RANT

Watching these home makeover TV shows, I gotta ask: WTF is the matter with parents these days? Spending thousands and thousands of dollars to rip out walls so that they can have "open concept" interiors "Because if I'm in the kitchen, I can't see the kids and see if they're alright."

My parent knew where the 4 of us were and what we were doing at breakfast, lunch, supper, and bedtime. All 4 of us lived through entire childhoods with all biological parts and functions intact, and we also all turned out fine. Not a serial killer among us.

Sorry, "Helicopters," but what kind of independent thinkers and what coping mechanisms are your crotch-fruit developing if they never have to take risks, learn, interface with hard things in life, because ... "Why? Mommy n Daddy are right over there. They'll take care of it."

SMDH

And while I'm at it ...

"Waah. I can't work in this antique kitchen!" Said about a kitchen that is bigger and more equipped than some of the restaurants I worked in."

"Waaah. We're out of space. I can't live like this ... only 2500 sq ft.!" I considered my 2100 sq ft. house a fokking mansion. Then the little 30-something shits go look at 3500 sq ft houses but they're no good because "there's no real media room" or "no nice office space" or (really) "no place to fold clothes in the laundry room. I wanna move somewhere nicer."

"Waah. We can't breathe in here when we entertain!" (Then the producer shows a clip of like 60 people crowded into the house in question, for some sort of party.) So, you little shits, you're going to go buy a new place, paying all of the related closing costs, packing everything up, moving, unpacking, changing all of the utilities, address on everything, new school registrations, and probably commute for an hour, instead of 15 minutes, so you can have a fokking party with more elbow-room, those two times a year when it's your turn to host?

"Waaaah. When everyone comes over for Christmas, we can't all fit around this little dining room table." You fatheads don't even have table settings for 12 as a mix-n-match. Will it kill the kids to sit at card tables and folding chairs? No. As a matter of fact, they LOVE having their own space without you side-eyeing them all through the meal because they're not holding their fokking fork the way you think is "proper." You're probably a crap-cook anyway. Rent out a private room at the steakhouse where the food will be palatable and you can seat 12 or 20 and keep the kids unhappy.

And a biggie: "Waah! I'm finished with this house. There's no 'en suite' in the master bedroom and that stinking little bathroom across the hall only has one sink. I can't possibly get ready in the morning with one sink. And, have you seen the old cramped shower? We have to have a luxe 'en suite' or I quit." Don't get me cranked up on this one.

Lastly, where do these little shits get the money to afford these places? Some whiny loser with a whiny wife says, "And our budget is not a penny over $2.5 million." WUT?!?

The beatings will commence at noon, right over there.

 The glut of crap (alleged) Japanese knives hitting the market make me sick.  The market is flooded with them and they're junk.

The latest brought to my attention is the Huusk knife.  Marketing B.S. at its finest.  Google them and click through any of the zillions of hits and get a good look at the knives.  Now go to Amazon and enter the single word huusk into the search box.

BOOM!  Many many knives that all look suspiciously like Huusk.  Hmmm.  Could it be that somebody is flooding the market with this junk under a dozen different front names?  Suspicious.  Notice that nobody claims that they are actually made in Japan.  Don't tell me!  Could this be another China scam?

Anyhow, Huusk just came up on Quora with a thinly veiled scam link and I blasted them.

Following is a copy of their "question" and my response.

What are huusk knives?  How does it work?  Are you looking were to get better kitchen knives?  Go to thereviewtrends.com to get all you need to know about hussk knives. [sic]

John Wegner, Used and collected knives for over 60 years.

Answered 2m ago

This isn’t a real question but I’ma answer these scammers.

You’re promotion methods appear to be to flood the Internet with scammy press releases filled with marketing B.S. and hope you move a bunch of your junk before any real reviewers catch up with you. Just google “huusk knives” and stand by for the avalanche. Notice that every review is exactly the same wording. Huh. Could this be because the sites employ the ancient technique of rip-n-print? (That means they fill their content with junk articles that are provided by manufacturers or promoters.)

Let’s look at the literature:

“The present dominating style is gotten from French and German customs, while Japanese blades, with their more slender cutting edges and bended spines, are gaining more popularity these days. This is the exact reason why Huusk Knife is trending all over the world.”

Well, clearly the copywriter isn’t a native English speaker. Awkward.

“made up of high-quality Japanese steel by ancient blade smiths”

The knives are claimed to be “7CR17MOV” steel. Impressive? No. This is a B.S. number used in China and Japan for sub-$20 crap blades made from the steel known universally as 440A. Cheap. Easy to sharpen because it is soft. In fairness, it does take a nice edge … but not for long.

How are their knives made by “ancient blade smiths”? Are the workers all over 100 years old? Have they resurrected a bunch of dead guys? More horse crap. No. Notice that they don’t say, Japanese blade smiths (or bladesmiths). Guess where they’re really made.

“Japanese samurai-based brand knife”

What is samurai-based? I wasn’t aware that samurai was a knife’s characteristic.

Are you seeing a trend of poppycock marketing here?

Definitely, the most important thing about these knives is, as far as a real chef is concerned, is the deeply deckled (stamped?) surface on the knife spine. Not wanting to have their kitchen shut down by the health inspector because the knives are full of hundreds of ridges, nooks, and crannies where food particles and bacteria can breed, I wouldn’t have these in my kitchen. You shouldn’t either.