h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I echo the burnt popcorn. Earlier this year, the company launched a new product, and celebrated by leaving a small bag of microwavable popcorn on *every* desk. It's taken a good few months to get that stench out of the fabric of the building.

I know what you mean.

Long ago swore off on microwave popcorn.

Usually take mine in the form of chips.

The really annoying thing was this wasn't just accidentally burned popcorn. One of the office staff upstairs actually preferred burnt popcorn. It was a premeditated stench.

Stipulated, medical charcoal is outrageously overpriced in the stores considering the base of its manufacture is stale bread.

Its nontheless inexcusable to burn one's carbohydrates for the stuff in other people breathing air.

Today's PH - metal tubes eg tomato paste, that get really hard to squeeze when nearly empty. You can never get everything out and the tube tends to bend and hurt your hands.

You need to squeeze them from the bottom from the outset.

Metal tubes, I mean.

Unable to find your page

Oh dear.
Sorry about this.
This isn't at all what's supposed to happen.
This is exactly the sort of thing that can cause stress and anxiety.
Those are not good things.

Have a look at this calming image that we've chosen just for occasions such as this. Hopefully it will help keep you calm while we look into the problem.

Check the URL. If you were in a Ripley skin sometimes when you try to navigate the site part of the URL gets repeated. IIRC you might have to just delete the extra "dna/h2g2/" if that is what happened to you.

Unable to find your page
No... it's not the URL. JUST the standard message when not working or slow. You think a generic internet message would be so wordy and soothing?
Let's end this conversation right now. Sheeze...

Oh dear.
Sorry about this.
This isn't at all what's supposed to happen.
This is exactly the sort of thing that can cause stress and anxiety.
Those are not good things.

Have a look at this calming image that we've chosen just for occasions such as this. Hopefully it will help keep you calm while we look into the problem.

Harking back to the awkwardness of metal tubes, plastic tubes are worse. I've encountered two types. Most toothpaste comes in flexible tubes that you can roll up as they empty. They don't stay rolled up, but it's doable, and I believe you can get gadgets to keep the tube rolled up. Some toothpaste comes in stiff plastic tubes that are almost impossible to roll. As they empty, you get a void at the sealed end that makes it hard to get toothpaste out. I'm having a daily struggle and I may change the brand I use.

The worst thing is when you get a bubble of air inside the toothpaste. You can try to squeeze this trapped wind out gently, but beware of peering down into the tube as you do so, as it can explode and leave splashed toothpaste around your eye.

Sometimes I just cut the tube open to get at the last dab, cut off the crimp end, slit the tube vertically, then another horizontal cut around the base of the cap end.

With fine arts paints, sometimes I'd slightly dilute the paint with a suitable water or oil medium, then store any remaining excess in a small jar or bottle.

I have tried rolling down from the end, but the tube still seems to end up a bit of a mangled mess. Perhaps I'm just being too stingy expecting to get every last drop out?

I don't think it's possible to be too stingy

Cut across the end of the tube and put a bulldog clip over it. Use this to help you push the toothpaste out. Cut again when necessary.

I have one of those gadgets for rolling the toothpaste tube. It looks like this:
http://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41kWilxX8lL.jpg
There's a slot in the "key" part inside. Here's an open version:
http://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/80/88/f7/8088f74411e01231e66a7874766aa784.jpg
They work wonderfully. I don't miss the hassle of dealing with an unrestrained plastic toothpaste tube. The thin metal ones were tolerable but you still left a lot in the tube as your fingers just don't squeeze evenly and getting a good, tight roll is an art form.

Searching for the images above revealed a wide variety toothpaste tube wranglers.

I agree with all of the above. The old metal tubes were much more economical. The new plastic ones get harder and harder to squeeze as they get emptier and emptier. If you cut the end off, there's usually more left in there than you expect, and the contents have usually dried up before you have used them all up.

Actually I'm quite good at manipulating plastic tubes to get as much as possible out, compared with metal ones.

With my rolling gizmo I'm also able to get nearly every bit of toothpaste out of the tube. When I get to the point where I can't roll any more tube into the thingie, I give the remainder some pressure up (or down) from the roll which flattens it getting every bit but that directly in the nozzle out.


I usually purchase a new tube when I get to that point where I can't roll any more into the roller. And then I watch as my new tube gathers dust for about a month until I'm actually out of toothpaste.

PHotD: We live in a semi-detached house, which gives us a connecting wall with one set of next-door neighbours. One of them seems to have hearing problems. They recently got a device to supplement their phone's ringer - it plays a loud, jangly tune when their phone rings. My PH is that they've placed the device near the connecting wall. As someone with good hearing, the noise is very irritating. Still, my mother-in-law was going deaf as she got older and I don't think they ever complained about how loud she had her TV, so I'm happy to let this go. It's only an occasional irritant. (Hubby can nearly hear it!)