Let's talk about ironing for a minute. Why? Fuck you, that's why.

I refer you to this site which is a guy's personal collection of gasoline (yes, gasoline)-powered irons. These are interesting artifacts of a weird time when ironing was a chore that people did. Just as you and I might do things “take out the trash” and “vacuum”, there was a time when ironing was all-important. This wasn't just a thing that you did for that special dress shirt on a special day. Everything got the same treatment from your Sunday best to your sheets and underwear. We scoff at the idea now. Imagine ironing your sheets. In fact, think about hand washing clothes, line-drying clothes, and then ironing everything you wear. Not just that, but ironing your clothes with a potentially dangerous appliance that is a barely-contained fire. The lucky ones had these, by the way. In much of the country, people still warmed irons on their stoves or in front of an open fire. People sure went to a lot of trouble to look crisp and sharp ever-so-briefly in the awful past.