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Mr. Mitster and Mr. Singer
Feb. 20th, 2014 10:49 pmA child in Theodore Sturgeon's charming story/novella, "The [Widget], the [Wadget], and [Boff]," called a mixer "Mr. Mitster." Mine is my mother's Mixmaster, and its beaters don't stay fastened, with potentially disastrous results when I try to beat anything of more substance than eggs. Roy has been suggesting that I should spend $$$ on one of those KitchenAid mixers, but I object in principle to buying something with "Artisan" in its name.
So today I packed up Mr. Mitster and took a bus, a subway, and another bus to the only small appliance repair place in Philadelphia. The good news is that they're the authorized service place for both Sunbeam and KitchenAid. For ten bucks they'll look it over and give me an opinion.
They also sell KitchenAid mixers that have never actually seen duty in a kitchen, but that are considered "factory reconditioned" because the carton was opened at some point -- by a bride-to-be who got two, or by Macy's etc when they need to display one. They're a lot less expensive than the new ones. The shop lady says she has one and loves it.
They have a reconditioned Singer sewing machine for sale, too -- one of those early portables with the arch-topped wooden case, with elaborate decals. All it does is sew, in one direction, which means it's unlikely to misbehave much. They want $150 for it. I suspect I'll dream about it. I have some Asian machine that does a million stitches badly. The Singer would be a bear to bring home on the bus, though. When I was nineteen I bought a treadle sewing machine a couple doors down from Wanamaker's -- my fiance and I carried it home, a distance of a little over a mile. I made my first wedding dress on that machine. I wish I still had it, but I gave it to his second wife when they set up housekeeping off the grid.
So today I packed up Mr. Mitster and took a bus, a subway, and another bus to the only small appliance repair place in Philadelphia. The good news is that they're the authorized service place for both Sunbeam and KitchenAid. For ten bucks they'll look it over and give me an opinion.
They also sell KitchenAid mixers that have never actually seen duty in a kitchen, but that are considered "factory reconditioned" because the carton was opened at some point -- by a bride-to-be who got two, or by Macy's etc when they need to display one. They're a lot less expensive than the new ones. The shop lady says she has one and loves it.
They have a reconditioned Singer sewing machine for sale, too -- one of those early portables with the arch-topped wooden case, with elaborate decals. All it does is sew, in one direction, which means it's unlikely to misbehave much. They want $150 for it. I suspect I'll dream about it. I have some Asian machine that does a million stitches badly. The Singer would be a bear to bring home on the bus, though. When I was nineteen I bought a treadle sewing machine a couple doors down from Wanamaker's -- my fiance and I carried it home, a distance of a little over a mile. I made my first wedding dress on that machine. I wish I still had it, but I gave it to his second wife when they set up housekeeping off the grid.
