I have a two-slice toaster that advertises itself as wide enough to fit a bagel (half a bagel, at any rate) but the small convection oven on my counter is still considered a "toaster oven" though I haven't made toast in it. I have made garlic bread and open face cheese sandwiches (this is clearly the invention that Sandra's coworker was anticipating and JennieG's better half wouldn't have defeated, at least on that day).

All of these years later I'm still using my Dad's old microwave oven (in his day he managed to let it get moist enough inside that there is a seam on the back lower inside edge that shows a bit of rust, but it still works). Skillets and pots that came from family like one of Dad's old crockpots and a 1 quart lidded cast iron pot from Mom (who bought it for me and said she would season it before sending. She died, and at her estate I had to tell the others the story of that pot to get to keep it. Sheesh.) I have my great aunt's cast iron skillet with the lid (a friend calls it a "chicken fryer" because of the taller sides).

We could look through houses and describe a lot of items that came from family, not purchased new, but that's a good thing, it means we kept functional items in service.

The book has spent scant pages on philosophers Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, the most space on Locke, and a bit of Kant - brief but important observations that instead of a people in total communal situations or slavery we should each own ourselves, and an extension from that is our labor, and before you know it, the products we make. And the place we call our own in which we keep our products. . . world views about land ownership when viewing nomadic American indigenous travel across lands they knew and used, and concludes that the mega rich are super-hoarders. I can't argue with that.

I regularly refer to one of my favorite parts of the Brooklyn Museum - the fourth floor where they have expanded (looks like since 2022) the decorative arts area. It basically looks at things we use and how they are designed to be beautiful as well as functional. Every time I go there I want to polish my toaster, my tea pot, my clothes iron, and put them on a shelf for display. With that toaster, Charmion didn't just describe a functional item, she described a beautiful item.