Calling All Black Utensils – Or Else!
Calling All Black Utensils – Or Else! by Debra H. Goldstein
Do you have any black plastic spatulas, spoons, or ladles lurking in your kitchen? New research shows that they may cause cancer, hormone and thyroid problems, neurobehavioral and development problems in children, and interference with reproductive and immune systems. The causation factor is the possibility for toxic flame retardants (decabromodiphenyl ether – decaBDE) to contaminate your food when you cook with them. Consequently, the scientific conclusion is that you should throw all of them out.
Most of the spatulas, spoons, and ladles in my kitchen drawers were the dangerous black kind. One friend said that because of the way I function in a kitchen –I only occasionally used a few and some never, I didn’t have to worry. Still, I threw my darling spatulas, spoons, and ladles out.
Why?
Better to be safe than sorry.
Sometimes, the same thing holds true in writing. Often extra words contaminate our thoughts as we transfer them to paper or the computer screen. If our work in progress is to be safe and healthy, we must, no matter how much we like them, prune the words. It isn’t easy, but it is a matter of necessity for the successful survival of the piece we are writing.
Have you thrown out your black plastic kitchen utensils? If you are a reader, have you found pieces that are perched precariously because of an overabundance of “bad” words? If an author, can you make the necessary cuts for the health of your writing? Or, in all cases, will you be overcome by the harmful substance you cannot see?
Debra, I read about the evils of black plastic utensils a few months ago and got rid of all of mine. I love the way you compared the black utensils to wordiness! Less is usually more when it comes to writing.
Thank you….agree
Prune the words – the best advice my high school English teacher gave. As for black utensils, I don’t use them, but can’t convince the husband not to. I’ll have him read your helpful advice. Thanks, Debra.
Husbands never know….or ???? Your teacher was so right.
Thanks for the PSA about black utensils. (I had not heard that.) And about eliminating wordiness. I’m taking both to heart.
good.
I’m in the process of dropping my black utensils and have been since I read the article. I mostly have serving spoons, so don’t do much stirring and cooking with those. As for the words, I have to be careful. Sometimes my “wordiness” is a style thing reflecting the way my characters think and speak.
It is difficult to balance how a character speaks/reacts with pruning words. As for the black utensils…. and we didn’t wear helmets when we were kids, either.
I had no idea. I need to check my kitchen drawers. I loved how you used this as a metaphor for writing. Well done.
This is such a comprehensive overview of the topic. I especially liked how you included practical applications alongside the theoretical concepts. Very well done!
Here’s the thing. I have different colors but what’s to say they’re not all toxic. They feel made of similar material to me.
I had not heard about this threat. Thank you for the information and comparison!