Vacuum Cleaner Series: Oreck

Oh Oreck.

You almost had me.

Shopping the other day and happened by an Oreck shop.  Since I am fastidiously researching for this Vac Series, I stopped in to see what they had to offer.  The saleswoman was just wonderful.  The showroom had all their models out and waiting for you to try on wood, carpet, dirt, and their own heaps of "pet hair".  The vacs were lightweight, and if you bring in your old clunker vac you get $50 off a new one!  The problem here is that none of them had a hose, so you need another vac to do that part. But, as the saleswoman explained, that is why they can make their powerful vacs so lightweight. This changes everything.

Oreck's Pros:

• Actual stores
• Once you buy, you can bring it back once a year for 10 years and they'll replace whatever it needs and keep it running for you.
• Uses bags so cleanup is easy (see image on direct suction below)
• $$$ when you trade in your old vac
• Relatively inexpensive, you can get a really good one for around $200 (I mean $150 if you have a trade in)
• Hepa Filtration
• Looooong 35ft cords
• Eco friendly Bright LED lights
• Most models between 7 - 9 lbs!
• Last for years

 Oreck's Cons:

• They're getting better, but they still look like every vacuum you've seen in a hotel 
• No hose, need a separate vac for that
• Oreck sounds like Ogre and Shrek and is awkward to say.  "Yes, I have an Oreck Vacuum. I live in Britain, now lets go have some tea, shall we?"  
• Um...

As weird as it sounds, I might be less suspicious if it cost $800. Why is it so good and so cheap?  How can they make money when they last that long and are $200-$300 and Dysons cost $600? I know there is a marketing theory that applies here.

At this point it comes to do you want a hose or not, and do you mind having to change a bag (although it's touted as quick and easy, it still needs to be done bagless or not). But I think we have a contender here. They come in lots of different color combinations, some more modern than others.

If I would have had my old vac in the car I would have been sorely tempted to trade it in right then and there.  Not sure what I would have done.

Peter Whiffle by Carl Van Vechten

Frugal yet voracious readers will scour books and magazines for any hint of a Books to Read list so they can add it to their ever revolving que.  Such readers may want a Kindle, but books are all $10 on a Kindle and free at the library. Kindlelessness aside, I  found Peter Whiffle (book) by Carl Van Vechten (author) in one such recommended list somewhere within the last 3 years. I therefore thought it would be a typically enjoyable read.  Not so.  It was to be so entertaining I reread parts of it which I never do, and have found myself thinking of it often since.

There are schools of thought, ways of looking at life, etc. Karl Marx has Marxism. Ayn Rand has Objectivism.  Karl Van Vechten, surely then should have some -ism associated with his work Peter Whiffle, but upon a terse search I came up with nothing from the internet. Except Gay Writers. Which doesn't exactly help to categorize him, but perhaps he transcends categorization. Vechtenism is the belief in the power of the individual. Not as a means to anything, but as a reason to exist as an individual, living the life one desires to live. His story of Peter documents Peter from a younger man who dressed fastidiously, living paycheck to paycheck in consequence, to a middle aged man flush with a large inheritance but living in rags and consorting with the lowest wretches in NYC. Peter does not ask anything from anyone except to live life as he wants to. He travels, falls in and out of love, and always, the point is to satisfy his craving for new experiences and life.  Just to follow where his human desires go, (and for him) always collecting information for a potential book to write later on.  Peter never writes the book, but Carl writes it, and through his narrative and relatively typical life (somewhere between 'normal' and how Peter lives) we find out about Peter's journey.  It seems like Siddhartha, the quest of ultimate peace and Seinfeld, a story about nothing combined. It is a delight to read, and Peter extends our literary pleasure by mentioning many books people ought to read.

Before returning Peter to the library I flipped through all the pages with a pad of paper because and I wanted to add those books also to my Books to Read list.

Two full notebook pages, 6 photocopies, and extensive follow up searching via google later (sometimes he mentions authors, sometimes titles), I find myself able to make this list but I feel the need to also post it online. Authors and a brief description are listed unless the fictional Peter Whiffle sought fit to mention specific works.

• Théophile Gautier (French poet & writer)
• Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (French novelist & short story writer)
• Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (French novelist)
• Oscar Wilde (Irish poet & writer)
• Henry James (American writer)
• Thomas Hardy (English poet & writer)
• Sir Henry Rider Haggard (English writer)
• Lavengro by George Borrow
• Roderick Hudson by Henry James
• Dickens (c'mon, you know him)
• Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian author/existentialism)
• The Way of all Flesh by Samuel Butler: A unique and ultimately optimistic turn on the Great Expectations theme.
• Sister Carrie by Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (American writer/Naturalism)
• The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen 
• David Belasco (American playwright)
•  more to come? If i can find the other papers and photocopies?
  

