“Grit number” is the technical term.

220 will leave too many scratches in hard stuff like maple. I wish these articles wouldn’t use words like “only” and “never.” Yes, you normally can get by with just those grits, but if you do anything serious with wood you will stray from that formula pretty quickly.

Well, I know one thing: I bought into that late ‘80s “dress for success” business attire thing where you were supposed to always wear a suit and a tie regardless of how little you mattered in the organization. This was supposed to signal your hunger for advancement.

I’m a confident outgoing person, but I didn’t start that way, and I’m here to simply say: right on! Fake it til you make it. The recipe for my confidence comes first from performing regularly for forty *mumble* years. I have embarassed myself on stage so many times it doesn’t even register any more. Second, you just…

I don’t understand what’s meant by the word Bonerkiller. It sounds like something you expect to be called by the clueless men you describe who can’t handle women thinking for themselves. It also sound (to me anyway) like Frances McDormand naked but YMMV.

Several people replied with “if you’re so smart what’s the right way to do it?” Probably so they could poke holes in my instructions, but fair’s fair, right?

Okay okay, I didn’t expect anyone to really want to know the correct way :) And no, he is not correct. He has an incorrect angle. The angle is EVERYTHING on a knife edge. The angle changes through the stroke. That will simply bend the edge the other direction. He called that sharpening; it’s honing. Sharpening uses…

Like I said, he has a knife guy. He’s got a giant collection and the knife guy sharpens one and puts it out for him. The truth is, these guys hone with a steel real fast to impress everyone but when you do it like that the steel never really gets anywhere near the edge, so it really does nothing. I’m not saying he…

I was remiss.

Thus:

Do not do to your knives what he does to his knives. Remember, celebrity assholes have professional knife techs to keep their shit sharp. When Ramsey steels a knife, it’s for show. When you steel (i.e. hone, not sharpen) a knife, you want it to be sharper than it was before you started.

Go away with your EBCDIC (which you spelled wrong.) EBCDIC gives me flashbacks.

When we’re talking about cooking here we need to have some disclaimers. There are various techniques for a reason. If you are an experienced cook that doesn’t know this trick and you know how to put the right amount of garlic in your dish and you understand what this does to the garlic and flavor of your dish, great.…

“...the personal essay...has always seemed like an attempt to spin gold out of shit and straw.”

You can buy those off the shelf. My wife didn’t want to find open traps with dead mice so she got these deals that were enclosed. Unfortunately the spring was too weak to kill the mouse, just break all its limbs. I finally walked by the cabinet where the trap was and heard it screaming. I took it out and killed it but…

I don’t really mean this as a criticism, but this strikes me as good advice for people with limited potential. I think someone who does the same thing every time they open their laptop has probably presented themselves with a pretty limited menu of option. My days are rarely the same and what I do on my computer…

Bearfucker, do you need assistance?

Check every paycheck. For the rest of your life. You want to know what happens to people that don’t do this? Watch Judge Judy. They end up there.

It’s funny how many people think this actually changes anything. Like the guy below that can’t imagine having to pay “full price” for a phone. You’ve been paying more than full price and you will continue to pay more. If Sprint is changing anything about the way they do business it’s not because it results in lower…

The problem here is that coverage like this that is so focused on the few things that went wrong and the fireworks that accompany them that it’s turning this whole political process into a sports league. Our team is the best and the other teams suck. Sure our team did that very thing last week, oopsy, but when the…