Poems On Love, Life, Hope, Dreams...

[Sideways]

[Hi Sue ~ (and thanks for letting me borrow your thread for a moment, Ekta). With the comments having been about line drying clothes vs. tumbler dryers, the NPR commentator closed with, "So, if something you hear on NPR leaves you feeling fluffed or starched, please write to us." I immediately thought of you and wondered how you feel about these occupation-specific frames of reference; and while we're at it, how do you feel about line drying... for the benefit of the clothes, as well as the impact on property values? If there's an appropriate thread to transport this to, to answer, please do. I couldn't locate one and didn't want to chance forgetting it.]

Thanks, Ekta. I can see you have some heartfelt thoughts that I share about the ironing.


~ Lizzy

Hello Lizzy, these are my General Guidelines for Proper Ironing Procedure. If your query is not adequately answered herein then please feel free to PM me!


Sue's General Guidelines for Proper Ironing Procedure (3rd Revised Edition 2006)


Ironing clothes can be a tricky job. With so many fabric types, pleats, tucks, seams, etc. getting the wrinkles out can give even the best housekeeper a headache. Find out the top 7 ironing mistakes we make and how to avoid them. Some of them begin before we ever turn on our iron!

1. Letting clothes over-dry.

Clothes are very difficult to iron when they are fully dry or over dried in the dryer. Over-dried clothes can be very difficult to reshape. Try to remove clothes when they are still slightly damp. If you line dry your clothes, bring them inside to iron when they are not quite dry.

2. Overfilling the dryer.

It would seem like stuffing as many clothes as can fit into a dryer would save us time, but more than likely it will only lengthen the time you spend caring for your clothing.

An average dryer should be only 1/2 full in order to allow freedom for all clothing to move. If too many articles of clothing are in the dryer, it will create monster wrinkles, and make your ironing much more difficult.

3. Forgetting to shake and smooth.

When clothing is removed from the dryer, it frequently sits in a basket waiting to be ironed. Take a few minutes and shake out your clothing. Reshape garments, and smooth out seams and pleats. Even if clothing still needs to be ironed, it will be a much smoother process.

4. Not using the sprayer.

Many irons today come with a built in sprayer to dampen clothes during ironing. If yours doesn't have one, purchase a new inexpensive empty spray bottle to use. Dampen the clothing when you are ready to begin ironing. Wrinkles will fall out of the clothing as you iron. If you don't use the sprayer to soften up the clothing, ironing is much more difficult and for some garments, impossible.

5. Using Hard Water.

Tap water may be okay to use in your iron, depending on what type of water you have. People with hard water risk damaging their iron. Read the instructions for your iron, and if in doubt, use distilled water in your iron.

6. Improper use of starches and sizers.

Starches and sizers are a great tool when ironing, but they must be used properly. Spray these products as you iron, but allow them to actually penetrate into the garment before ironing over them. Allowing just a few seconds for the clothing to soak up the starch or sizer, will keep your iron's soleplate from becoming built-up with product residue.

7. Ironing heavyweight fabrics first.

If you have a large pile of ironing to do, try to iron your lightest silk, synthetic, and delicate fabrics first. These need to be ironed on low temperatures. Once the iron heats up, and you've ironed your lightweights, you can move on to the wools, cottens, linens, etc.

8. Ironing and Cell-Phones.

Be closely aware of the danger of ironing whilst your cell-phone is nearby. It has been reported that a number of amateur ironers have lifted and pressed their iron to the ear in mistake for the cell-phone. This has lead to significant injury in some cases.


Love

Sue (in New Jersey)(so it doesn't need ironing yet)

[Geoffrey]

EktaKKalra explained to Sideways:
>I do not pre-decide the topic and style. My poems are all inspired by God and comes out on paper as He best wants.


all of them? what about if you want to write a poem yourself; surely you can ask Him to sod off for a few minutes?

[Sideways]

EktaKKalra explained to Sideways:
>I do not pre-decide the topic and style. My poems are all inspired by God and comes out on paper as He best wants.


all of them? what about if you want to write a poem yourself; surely you can ask Him to sod off for a few minutes?

Geoffrey, what if during those few minutes you are ironing and you burn the dust in an old man's cuffs because you told him to sod off some time too soon? Whose fault would that be, Ekta (who has a superb website called "nutracist"), yours, or God's?

Quite a dilemma!!!

love

Sue (in Amsterdam)

[Sue]

Sue (in Amsterdam)

Hamster jam is what you get if you bring down a large flat iron like your granny used to have on top of your pet.

Sue

[Sideways]

Sue (in Amsterdam)

Hamster jam is what you get if you bring down a large flat iron like your granny used to have on top of your pet.

Sue

I remember that I leant you my name for a period of one week only and on condition that you made no "jokes" involving cruelty to irons. Please adhere to our agreement

love

Sue

[Sue]

all this nesting of boxes is just flagrant waste. of earth's resorces, you can get a black bag in Wilkinsons which allows you to just write plain text as I am doing here with no frills and can be used over and overagain

[lizzytysh]

Hey, Sideways Sue ~

May I call you Heloise? Especially since Sue is about to retrieve her name, you'll be needing another soon.