He also mentions many artists, actors, and other influencial people within the book. I will not attempt to list these as well, but two of these are:

• Jan Baptist van Helmont, a Flemish chemist
• Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune specifically by Claude-Achille Debussy, the French composer  

He also goes into the merits of cats at length. I will endeavor to post it but suffice it to say it almost, almost comes close to doing cats full justice.

Bass Bamboo Body Brush

Soft skin can now be yours by adding an enjoyable and guiltless item to your shower.  No, you do not have to buy those overpriced plutonium glowing plastic balls of netting that fall apart within months.  No, you don't have to buy expensive exfoliating scrub for your face and body. The first is dyed and biodegrades, like, never.  The second comes in a plastic dispenser you might be able to recycle, at the expense of making it, shipping it, marketing it, and probably testing it on animals before all that. You can get plastic back scrubbing brushes from Walmart as I have done (after trying and becoming annoyed with the first two) but after their Made in China grandeur renders them broken and useless, you begin to look elsewhere. Moisturizing body creams are all well and good, but they don't exfoliate. Loofah sponges are eco-friendly but disintegrate faster than the plastic colored ones, leaving little oatmeal-like pellets all over the shower.

I happened on it by chance, but it is one of those encounters I must document. It is a bamboo body brush by Bass. These images are horrible but the brush is good. Perhaps I will even take pictures of mine, it is really a beaut.

Ok so it was something like $18 but it is LONG, you can wash your whole back with it without twisting about. Made entirely of bamboo it is eco friendly (no boars were harmed in the making) and yes it's gorgeous.  Mine has contrasting shades of light and darker bamboo (stained perhaps? care to think not) and it of course has a nice loop of rope at the end you can hang from whatever hook or protrusion you have.




Bass Brush No. 81

Bass Brush Logo

terrible image from Bass' website.

http://www.thehairdoccompany.com

http://www.webvitamins.com/product.aspx?id=21861

As of this posting, the above links worked.

If you're looking for a good quality brush this is it.  Plush, easy to handle, and with daily use you'll have smooth soft hands, feet and elbows.

Say goodbye to those poufs!  [And good riddance.]

Jimmy's Cookies, Fairlawn NJ. The Alpha & Omega of Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone goes through milestones. Some can alter your view of the world, affecting your thoughts and actions from that moment on. 
This is not one of these.

Jimmy's Gourmet Cookies.

This milestone is baked, round, and contains delicious chocolate chunks.  But it is a milestone never the less.  B.C. became Before Cookies & every day since then has been a little bit brighter and lighter (unless you are my bathroom scale).

I have never blogged, but these cookies have compelled me to do so. I have never bought tubs of cookies in quantities over 3 before, but these cookies have the power. They're great with milk, great without milk. Perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a late-night snack. But mostly, they're good in great, heaping quantities. 

Had to buy 4 at once. 
No, I don't have a problem.

Not bad for you!  An
excuse to eat more!

 Here are the ingredients in case you can't see:  Unbleached wheat flour, Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Sugar, Brown Sugar, Liquid Soybean Oil, Palm Oil, Egg Whites, Water, Soybean Lecithin, Baking Soda, Vegetable Mono and Diglycerides, Natural Flavor, Pure Vanilla Extract, Salt, Anatto. May contain traces of nuts or peanuts.  Contains: Wheat, Eggs, Milk, Soy.

Wait! Who ate my cookies? 
Oh, right, I did. 

So come on, they're even good for you?  Maybe I'll have another one.  Whole Wheat flour is much healthier than the bleached kind.  But somehow it is smooth and delicious like cookies you'd only expect from grandma's kitchen.  They are soft and chewy, but they don't fold in half when you pick them up. The chocolate is not too sweet or bitter (I love dark, dark chocolate, hubby likes milk chocolate) but we both agree the chocolate chips are amazing.  And soybean oil is so healthy and good for you.

Unless of course you eat 5-10 per day.  Which I did for quite a while, utterly abandoning any moderation in favor of experiencing the deliciousness at home, at work and in the car. 5 lbs later, I've decided it's time to try and cut back.  So now three a day is my max.

I did also try their oatmeal raisin, and while I wish i could also give it 5 stars, those were kind of dry.I do like oatmeal raisin cookies, so this was disappointing, but not enough that i couldn't finish that carton in less than a week.

Their website was not hard to find <http://www.jimmyscookies.net/> but it is very modest, unassuming, and fits perfectly in every way with the way I imagined the company to be.  They do offer wholesale inquiries, so I might take advantage of that. In conclusion, try these cookies.