opened my eyes and got me kicked off down a path that's been "tasty" in many ways.
Griddler Deluxe. So as not to be doctrinaire and give equal time to meat-eaters, let's include this Cuisinart Griddler Deluxe, which Frank Goforth calls "one of the best kitchen appliances we've ever bought." And, as Hugh and Dan pointed out in the comments, it looks like a drymount press!
A good drill. Not to be a broken record about a tool (I've recommended this before), but a drill is a tool that most homeowners have even if they're not into improvement projects. A purchase I'm happy about every single time I use it has been a good-quality cordless drill. I suffered for decades limping along with a motley of cheap, inferior corded "afterthought" drills that were weak and frustrating and had separate chucks that I was forever losing. A proper cordless drill with an easy-to-use built-in ratcheting chuck is so much easier to use and so much more effective that it's a positive relief compared to using all those drills that were barely good enough. This 3/8-inch DeWalt Xtreme 12V MAX cordless drill/driver kit is the current version of what I have. I imagine any good modern professional brushless cordless drill will serve, but even if you just use a drill for household upkeep and occasional projects, buy your last drill (or, if you're young, a drill that will last). I'm glad I did.
Monitor arm. Rob L wrote that a "surprise payoff" among his recent finds was a Vivo Vesa monitor arm. "Getting your displays up just a tad more and making them mobile makes for a tremendous difference in comfort when you're in front of them all day." (Here's a deluxe version.)
'Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door' (folk saying derived from a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson): This is something you can't buy, but I've been researching humane mouse traps and this one is ingenious. It's in the prototype stage so far. It's the "Sudden Earthquake Mousetrap" by a guy named Axel from Berlin, Germany, version 8. Take a look at the video starting at about 6:50. You just put a little peanut butter out on the end of it and when they move over the sensor, that black strip, down they go. It can be either a kill trap or a humane catch-and-release trap depending on whether you put water or shavings in the five-gallon bucket it's designed to be mounted on. (That's a pet mouse in the picture.)
Zoom-cam: Not THAT Ross Cameron from Down Under recommends the Logitech C925-e Webcam with HD video and built-in stereo microphones. "On the off chance anyone is looking for a webcam," writes Ross, "I’ll put a plug in for the Logitech C925-e. It’s not top shelf / top price, nor bottom. I wanted something decent quality for audio (there are no speakers) and video, for work meetings from my home office. It works well with Zoom. A nice touch is the little privacy shutter that slides over the front of the lens. And in Australia, I could claim it as a tax deduction (came in under our cap so no need to depreciate over time). The webcam sits neatly on top of either a laptop screen or monitor, making it easy to flick between looking at the screen and at the camera."
World's nicest freestanding kitchen trash receptacle:
Brother Scott recommended this beautifully engineered simplehuman 40 Liter / 10.6 Gallon stainless steel butterfly-lid step trash can—he likes elegantly engineered products of all sorts—and I've had mine for five years now. The dedicated bags fit perfectly and are easy to change, and the butterfly lid lets it fit most anywhere. It's gotten so I adjust my step when I walk over to it so my foot naturally lands on the step opener. The lid is soft-closing and silent. Simple to operate but not intuitive, so read the instructions, and alert helpful family members or housekeepers as to how to change the bag.
Excellent non-sacrificing surge suppressor: The Furman SS-6B-Pro and its predecessor model are beloved of gigging musicians and are widely used, I'm told. It's a surge-suppressing power strip that doesn't sacrifice itself in "extreme voltage" situations such as lightning strikes: it keeps on working after the voltage stabilizes again. Solidly made with metal casework and a beefy 15-foot cord.
Eddie Bauer Mens Superior Down Parka: I hesitate to admit this, but I will anyway: this is the third different parka I bought in succession when I was shopping for a new winter coat after 25 years with my old one. I actually bought two others and found both of them...well, inferior. The first was a very expensive North Face that couldn't even keep the wind out as well as an ordinary windbreaker—despite being almost too large to strap myself into the car when I was wearing it, the sleeves were virtually useless against cold moving air. I'd hate to be caught on the north face of anything in that! I swallowed hard and donated it to charity, all but brand new, and took the loss. This one? It's there in the name: Superior. Third time's a charm. Love this. It's as close to a warm hug as I get, it's not too bulky for the seatbelt, it's well made, and it's nice and toasty in my 5–6 (seriously, my county is right on the border) climate zone. You can remove the fur trim but not the hood. This one gets the nod from me.
Finally, do you have your Vitamix and Instant Pot yet? I've recommended each one about five times. Both are vital to the TOP World HQ kitchen laboratory, and I suspect will become even more important in the coming year, given my upcoming New Years resolution. More about that on December 19th.
I'd go on here, but you know what? I'm slowing down. Literally! It took me an embarrassingly long time to build this post. I used to be able to whack something like this out in a torrid four-hour work session. No longer. Now it takes me a day and a half. I guess it's true what they say.
Mike
(Thanks to Rob L, Dan S, hugh crawford, Mike Santelli, Frank
Goforth, Not THAT Ross Cameron, and Scott Johnston)
Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Speed: "Re: Monitor Arm, I have the dual monitor version and it is terrific. One additional benefit: Because the monitors are suspended from behind, the formerly wasted desk space under them is now un-wasted."
Gerard Geradts: "Another 10 hours of wasted time thanks to TOP. This time all the mousetraps of the world. Hilarious. I really enjoyed it all."
xf mj: "I gotta confess I can be buoyed by any TOP posts that mention a camera or lens choice I've made. I like the validation, probably more than I ought to. Who knew I could feel the same pride of ownership for my garbage can? I am a total fanboy for that little steel flip-top guy there, though I happen to own the Mark I model without the dual lid. My girlfriend hates it, though, and prefers something a little less fussy to dump the trash in. So it goes with my TOP choices!"