GREAT list! Will be copying it for review... and I can see where I've already violated a few of those rules. Thanks for sharing them.


Ekta ~ Back to you and your poems. I like what you've expressed regarding the war[s] we can't seem to stay out of... very poignant expression on how it cuts down the young before they've even had a chance to fully become, or enjoy being, an adult. So tragic. Horribly tragic. So often, all in the name of only money and power.


~ Lizzy

[~greg]

6. Improper use of starches and sizers.

Starches and sizers are a great tool when ironing, but they must be used properly.
Spray these products as you iron, but allow them to actually penetrate into the
garment before ironing over them. Allowing just a few seconds for the clothing
to soak up the starch or sizer, will keep your iron's soleplate from becoming
built-up with product residue.

That was my personal ironing signature - my famous festive frosty effect.
Wearing a shirt ironed that way makes you feel like a piece of cake.

So can that be wrong?

[Manna]

And all this time I thought you were a piece of cake.

[~greg]

Between two and three billion years ago blue-green algae
began converting the earth's early reducing atmosphere
into an oxidizing one. Which was what eventually made
this good life on earth possible for you. And when you go
and make comments like that, you make them sorry they did.

[jimbo]

The smell of fresh ly ironed linen any day
power and money A[color=#4000F[/color]RE ONLY A MEANS TO AN END
In the right hands.........................

USE IT WISLEY...................................................FOREVER AMEN

Jacobi

[jimbo]

love the door,
thats opened wide
Forget the times of stormy weather
as Love begins on rising tide

Our future now
a breathless moon

[~greg]

Geoffrey wrote >
> EktaKKalra composed: >
> > Near the fruity tree lies his grave,
> > He who died for a loaf of bread.
> If he had died for fruit would they have buried him next to a bakery?

According to an etiological Hawaiian myth, the breadfruit
originated from the sacrifice of the war god Ku. After deciding
to live secretly among mortals as a farmer, Ku married and had
children. He and his family lived happily until a famine seized
their island. When he could no longer bear to watch his children
suffer, Ku told his wife that he could deliver them from starvation,
but to do so he would have to leave them. Reluctantly, she agreed,
and at her word, Ku descended into the ground right where
he had stood until only the top of his head was visible. His family
waited around the spot he had last been day and night, watering it
with their tears until suddenly a small green shoot appeared
where Ku had stood. Quickly, the shoot grew into a tall and leafy
tree that was laden with heavy breadfruits that Ku's family
and neighbors gratefully ate, joyfully saved from starvation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadfruit

Now aren't you ashamed of yourself? Yet?

[Manna]

Between two and three billion years ago blue-green algae
began converting the earth's early reducing atmosphere
into an oxidizing one. Which was what eventually made
this good life on earth possible for you. And when you go
and make comments like that, you make them sorry they did.

All this because I thought you were something sweet?
But my new shefflera is covered in buds, so I am happy they did all that reacting. They gave their little lives for it. I am happy the lightening strikes, happy the iron at the core is hot.

Speaking of which - Sideways Sue, what is your advice regarding linen? The most comfortable fabric to wear, and wrinkle wrinkle wrinkly pinkle.

[Sideways]

Dear Manna, thank you for your enquiry about linen and poetry. My view is encapsulated briefly as follows. A linen break in poetry is when a linen of the poetry ceases to extend, and a new linen starts, usually at the left margin. Not all poetry has all of its linens left-margin justified, however, and there even exists poetry where a new linen does not have to be on a different horizontal row than the previous linen, but could be separated from that linen for example by a slash (this happens mostly in later poetry). Linen breaks can be a source of dynamism for the way the form of poetry impletes its ideas with intensities and extra meanings that would not have been possible to the same degree in other forms of text. For example, if a term such as "dog catcher" were to be placed in the poetry such that the linen break came between the two words, then the reader might first read the text as though what were being referred to were simply a dog, then see that it is 'actually' a dog catcher. When this 'actual' meaning is grasped, however, the previous meaning is still preserved within the realm of what it is important to understand that the poetry means to suggest; hence, were we reading a narrative poem about the adventures of dogs, the implication could very well be that dog catchers are to dogs as dogs are normally thought to be to people: inferior or roguish. It is also the case, however, that this effect may be produced without the aid of a linen break, such as frequently in Shakespeare's sonnets, but a line break certainly intensifies and calls attention to such an effect.

Here are two examples of this technique operating in different ways in Shakespeare's Cymbelinen (which, however, some Early Modernists would argue wasn't necessarily consciously 'intended' by Shakespeare to be read in a context, i.e. print, in which these effects would have been apparent as a result of linen breaks):

* In the first example, the linen break between the last two linens cuts them apart, emphasizing the cutting off of the head:

With his own sword,

Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en
His head from him.

* In the second example, the piece of text before the linen break has a meaning all its own; this meaning, a reader may encounter before it is 'revised' by the text after the linen break, which clarifies that, instead of "I, as a person, as a mind, am 'absolute,'" it 'really' means: "I am absolutely sure it was Cloten":

I am absolute

'Twas very Cloten.

Some interpreters would argue that the 'first' meaning is preserved in the realm of the metatext.

Also never use too high a temperature on this delicate material

Love

Sue