Actually if you want to really save on toner get one of the machines (probably on ebay) that uses toner itself and not cartridges. Much cheaper than volume printing. Makes sure you use gloves when loading the stuff and keep the little girl under house arrest while doing it at it's pretty messy if knocked over.

I do support some of these restriction especially for electronic and medical devices here why. I work for a medical device firm where part of our product is batteries. If the buyer goers and get the battery cells replaced and the thing goes hay wire and kills some poor schmuck we are liable. The batter rework houses are not and consequently their insurance premiums are much much lower as they have no liability. This goes double for batter referb. companies outside the country. So to put simply if that off brand toner cartridge pitches a fit and spews toner on someone visiting your house they and you (which I doubt you would) could sue the company who made the printer. Since they did not take steps to prevent their machine becoming dangerous they (with a crafty lawyer) can get nailed. Stupid as it appears I have seen companies get nailed for far worse consumer stupidity. This is of course total horse shit with regards to ink jets, for these it only relates to profit.

The french legislation has a valid point. You or I could make a killing picking up perfume bottle for recycling and having faked the formula make a killing. If we are sloppy or malicious would could add allergens to the mix or almost anything else to the mix and either damage the name of the company or get them sued.

"Much cheaper than volume printing." Should read much cheaper for volume printing.

Makes sure you use gloves when loading the stuff and keep the little girl under house arrest while doing it at it's pretty messy if knocked over.

For some of us, this is not cheaper. I'm somebody who recently nixed a recommendation at Trader Joe's (discount gourmet store), when the person advising me started her sentence with "Just put it in the oven for..."

The oven is for storage.

I only buy food that can be heated by pressing a button. Or, as I put it recently, "I don't cook. I heat."

"I don't cook. I heat."

Heee! You kill me, Amy! Sunday I roasted some black bear. It was excellent! I rubbed a little canola oil on it, then dredged it in some flour with montreal steak spices in it. Seared it on all sides in a roasting pan, then added some chopped onions and garlic. Sauteed it for a little bit, then added 1 cup of red wine (a nice merlot), a can of beef broth, and some brown gravy. Threw in some small red potatoes, some sliced carrots, quartered mushrooms, cracked black pepper and a couple of bay leaves. Put it in the oven for about an hour at 350, voila! Served it with the same merlot, it was so good! o_O

"For some of us, this is not cheaper." Oh it's still cheaper it just might not be worth it for you though.

"I only buy food that can be heated by pressing a button. Or, as I put it recently, "I don't cook. I heat."" As a lover of all things French I'm surprised you don't do French cooking as it's quite an experince. Not for the faint hearted though as the first few tries tend to end up in the trash as opposed to the pallet (sp).

As a lover of all things French I'm surprised you don't do French cooking as it's quite an experince.

I do French eating, which is experience enough for me. And I prefer my French food to be cooked by somebody who has a diplôme from a French cooking school. Or my friend Mark, who is a food whore, and used to be a chef in New York.

"I do French eating, which is experience enough for me." Oh come on having a flambe (sp) go wrong is quite an adventure plus you have medical insurance. From personal experince hair grows back it just smells a bit funny for a while :).

You can actually get your toner cartridges refilled at Walgreens (and probably other places) for about $10. Worth looking into, since I agree that toner is outrageously overpriced!

(by the way, Amy, longtime reader, first-time commenter - love your blog!)

"The oven is for storage."

Dude, Amy. You're missing out on TJ's thaw and cook croissants (regular and chocolate!) - the closest thing to real croissants in the States.

Ah, Amy, one can use that big rectangular storage spot for heating as well as cooking. TJ's has some awesome apple strudel, but it has to be heated in an oven, not a microwave. :)

I agree. I don't cook, I heat, also. But I use both ovens (micro and reg). Not everything can go in the microwave. And, Amy, I bet when you started reading Flynne's post, your brain went as numb as mine.

I am starting to wonder how I ever cooked for a child for all those years. I have already forgotten how. In fact, she cooks for me now. The cooking genetics are all on her father's side because, to give the Devil his due, he was one hell of a cook and what little I learned I learned from him. When we met, I had him cringing at my canned and frozen. I told him I couldn't cook steak to save my life, it came out like shoe leather. He didn't believe it until I demonstrated. He liked to cook, I liked to eat, problem solved. His mother was a chef. Definitely, she gets her cooking genes from that side. (My mother's cooking was horrible. She didn't know any other spice besides salt and pepper existed.)

