Heloise

[vraiblonde]

I just really think she's seen her day. Like, today some woman wrote in with a tip on how to make vinaigrette, since she had just given her blender (!) away. Said she now dumps all the ingredients into a bowl and mixes them with a handmixer with only one beater attached. What a tip!

Who the hell would ever dirty up a blender just to make vinaigrette??? Blenders are for margaritas. To make vinaigrette, you put your stuff in a bowl and mix it with a whisk. Don't these peopl get the Food Channel?

A few days ago, some other woman wrote in to say that she uses her drycleaning plastic as waste basket liners by knotting one end. :wtf: Doesn't she go to the grocery store? They'll give you more plastic waste basket liners than you can ever use. And they're a lot sturdier than the plastic off your drycleaning.

Is her audience just all a bunch of Depression babies who save those slivers of soap and form them into a new bar when they get enough of them? Aren't all those people dead by now?

So what say you - should Heloise call it a day?

 

[Tonio]

For some reason, I never connected Heloise with Depression-era frugality. Instead, I always thought of her as Martha Stewart meets MacGyver. Like how you can clean burned food off a skillet using a Slinky, two D batteries and mouthwash.

 

[vraiblonde]

Tonio! She gets letters from people who collect shower caps from hotel rooms and save them to use as covers for planter bottoms.

She, herself, has great tips on how to fix coffee table rings and stained armpits on clothing, but her readers are so tight they squeak when they walk.

Then she gets these kids who write in and tell her all about their great idea of saving empty Campbell's soup cans, take off the labels, paint them up and use them as pencil holders. HELLO??? Tell your parents to get a job and buy you a cool pencil holder! Used soup cans to hold pencils... Used soup cans are to hold bacon grease until it congeals AND NOTHING MORE!!!

 

[Otter]

Off with her head...

 

[Mikeinsmd]

Used soup cans are to hold bacon grease until it congeals AND NOTHING MORE!!!

Connect them with string and you have a cheap intercom system!!

 

[Kizzy]

Then she gets these kids who write in and tell her all about their great idea of saving empty Campbell's soup cans, take off the labels, paint them up and use them as pencil holders.

I know, I laugh at those "great ideas." Most of that stuff can be found at the dollar store these days, and a soup can? Who the hell wants to rush someone to the ER when they get cut.

She was an icon at one time, but her usefulness has served a purpose.

I was surprised when I stumbled across her book last year in the bookstore. She looked young to despite the white hair, but hey, almost every photo is touched up anymore. The book was something to the effect of getting organized. I thumbed thru it and none of the information seemed practical or out of the realm of common knowledge.

Yeah, I'm one of those that goes to the bookstore and sits on the floor, thumbing thru books that I put back on the shelf often.

It is like a mini-vacation for me. I go venture off to the bookstore for a evening of thumbing thru books alone.

 

[Tonio]

She gets letters from people who collect shower caps from hotel rooms and save them to use as covers for planter bottoms....her readers are so tight they squeak when they walk.

My family was frugal when it came to long-distance service. Stuff like trying to place a collect call for "The eagle has landed."

 

[chaotic]

Do ya pronounciate the "H"?

 

[Tonio]

Yeah, I'm one of those that goes to the bookstore and sits on the floor, thumbing thru books that I put back on the shelf often.

It is like a mini-vacation for me. I go venture off to the bookstore for a evening of thumbing thru books alone.

Me too! I miss the Lazy Moon Bookstore in Solomons.

 

[vraiblonde]

Stuff like trying to place a collect call for "The eagle has landed."

OMG! My ex's father was like that!!! He'd place a collect call to us and ask for "It's a boy" or "Momma home" or some dumb thing. He used to get so mad when I'd accept the charges.