[R+D] What’s the Most Mediocre Thing You Own?
0Forget your best stuff. Forget your worst stuff.
What’s the most aggressively average item in your life?
Something so bland, so mid, so monumentally “meh” that it feels like the consumer goods embodiment of a shrug.
Describe it. Name it. Honor its unremarkable legacy.
(It doesn’t have to be from here.)
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I’ll start with my 2016 Ford Explorer.
It does not turn heads. It does not excite. It does not break down. It does not leave me places.
It’s perfectly mediocre (which is exactly what I need).
@jouest I have a Toyota chr. It’s a Toyota. It’s small. Unfortunately it’s 100% gas but that’s what it is. And I love it and they don’t make it anymore and it makes me sad. They just brought it back out the basic design as an all-electric vehicle I think. But that doesn’t work for me
@jouest I’ll
raiselower that mediocrity with my daily. 2008, so older. Mercury, so there was a lot of the “this is the last car in my life” age group that drove them. Mariner, so smaller. FWD, so fair weather only. And hybrid, so it’s not fast.No car payments? NOT mediocre at all.
@jouest @narfcake
Truly at a loss for what you mean here. Whether this is front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive either one is way better suited than a rear wheel drive vehicle for inclement weather.
@chienfou @jouest @narfcake I read it as Forward. Too many e-mails in my life.
Not my primary coffee grinder but my secondary coffee grinder period The one I grind other stuff in if I have to Or that I used when My previous primary grinder gave up the ghost period It’s by Bodum. But it’s still only mediocre. Grind quality sort of sucks
@Cerridwyn
I keep it cheap $10 Walmart grinder for that reason for grinding the chipotles that I smoke/dry into powder or anything else that needs to be processed that’s not coffee.
@chienfou I actually have a hand grinder too that I can use for other stuff. Two of them actually maybe three I might have to look now I’m pondering how many Grinders I might have acquired over the years
@Cerridwyn I, too, have a mediocre second coffee grinder. it’s…so so.
One candidate would be the flannel sheet and pillowcase set currently on our bed. The fitted sheet just barely fits, the flannel isn’t really as soft as one might hope, and the top sheet is so pointless that it never comes out of the drawer. But it stays in the rotation because while it doesn’t excel at anything, it does the minimal job required - and we don’t get overly upset when one of the cats barfs on it, because everything washes out.
@werehatrack
OMG! I can barely stand flannel sheets in the winter! No way in hell I could sleep in a bed with flannel sheets this time of year.
/image kudos to you
Probably the Corelle cups, small plates, and bowls I still have from sometime in the '80s. They are in various odd numbers due to breakage, and they are all white. Too uninteresting to even bother with a photo, but they work for stuff in the kitchen.
@rockblossom I have those and love them, because they’re light, skinny enough to stack a bunch in the cupboard, and all white so they go okay with any of my colorful tablecloths.
@Kyeh The 40-year-old glass in my Corelle has gotten a bit dull and scratched over the years. I have a set of white ceramic dinnerware that works for actual meals. I use the older stuff for measuring (cup is more-or-less 8 liquid ounces, when I don’t want to track down an actual measuring cup), and the bowls/small plates hold things for prep/cooking. I don’t think I ever owned any of the Corelle plates.
@rockblossom Oh! I have 3 sizes of plates, 4 sizes of bowls, and I use them all the time. No cups though.
@Kyeh @rockblossom I had a set from the 1980s. It was supposed to be “unbreakable?”
Had in an RV cupboard and on a rough section of road near Glacier National Park, the door must have popped open and some fell together onto the floor. I think 2 “unbreakable” plates hitting each other goes against rules of the universe.
Well, when the DO break, they shatter into a thousand tiny shards; hard to clean up and dangerous.
The rest of them did serve us to Alaska and back, but eventually were donated as an almost complete set.
@pmarin @rockblossom I’ve managed to break a couple over the years, not even going over any rough mountain pass.
Charging cords.
@kittykat9180 this is probably why mine keep feeling. need to aim for “meh” and not “junk”
@jouest @kittykat9180 30-pin speakerdocks?
@kittykat9180 @pmarin you never know when they’ll be back in fashion
I would say pretty much every item that was sold under a cat-sat-on-a-keyboard brand, whether it be cables, flashlights, tools, or batteries. An unpronounceable name means there’s just about zero brand loyalty.
Not everything is awful, but they’re often sold with inflated specs. Adjusted to reality, however, they can still be a great deal. Rarely will they “wow” anyone in any way except in price.
@narfcake maybe, but they will “meow” me
Probably my record player. I need to invest in something better for my vinyl. Maybe I’ll treat myself, I mean, maybe the Englishman will buy me a good one for the Krampus!
My wine cellar?
I have a large assortment of different vintages and vintnors. None of them are what I would consider spectacular. Some are much better than others, but all of them are easily drinkable. And that is primarily what I look for.
I would say the couple of “business suits” I still have in a closet. Had to use them for trade shows and stuff a few times a year. Not terrible quality but not hand-tailored Italian either. I think mostly wool, not polyester. I don’t plan to wear any again, and, NO, don’t want to be buried in one either.
Looking for positive way to dispose of them. I heard there were places that took dress clothes to give to youths entering the business world, but that was before COVID and business world is not what it used to be. Maybe for the door-to-door insurance sales or religious visits?
@pmarin
I know there’s a place somewhere around me that takes that kind of stuff for kids that can’t afford prom/homecomming. You could look for one by you.
The other old obsolete stuff I want to mention is all cool again:
A yellow cassette Walkman. I think with FM radio.
Portable CD players.
AT&T “princess” wired phone in clear plastic case. My wife got it when she worked for AT&T; I don’t think the clear case was publicly available.
Vintage pink Motorola RAZER for analog system no longer supported.
@pmarin I was in Waldport a few weeks ago and they had a section with vinyl, tapes and 8tracks!
@pmarin
@pmarin technology peaked at RAZER
@pmarin @sillyheathen
We were cleaning my dads house and we found a huge box of brand new still in the wrapper cassette tapes, 8-tracks and players, brand new in the box from the 80’s portable cassatte recorder. So much vintage stuff. It was pretty cool. We also found some really old children’s records (like sesame Street that kind of stuff) that still had the included posters still there and in brand new condition. Of course my 3 year old nephew has opened them all bc he’s staying at my dads house and has no self restraint and either does his mother.
@pmarin @Star2236 STOP!!! That sounds amazing. It’s like finding a cool geocache or the One Eyed Willy’s pirate ship!
@pmarin @sillyheathen
I have a feeling my brother just threw away the box of brand new cassette tapes too when we filled up a 20 foot dumpster but I guess what are you gonna do with them.
@pmarin @Star2236
that makes me so sad. I mean yes. But also sad. 
I still have a corded wall phone in my kitchen. At least it’s not a rotary phone.
@heartny too bad. Would have gotten extra credit for the rotary phone.
/youtube asking teens to use a rotary phone
@heartny my folks hung in there with a rotary phone for admirably long. I miss it.
Plain white T-shirts.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@MrGoodGuy they get the job done
1996 mercury cougar. Still under 100k
@Star2236
I remember back in the day when the cougar was considered a sports car/muscle car, kind of like the mustang and Plymouth roadrunner, charger and camaro