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SUNSHINE POWERFUL
Oh, how Matt Welch laughed at my revolutionary plan to harness the power of the sun. The oil-addicted Californian—who once incinerated his own car to protest against cleanliness—must now reconsider his hateful anti-Gaia stance following Washington Post columnist Leslie M. Aun’s enlightenment:
With global warming in the headlines, local temperatures soaring and energy prices headed into the stratosphere, I’ve had an epiphany of sorts. Around our house we’re calling it the Great Clothesline Experiment—an experiment a decade in the making ...
Visiting friends in Australia last January, I found myself in a nation where hanging the laundry out to dry is just what you do.
After my initial shock at being handed a basket and a stack of clothespins—truth be told I had never actually hung up an entire load of laundry before—I felt a sense of satisfaction at having enabled the forces of nature, rather than Maytag, to dry my things.
“Sunshine is the single most powerful natural resource we have,” one Australian friend said. “Why should we dig up fossil fuels to dry our laundry when we have a renewable source that costs nothing?” Indeed.
Indeed, Matt. Indeed.
(Via Ray)
#2 Stats,
I’m never going to let you forget that mistake, laundry boy.Posted by Daniel San on 2006 08 17 at 12:53 PM • permalinkAnd South Africa is working on a snow-powered automobile. BTW, doesn’t Babs Streisand do her own laundry and use the clothes-line for her drying needs? See, it’s not just Aussie actors standing up for what they believe.
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 08 17 at 01:01 PM • permalink...truth be told I had never actually hung up an entire load of laundry before…
Huh? I guess I must be a member of the unwashed masses…...I actually regret not having a clothes line, having hung oodles and oodles of clothes while growing up. Jenny is right, they do smell better.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 08 17 at 01:02 PM • permalinkI used to hang my laundry out to dry, until some squirrel decided to run along the clothesline and pee all over them.
Maybe I should build a greenhouse…
Posted by Tatterdemalian on 2006 08 17 at 01:04 PM • permalinkOutdoor clothes lines - eh, luxury lad.
Up here in our fabled city, even if it
were warm enough, we are prohibited by
city regulations.Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2006 08 17 at 01:15 PM • permalink#9 must be TO.
Here in Montreal, we dry our washing outside (on our Australian line) from late April to early October. When it rains, we get a rewash.
(Some 20 years ago, when my wife was questioned about why we were taking a clothesline out of Australia , she replied that “Australia leads the world in clothesline technology”. The customs guy was really happy about that!)
I have it on good authority that Laurie David and Arianna Huffington both dry their own laundry on clothes lines—that is when they’re not tooling around in their private jets.
Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2006 08 17 at 02:47 PM • permalinkI just got back from 27 months in Ukraine without a dryer. In my opinion, after 27 months of scratchy, ill fitting clothes, I believe the clothes dryer is the second greatest invention in the world. The clothes washing machine woudl be first of course.
Posted by lizardflix on 2006 08 17 at 03:11 PM • permalink#17
scratchy, ill fitting clothes
That’s what happens to me when I use a dryer! Hmm… two versions of reality here, but only one can be right.
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 08 17 at 03:24 PM • permalinkAnd how high, Rebecca? And should we wear the clothes while bouncing, or bounce on the clothes?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 08 17 at 04:23 PM • permalinkActually, stats’ post is not so O/T as it might appear at first blush. Mori is airing [dirty? no] laundry in public.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 08 17 at 04:29 PM • permalinkDryers shrink a lot of clothes though - they are a drying method of last resort.
That said, towels wich are dried under a scorching summer sun do come out scratchy.
Posted by attilathepun on 2006 08 17 at 07:02 PM • permalinkBut Matt has a real job now and is periously close to waking up one morning and saying, “Golly, I think I’ll root for the Dodgers and get a Prius.” Growing up at the nexus of Los Angeles and Orange counties means the pull of the Dark Side is strong. Those of us on the safe side of the Orange Curtain will pray for him but he now know where the Harbor Freeway goes and when to go for breakfast at The Pantry. Gaia worship is soon to follow.
