ExecutiveGirl
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posted on October 4, 2001 05:35:46 PM new
Ok, Christmas time will be here before you know it, and I'm already starting to see some of those "most rediculous" commercials for these stupid items that impulsive buyers would only think of buying on Christmas Eve. (At least I would think so anyways).
On the top of my list, are those stupid tape dispensers you put on your hand, and a little piece of tape pops up to help you wrap those Christmas gifts. Come on now! How hard is it to put tape on a package?? I suppose desk tape dispensers just can't quite do the job right???
Next on my list are bagel and bread slicers. Again, how hard is it to slice a bagel?
I'm sure I can think of more.
Care to add your most favorite annoying product ever made?
[ edited by ExecutiveGirl on Oct 4, 2001 05:36 PM ]
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Meya
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posted on October 4, 2001 05:40:33 PM new
My vote goes to the Pampered Chef Chopper. First you have to dig it out the back of the cupboard, 4 pieces to assemble, smack the bejeebers out of the palm of your hand dicing an onion, then take it apart and wash it, dry it, and find a place to store it.
or
Grab a knife and a cutting board, dice onion.
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rancher24
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posted on October 4, 2001 05:56:06 PM new
Oh, I've got one!....For a year I begged my DH for an Epilady because from the commericals it "looked" like the easiest way to remove unwanted hair. Got the thing for Christmas & read the directions "it is best to start out with a small section at a time, until you build up a resistance" "if bleeding occurs, stop use of product"...YIKES!!!!...Here I thought it was a personal care item, NOT an S&M device!!!!
As for the bagel cutter, I actually own one & it is used....The kids like to make their own bagels & I prefer that they have a nice big solid block of wood between the sharp knife & their delicate little hands
THE best thing I ever bought (besides my Mavica) was a tape dispenser. Before that each year I lost about 5 rolls of tape each time I had a wrapping session.
~ Rancher
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Meya
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posted on October 4, 2001 05:57:53 PM new
I remember reading that hand injuries from cutting bagels were one of the most common emergency room injuries.
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deliteful
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posted on October 4, 2001 06:04:05 PM new
Chococake's TINGLER
Jess
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uaru
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posted on October 4, 2001 06:07:59 PM new
I had a girlfriend purchase an item that made me go ballistic, "Alpo Lite."
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Microbes
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posted on October 4, 2001 06:08:58 PM new
Her's one:
http://www.sillyjokes.co.uk/fart_machine/index.html
[ edited by Microbes on Oct 4, 2001 06:10 PM ]
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saabsister
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posted on October 4, 2001 06:34:46 PM new
Microbes, I actually purchased one of those for my father who has a sense of humor but has been practically bedridden from Congestive Heart Failure. I put one part of it in my mother's pocketbook and gave my dad the control. You should have seen Mom's face when he set it off as she walked by her purse. After we got our belly laughs from it, I gave it to my two nephews, age 4 and 7, who went on to humiliate their parents and entertain their friends. (It didn't sound as authentic as the woopie cushion we gave my sister while she was in the hospital.)
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gravid
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posted on October 4, 2001 06:39:12 PM new
There are two variables here that people might not be aware of with the bagels.
First of all there are a lot of places in this country where a bagel is a soft dinner roll that happens to have a hole in it like somebody pushed their thumb through the mushy thing.
A real bagle has a crust and after a day is like a hard roll.
The other thing is that there are lots of people who have never owned and are scared spitless of a sharp knife. We keep knives so sharp you can take frozen roast out of the freezer and shave the thing into a pile of slices so thin the light shines through them before it can start to thaw. You can literally shave with them.
When you have a kid with a knife suitable only for spreading butter trying to push the thing through a hard as a rock day old bagel balanced on edge with the other hand
you might as well call 911 before the first push.
My wife bought a slicer that is like a big guilloutine that goes down through a tube that holds the bagel - real safe and fast.
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Meya
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posted on October 4, 2001 06:43:02 PM new
saabsister, I'm so sorry to hear about your dad and his CHF. Been there and done that with my dad, who lost his battle with CHF in August of 2000. 
It's a long sorrowful road. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] if you need to vent etc.
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saabsister
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posted on October 4, 2001 07:00:56 PM new
Thanks, Meya. It's been a real rollercoaster ride. Luckily one of my sisters is a geriatric nurse. I feel that so much of the burden falls on her because she knows what to expect and has seen this so many times. It's not easy seeing someone doing so well one week and so poorly the next. I'm sorry that your father had to suffer with this also.
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pwolf
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posted on October 4, 2001 08:07:57 PM new
gravid...
you might as well call 911 before the first push 
Gotta use that one on my husband. There's so much scar tissue on his fingers, they probably couldn't get a print off of them.
rancher,
So did the Epilady work??? Or did you chicken out? I always wondered about it.
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Valleygirl
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posted on October 4, 2001 10:47:20 PM new
Oh come on, hands down, the absolutely worst gift is a chia pet.
Not my name on ebay.
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sadie999
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posted on October 5, 2001 05:27:08 AM new
Pwolf,
My mom got me an epilady years ago. I tried it. You remember as a kid if someone grabbed a chunk of your hair and actually pulled it out? That's how it feels. But it does work.
I'll never understand why she bought it for me. I haven't shaved under my arms since the 70's, and I only shave my legs when I'm starting a new relationship.
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julie321
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posted on October 5, 2001 06:00:33 AM new
The eyelash curler. It looks frightening, usually hurts when you use it, and makes your eyelashes look deformed.
Benefits, anyone?
I was almost proud of myself. I sat here doing a quick inventory of the house for "gadgets" that had sat around unused and where probably dumb and useless. I had thought how well I had done that I had not collected dumb, useless things over the years till the eyelash curler came to me.
