Microwavable hot water

Now I appreciate convenience as much as the next person. But I wonder if we're not becoming a society of people too lazy to live.

No one can argue, at least not effectively, that vacuum cleaners have it all over brooms when it comes to sucking up dust. And bless the person who invented the dishwasher. And self-cleaning ovens? Whoever came up wth those — and you know it was a woman — is a candidate for sainthood.

I can remember when my mother washed clothes, she hung them out to dry on a clothesline, secured them with clothespins kept in a clothespin sack that hung on the line and slid along as she worked. And when she washed sheer curtains, she set up a wooden contraption called a curtain stretcher where she tacked on the wet curtains and they dried in the sun, no shrinking and no ironing.

Clothes dried in the sun smell wonderful. But when it rains and you had to hang stuff up in the house, the smell became dank and the clothes didn't dry. So dryers are a wonderful convenience, and I don't even mind cleaning out the lint trap.

But I have to question some conveniences. Take for instance instant tea. What's so difficult about putting a tea bag or two in a teapot, pouring hot water over them and letting them steep? Takes how long? Two or three minutes. With instant tea you still have to heat the water so where's the savings? If you're making iced tea, you're pouring brewed tea over ice cubes to cool down. Where's the time savings there? But mostly, have you tasted instant tea?

So if you're really lazy you can buy iced tea in a bottle in the refrigerator section of your supermarket. That's convenient. Let somene else do the work, brew the tea, cool it down, bottle it. Takes a second or two to grab one from the fridge, pop open the top and drink it. Convenient? Sure. But it's instant tea. It tastes awful. What are we doing with the time we saved by not brewing our own tea?

Probably making microwave popcorn. The microwave is a wondrful gadget, but it doesn't take that much time to drag out a beatup saucepan, heat up some oil, throw in some kernels and then shake the pot until the popped corn overflows. Otherwise, we sit there watching a flat bag spin around on the turntable, puff up, and then when we open it, we find that - like the instant tea - it tastes funny.

What really inspired this rant is a commercial I heard on the radio recently for the convenience food to end all convenience foods. Frozen, pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, made with Jiff peanut butter and Smuckers preserves. Now what's so difficult and time consuming about slapping some peanut butter on a slice of bread, spreading on some jelly, and topping it with another slice of bread? The frozen delights come crustless. Well, if you don't want to take the time to cut off the crusts, just cut the sandwich in half and eat down to the crust.

Don't ask me if they taste the same as a homemade PB&J. I refuse to try them. Instead, I'm going to join the marketing bandwagon and make my fortune selling a convenience. All it takes is a little plastic tray divided into sections. Fill it with water, freeze it, and voila — frozen hot water. Pop one in a cup, heat in the microwave, and the possibilities are endless.