Posted by Pat Patterson on 2006 08 17 at 07:25 PM • permalinkStrangely enough I was bored enough to read the leaflet that came with some new towels the other day. It said never to let them dry out completely (line or tumble) because it makes them scratchy and reduces the life of the towel. So there ya go.
Personally I don’t see the point in reducing my use of electrical appliances… it just means I have to turn the electric heater up a bit to compensate for their lack of heat output!
Posted by russell2pi on 2006 08 17 at 07:25 PM • permalinkI load the washing machine before I go to bed, then move the wet clothes into the dryer right after I get out of the shower. I think the neighbors would object if I started hanging my clothes up while naked. School bus stop just down the street and all.
Posted by jeff mccabe on 2006 08 17 at 07:39 PM • permalinkIs it really that hard to figure out why people use dryers?
1. Not everyone lives in places where you get reliably warm, sunny weather year-round. In fact, many societies where people have a choice of where to dry their clothes, are located in climates that are far less friendly to line-drying.
2. Not everyone has the space to hang a load of laundry.
3. Not everyone wants a load of laundry to be a 2-day affair, with a repeat if it rains.
I can see Ms. Aun’s next epiphany: why do we spend earth’s precious resources to make knives and forks, when Nature has already given us hands to handle our food?
Today I have been emailed Proof of Global Warming.
We didn’t have a clothes dryer when I was a kid. We’d hang the clothes outside in the Florida sun. Where they would immediately burst into flame. Oh wait, that was me. But my stiff, scratchy cardboard jeans sure did smell nice. However, I can get dryer sheets to use in the clothes dryer that make the clothes smell just as nice.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 08 17 at 08:06 PM • permalinkOh, and I forgot—and drying my clothes in the machine means I can pull my jeans on without first having to beat them with a hammer.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 08 17 at 08:07 PM • permalinkKae: that Hills Hoist thing looks just like the clothesline setup lots of houses in Florida had (and still have, I’ve seen them). Not only did I have one in the back yard of the house I grew up in, but I had one in the back yard of a house I lived in for many years in Hialeah (a city just north of the Miami Airport), and there was a whole set of them at a trailer park I lived in one summer while my grandfather and father were travelling around Europe. (The trailer was my grandfather’s—he wasn’t poor, but he had retired and didn’t want the bother of living in a house. It was a cute little place, down in southern Dade County surrounded mostly by farms. My grandfather passed on to his reward, my father sold the trailer home, and a few years later Hurricane Andrew wiped the entire area down to the ground.) Anyway, those things are quite popular here.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 08 17 at 08:13 PM • permalinkJLC—didn’t the evil American acid rain dissolve all your fabrics?
And David is welcome to line dry his clothes here in Los Angeles. Just pick the shade of speckled gray you want.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 08 17 at 08:23 PM • permalink#20 & 21. Tsk. I forget that not everybody is a housewife.
Listen and learn, grasshoppers. Bounce is a fabric softener in the form of a napkin-sized sheet that you throw in the dryer with your clothes. It eliminates the scratchiness. Unfortunately, no one has invented a sheet you can hang on your clothesline that will do the same thing.
Andrea, hmm, beating with a hammer or ironing, it’s much of a muchness, really.
The clothes lines are called Hills Hoists and were invented in Aus (I suppose ‘cos we have sooooo much sun, even more since glowball worming).
Australian kids are always roused on for hanging off the hills hoist and flying around, “Get off that line or I’ll belt you!” is a common cry.
#37, I have one of them under my carport, but it never gets wound up. It’s good, too. I don’t have to go in the sun to hang up the washing (or bring it in, clothes last longer dried in the shade). (I’d post a photo but the housemate has her goods and chattels stored under my carport and it’s a bit of a mess.)
Oh, and Matt, they’re clothes pegs. Pegs. We just call them pegs. Got that?
Rebecca H, fabric softener will do the same thing, finish off the towels in the dryer. (But working people don’t have time to do that.) But fabric softener should NOT be used with any rubber or that type of stuff, elastic, rubber backed mats, etc. Never use fabric softener (and with rubber you shouldn’t use detergents with bleach, either.)