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godzillatemple
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posted on October 5, 2001 06:04:42 AM new
I'm sorry, but my bagel slicer is a godsend. For some reason, I have a tendency to slice at an angle, which means I end up with one half that tapers down to next to nothing, and another slice that is too thick to fit into the toaster. My bagel slicer keeps the knife nice and centered for me.
Dumb products for dumb people? Maybe...
Barry
---
The opinions expressed above are for comparison purposes only. Your mileage may vary....
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Eventer
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posted on October 5, 2001 07:18:02 AM new
I love my bread slicer. I use my breadmaker a lot & it's not easy to slice that sucker w/o risking bodily harm. The bread slicer offers a lower risk alternative to microsurgery.
I had to chuckle at the sharp knives group. My husband sharpens ours in stops & starts. Never know when I'm picking up one that couldn't cut butter or will slice through hardened steel.
Several years ago, a week before Christmas, I was finishing up a gingerbread barn (yes, we can't have a regular gingerbread house here, it has to be a BARN, an exact minature replica of the full size one out back) and was using one of the knives to carve a hole for a column piece.
Didn't realize my husband had been on a sharpening binge until I severed my finger to the bone. The surgeons who reattached everything the next day did compliment me on doing a very clean job of slicing so it make it easier to reattach.
Now my husband is required to let us all know when he's been near the knives.
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gravid
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posted on October 5, 2001 07:21:45 AM new
error post
[ edited by gravid on Oct 5, 2001 07:23 AM ]
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jt-2007
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posted on October 5, 2001 07:58:35 AM new
"shave my legs when I'm starting a new relationship"
Would this be considered dishonest?
Now, Nair is a stupid product. You have to put it on, it smells AWFUL!, then you stand there for 10 minutes like a statue fanning the fumes before turning the water back on to wash it off. Why not just shave? Takes 60 seconds. I have done it exactly 8,389 times since 1978. That's only 5.8256941 days spent shaving every 23 years. Not bad.
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Femme
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posted on October 5, 2001 08:26:28 AM new
I have to second the Chia Pet.
But, another really stupid product is a pill to increase your bust!!! Who falls for this stuff?
Just do what we use to do...
Cup your hands together with your elbows out and pump while repeating:
We must,
We must,
We must increase our bust!!
Should do wonders for the pectorals.
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jt-2007
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posted on October 5, 2001 08:46:00 AM new
My kids want a Chia Pet.
What does it grow anyway?
And what about the vacuum bra?
(If those pills worked, I would take them.)
[ edited by jt on Oct 5, 2001 08:49 AM ]
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bh010296
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posted on October 5, 2001 12:08:18 PM new
I love Chia Pets!!!!! I had wanted one practically forever, and last my Christmas my husband finally took pity on me and bought me one. I named him Charlie (the chia pet, not my husband ).
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nycrocker
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posted on October 5, 2001 12:15:23 PM new
LOL! Great thread!
I once bought a Fender guitar amplifier - ugh I prefer Marshall - but this Fender was light & easy to carry, decent enough sound, and mostly it did not cost a lot of dineros. Only problem was, instead of that vinyl covering, it was covered with this grey "furry" fabric. (WHAT was Fender thinking?) Being that I needed an amp in a hurry for a gig, I went ahead and bought it. (WHAT was I thinking?) First of all, all my friends immediately started teasing me, calling it my CHIA AMP Yeah THAT was good for my ROCKER image. And then my cats grabbed ahold of it. The best "scratching post" they ever got. Now it is only PARTIALLY covered with fur and holes are ripped out of it everywhere. That had to be the stupidest thing I ever bought. (It still sounds cool though.)
PS: Is there a pill I can take to make my chest SMALLER? Might save me some money on surgery. 36B is still too big for me. 
[ edited by nycrocker on Oct 5, 2001 12:19 PM ]
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tiggressoflove
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posted on October 5, 2001 12:23:17 PM new
New Coke
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Femme
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posted on October 5, 2001 12:27:59 PM new
Chia Amp
Rocker,
You might want to ask Teri what a vacuum bra is. LOL
Of course, there is always binding. OUCH!!!
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zoomin
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posted on October 5, 2001 12:34:07 PM new
Soap on a Rope
* Rocker, I'd be happy to take your leftovers *
(does 36B + 36B=72BB)
(BB stands for Big Boobs, right?)
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Shadowcat
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posted on October 5, 2001 02:32:42 PM new
There are times when shaving is medically contraindicated. I was on Heparin therapy and couldn't shave on the off chance I nicked myself. If it weren't for Nair, I mighta been mistaken for a Sasquatch.
Stupidest product I ever saw...butt floss(for those times TP didn't do the "job" ).
Honest to gosh. It was offered in a catalogue.
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Muriel
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posted on October 5, 2001 02:59:56 PM new
The Salad Shooter. 
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nycrocker
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posted on October 5, 2001 03:43:30 PM new
Femme & Zoomin LOL!!!
Femme Believe me, I have been keeping Ace Bandage in business! GASP - it is not easy to breathe, but, does the trick for now. I went to see the surgeon last month and as soon as I have the $$$ - chop chop baby. Zoomim you can gladly have them, I will FedEx them to ya. (Ew - not a pretty picture.)
Okay give it up, girls - WHAT is a VACUUM bra? (Should I be afraid? Sounds painful!)
edited for bad spelling
[ edited by nycrocker on Oct 5, 2001 09:05 PM ]
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pwolf
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posted on October 5, 2001 05:44:08 PM new
Sadie,
Thanks, I thought that's what it would feel like.
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