Every Little Thing You Do is Magic
Have you ever reflected on the usefulness of coat-hangers, specifically the metal wire ones? They’ve been around since about 1902 apparently, and by golly do they have a multitude of uses! Their availability and malleability makes them the perfect candidate for so many common tasks - such as breaking into cars and getting better TV reception - that they are a must for every household/wayward youth.
The reason I am going on about a particularly arbitrary topic, is that the usefulness of wire coat-hangers has come in handy recently: I was at work several days ago, setting up for a ‘disco’ when I was asked to hang a mirror ball (or disco-ball) from the ceiling of the venue. This was a challenging task, as the mirror ball was meant for permanent (possibly even domestic!?) installation. Damn. Then I had the idea (admittedly copying off a mirror ball I had seen earlier) of dissecting a metal coat-hanger to provide the necessary support.
This got me to thinking of all the things I have seen them used for: An impromptu aerial on cars and TV sets in sharehouses; hanging mirror balls in difficult places; breaking into yours (or someone else’s) car; impromptu BBQ tonges; and last but not least, hanging clothes.
Would Albert J. Parkhouse (to whom the invention of the coat-hanger is credited) have thought that a relatively simple and yet effective item would have such a multitude of uses? Next time you hang something up, have a little thought for the guy that unwittingly started it all…
November 3rd, 2006 at 11:44 am
Two other ingenious coat-hanger uses:
* The coat-hanger butterfly *
Remember these? Twist coat-hanger into wing shapes, cut old stockings and stretch over wing area, add sequins, glitter and a styrofoam head, and voila, your very own flutter-by…
* Gate securer *
Commonly used in farming communities when the paddock gate-latch breaks. Twist one of these babies up and around the gate and fence instead (preferably before the cows notice what’s happened and you have to chase them back in!). Suprisingly robust.
November 3rd, 2006 at 6:04 pm
What about the unsung hero: The Dell Notebook.
Yes initially used as a mere word processing unit that drains an entire city’s power gird of all it’s power, this handy device has many built in, or unintended, features/Easter eggs…
1. Heating unit - yes, the thing gets that hot it can heat a reasonable sized basketball stadium, especially with all the power generated out of the exhaust turbines built in to extract every single bit of over clocked, last years technology!
2. Hair Dryer… for the above reasons… all you have to do is open internut explorer AND word at the same time… be wary though, don’t open excel as well, you don’t want third degree burns!!
3. Gym Workout - yes, sling this baby over an arm and watch one since of your body either collapse under the pressure or over develop muscles to compensate. alternatively, take it out of it’s “Special Dell Bag” and complete bicep curls (for advance gym users only, beginners start will simple squats and try and develop your larger muscles first, especially since bending your back while lifting this monster WILL result in work cover probs)
4. Car Collision Test - drive a 4WD into it and watch that poor car fall to pieces.
5. Impromptu Table - well, this shouldn’t need to be explained.
6. Brick for building houses in 5th world countries - stronger than mud, with twice the processing power!! Go Dell!!
7. Detecting where a wireless network is - don’t worry, you’ll find one, problem is your aerial either won’t be large enough OR your using windows so it just won’t connect.
8. Gate Securer - place at the bottom of the gate on the side you want to keep shut and by ‘golly’ (wtf Will, who uses golly these days) no cow on earth is gonna get through that baby… can also be used on farms I believe Gem… if they’re allowed, or not the devil, or not bigotry
9. Bridges
10. Bullet-proof Armour - They use them on the hulls of aircraft carriers in the US now… that’s why those things are so big!!
11. You can even go online, god forbid windows resolves it’s networking, and rant on some weird website.
12. Sun Protection - Well when you block out the sun that really protects all the dangerously white kiwi folk around.
Denny Crane
November 4th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
scooby doooooby dooo where are you, ive got some work to do now!
November 5th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
scary