Um, My old dryer died a couple of months ago, I got a new one and the destructions said “Don’t use fabric softener sheets…” the implication was that they’d blow up the dryer or burst into flame or something…“I can see Ms. Aun’s next epiphany: why do we spend earth’s precious resources to make knives and forks, when Nature has already given us hands to handle our food?”
The next logical step being: “why do we spend earth’s precious resources to make bog roll, when Nature has already given us hands to wipe our bums?
And so on back into the Stone Age with its 28 year life spans of nasty short brutishness.
Since they do not appreciate either irony or humor, I can just imagine the Kos kids reading this and going: “Mother Gaia, now the wingnuts are equating hanging out the laundry to wiping your arse with your hand!”
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 08 17 at 08:57 PM • permalinkWhip on over to the Wicked Weasel Oz bikini butt floss site Razor. Plenty o bounce over there mate.
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 08 17 at 09:49 PM • permalinkAaahhhhh, the Hills hoist. Brings back those memories uncannily like Kae’s comment.
From experience, it took half a dozen kids of various ages and stages with the hoist wound all the way up to break it.
We did that with the cousins twice.
After that, Dad made sure we had a clothesline like Jlc’s. One that was also around the side of the house out of harm’s way.
These days, it’s me shouting at the kid to get off the clothesline.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 08 17 at 09:50 PM • permalinkI love being able to hang laundry on the line. The line is attached at one end to an old clothesline crossarm & at the other end is connected to a liveoak tree. MOSTLY I hang tshirts, sheets, pillowcases & some summer shorts & tank tops. I read not long ago that if I put a cup of white vinegar in the wash (rinse cycle?), my jeans & towels will come out softer. Bought a big jug today so will begin that experiment soon. I don’t like the feeling of fabric softener so I don’t use it. And towels don’t absorb as well, either.
I think new dryers come with the “no dryer sheet” warning because it causes a buildup in the lint filter, gets sticky, & can cause a fire. But since I don’t use ‘em, I never worried about it much.
We lived in Alberta Canada when I was younger. My mum hung out laundry even in winter (no room in the teacherage for a dryer) - which was often -40F - so they’d smell good, then use hangers & chairs & wooden racks indoors to actually get ‘em dry! Stiff as boards when they came inside. But crawling into bed was heavenly.
Sheesh, scratchy towels are not a problem if you use a liquid softener like ‘Cuddly’ in the washer.
And sun-drying the clothes is great until you get to a place that never sees the sun and runs at 100% rain days for five months a year.
Happily for me, I live in Perth! The drier electricity cost for a large family is serious.
You’re not Australian until you’ve come home pissed as a sailor on shore leave, tried sneaking around the back and stumbled into a Hills Hoist which has almost garroted you.
They’re advanced warning systems for other occupants of the house.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 08 17 at 11:27 PM • permalinkKae, swinging on the clothesline is not just for kids.
I had a few housewarming drinks the night I moved into a rental property with my mates. One of the mates decided he would swing on the hills hoist and his ample frame (about 220lbs worth) came crashing down with the clothesline.
Luckily we hadn’t completed the condition report yet!!
Two poles, one crossbar each, 5 lines between them. Three boys of Old Northwest/Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. We didn’t fear scratchy clothes, it was scratchy clothes that feared us. :)
Posted by mythusmage on 2006 08 18 at 03:45 AM • permalinkIf you suffer from hayfever or similar allergies, hanging your friggin’ laundry out in the elements is the last thing you should do after sticking your head in the weeds and taking a big whiff. I’ve had it with this crap. I’m drying delicates as I write this, but I’m going to go crank up the heat level to High just to USE MORE FOSSIL FUELS.
#52 But..but…what about the Orange Bellied Parrots?
“Spinning Hills Hoist Death Trap for Endangered Species”
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 08 18 at 08:44 PM • permalink
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Not to mention that line dried clothes smell so good.