Wendy DeCora.com

The bookmarks list in my browser is getting ridiculously long again. Time to sort through all the links I grabbed because I thought they would provide interesting fodder for posts and do something with you. Today brings two links about an activity that is near and dear to my heart: ironing.

First up, an article with one of the best headlines I’ve seen lately on the web: VIKINGS RAPED, PILLAGED THEN DID IRONING. The article states:

“VIKINGS were responsible for introducing ironing to Scotland.

The pillaging Scandinavians were surprisingly conscious of their appearance and regularly smoothed their clothes.

Excavations across Scotland have revealed evidence that the Nordic warriors used ironing boards and smoothing stones to make the job easier.”

Second, the Extreme Ironing Bureau, which describes itself as “the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt.”

While I’m not an exteme sports enthusiast (though my few experiences with rappelling and kayaking on the ocean were very satisfying), I can completely identify with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt. Exactly when I became that person (and slightly turned into my mother), I’m not sure. Up until some point in college, I really could care less about my clothes being ironed. That is not to say I did not know how to iron. I learned when I was young when my mom taught me to sew because you’ve got to iron when you sew. But I didn’t embrace the ironing, it was just another chore that I had to do from time to time. There were numerous instances of me talking my mother into ironing my clothes because she couldn’t stand to see me leave the house wrinkled.

Nowadays, I like to iron. I might even go so far as to say I love to iron somedays. Give me some wrinkled clothes, a can of spray starch, and a nice heavy iron and I can occupy myself for hours. Granted, I usually iron in my living room while watching tv, but I do everything while watching tv. Last fall, I bought a new iron. None of those lightweight, mostly plastic things that I’d always had before, no kids, I got the Euro-Pro EP480SH Shark Professional Iron

On the last episode of Miracles that aired before ABC sucked and cancelled it, someone got hit in the face with an iron, but survived. A doctor character on the show said something to the tune of “he’s lucky it was one of those new lighter irons, if it had been an old iron, he’d be dead.”

Apparently that guy has never seen my new iron.