A facebook friend of Mark’s called Katharine decided to Google ‘The Madness of Mark’, which as you all know is one of the categories on this blog. And lo! It was a Googlewhack. A Googlewhack is where a googled phrase has only one entry – although, Mark now informs me, ‘The Madness of Mark’ is not strictly a Googlewhack because it contains a proper noun.
But until I found all that out, I was reminiscing on the teasmade: this wonderful object used to wake me in the morning in the ultra-civilised method of pouring me a Really Nice Hot Cup of Tea. But why don’t we find teasmades in the shops any more? They are the most amazing things: I think they were invented by Douglas Adams:-
http://www.h-tea-o.net/newsletter/G001DouglasAdams/teatalk/
My parents had one and until it got broken, so did I. Here’s how it works: you have two hot plates, with a square kettle on one and a square teapot on the other. In between is a clock with an alarm function. You fill the kettle with water and put tea in the pot, not forgetting also the cup and the milk. You then set the alarm and when the hour arrives in the morning just as you are mid-dream, the kettle starts to boil, the hot water is forced through the spout into the teapot and as soon as the weight in the kettle decreases to a certain point the alarm is activated and you are awoken by the Really Nice Hot Cup of Tea which every device in Douglas Adams’ work needs in order to function.
And so do I.
Alas, the teasmade I once had is now broken and I can’t afford to replace it even if they were widely available. Here’s a really pretty one:
So nowadays to make tea I just have Mark.
Which is where we came in…
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 