In my rush to award my first honors to Sweden, I forgot to mention another award that I had wanted to bestow.
#4 – Most Frou-frou Bathroom Appliance. Okay, so imagine you walk into your bathroom and find this:
Ooh! Ooh! I know! It's a ladder to help you over the shower curtain!
Unless you're Swedish--or unless you've seen one too many Swedish bathrooms--your first thought is bound to be off. It's not a ladder; it's not a piece of playground equipment installed by slightly confused workmen; and it's not merely a towel rack.
But wait! There’s more! Observe a bit more closely:
Ooh! Ooh! There's a switch! It must be a telescoping ladder!
H says that it took her a day or two to find the switch, and at first she just thought it was a rather dim, rather inconveniently located night-light. And to give her credit, it does get dark around here in the winter. But it turns out that if you leave the switch in the "on" position long enough, the entire frame becomes warm to the touch.
Voila! It's not just a towel rack--it's a towel-warmer, silly! While I find this particular appliance vastly--and somewhat trivially--amusing, I should in all fairness to H note that she thinks it the most thoughtful thingy ever installed in a bathroom. She uses it every time she showers. Since I am lucky enough to see the world through her eyes from time to time, I can't help but give a nod to the inventor(s) for thoughtfulness, but I still think it deserves an award.
4 comments:
I don't think that the towel warmer is going to catch on over in the states. The first time somebody's towel catches on fire, it's class-action lawsuit city, and we're all waving "toodles" to the shower ladder.
Al-Dawg
These are my favorite European invention. They are great for drying hand laundry in damp climes!
You are lucky to have an on/off switch, some places don't and the bath gets surprising warm in the summer prior to bathing and chillingly cold in the winter while the heat is cycling off!
Note to Al-Dawg: Available in the US they are not compatible with many heating systems in old buildings here and are quite costly. Otherwise I would have one in every bathroom!
Silly me I guess. I believe these are actually well designed heaters that happen to warm your towel. Kosovo has plenty as well but not nearly as stylish. Nice blog
I had one in Belgium. They're great.
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