after dinner sneeze

t says: On to #4 on the interesting/awesome/useful kitchen equipment list.  We have salt and pepper shakers.  Actually, we have several salt and pepper shakers (l gave us some pretty rad shakers – thanks!).  You [likely] have salt and pepper shakers, too.  But … do you have gravity-activated salt and pepper shakers?  We do.  Check it (sorry, it’s a little out-of-focus):

It don't matter if you're black or white - you're both fun to use!

But wait!  Aren’t all shakers “gravity-activated”?  Doesn’t salt and pepper fall out of all shakers when you invert them?  Yes … but you have to shake the shakers!!  Pfft – that’s so 20th century.  Each of these bad boys have a little electric motor (powered by 6 AAA batteries) that turns on when the shaker is inverted.  Upon inversion, without having to press a button or twist something, the shaker starts grinding the salt/pepper so it falls out.  That’s right!  No shaking required!  And that little loop at the top is a  knob that you can turn so you can dial in how coarse/fine you want the motors to grind.

Is this feature actually useful?  Kinda.  Is it fair to consider these “shakers” and not “grinders”?  Probably not.  Is it borderline ridiculous?  Maybe.  Is it super-cool?  Absolutely.  Here’s an example of just how cool … Soon after we first acquired these, a bunch of friends visited us.  While I was moving food to the table, I hear a wwhhiirrrr noise from the kitchen, followed by giggling and a “whoa, do it again!”.  I turned around to find a bunch of very manly men huddled around the sink – they were “testing” the shakers.  With giddy smiles on their faces, they passed them around so they could all try.  I asked, “pretty cool, eh?”.  One of them responded, “Dude – I’d get married if it gets me one of these.”  And there you have it.  These salt and pepper shakers are so cool that men in their mid-20’s will strongly consider long-term commitments to own them.  Need I say more?