I cook when forced to. I think the main reason I don't like to cook is that it dirties dishes, and I HATE washing dishes.

I have a deal with a friend of mine who loves to cook, but doesn't want to gain any more weight. I buy the ingredients, plus some groceries for her, and she makes me fabulous food I can put in the freezer and heat up later. She makes the best crab rangoons I've ever eaten.

I wear tight dresses and Gregg picks me up and takes me out to dinner.

"I wear tight dresses and Gregg picks me up and takes me out to dinner."

If I tried that, it would be very SCARY! 0_0 Lol! Seriously, though, if I looked as good as you do, I'd wear tight dresses, too.

"if I looked as good as you do, I'd wear tight dresses, too." So would I ;)

Pictures vlad! I want pictures!! Even if the dresses aren't tight. Any old dress will do!

You might be interested to know that as a document producer at Savannah River Site, my division burns through about 20 thousand pages a week - of plain 92-brightness Hammermill copy paper. We finally - after I pushed and pushed - got multifunction machines installed on the network; we are still horribly unorganized, and the bulk of us have no idea how to optimize print, to engage in actual document publishing. Some still think they have to print something, anything, before they can read it.

We have a few HP4100Ns around, with over 250,000 pages on their counter, and I have a 14-year-old Apple Laserwriter 600 in the office as backup. Roller age is the enemy. The rebuild kit for our HPs is about $300.

We lease Xerox WorkCentre M45s, Xerox 5655s and a couple of Canons, all of which will take immense print jobs, and a couple will produce anything you want up to 11 x 17". Just pick your paper. You can load five kinds. These print grayscale, and their toner comes in simple bottles, but they are literally a hundred times cheaper per page than a factory HP, using refilled HP cartridges.

We have HP DesignJets that print continuous roll 42" wide to do blueprints and training posters.

No, none of it is really centralized. That would be a bit too modern for a 1953-model bomb plant, which policy is to stick a computer on a desk and tell everybody, "Use this!"

-----

You people talking about cooking have no idea what you're talking about. We have a guy on shiftwork whose fans will not leave the table until they cannot possibly hold any more of whatever he's cooking, and I have personally seen guys throw out whatever they brought, even if their wife cooked it, in favor of a plate of his ribs.

Now, you might not be a fan of gluttony, nor of ribs, chicken or venison of any kind.

But you'll observe a moment of silence in honor of my buddy Wayne, if he cooks for you, and you will struggle to put the knife and fork down!

The really amazing thing is that Amy made this shit interesting. I mean, I enjoyed reading about laserjet toner cartridges. I even took patriotic umbrage at the idea that the French fuck better than Americans. Fuck that.

So, y'all have told me that my writing sucks. I agree. How does a writer do what Amy just did? Why was the mundane suddenly so very interesting?

Aww, thanks. I'm glad to hear that, because I'm writing like a greased madwoman to get my book done.

> a greased madwoman

I was wondering why a toner-rage post would garner as many comments as it did. Ah, cooking explains it. I'm a guy cook, meaning I can make four or five things my wife detests, so I don't do them often. Used to have mad skillz at cookie-baking, though.

Radwaste, I'll bet you've still got an old LaserJet IV lying around somewhere too. Those things seemed to run forever!

... a greased madwoman

[mash]
I have to admit I picture you more as lightly oiled. And since ladies never perspire, just glowing a little.
[/mash]
--
phunctor

o.r.d. - no, but I am actually looking at my first printer, an Imagewriter. Not an Imagewriter 2 - this thing is 24 years and a few months old.

I actually have it out to see if I can make it run with anything in the house. I still have the 128K Mac that drove it long ago - which still works.

And I have Excel v0.0B. 367kb in size, and it still does more than I need to do.

For some of us, this is not cheaper. I'm somebody who recently nixed a recommendation at Trader Joe's (discount gourmet store), when the person advising me started her sentence with "Just put it in the oven for..."

The oven is for storage.

I only buy food that can be heated by pressing a button. Or, as I put it recently, "I don't cook. I heat."

Posted by: Amy Alkon at August 26, 2008 5:41 AM

Amy, you're not right. I mean that in a good way. Please don't ever stop writing.

Reading your site is better than a good comedy movie with a perfectly blended serious plot.

Yes, I realize this article is a month old.