Tell Us Household Items From 20 Years Ago That've Disappeared
Or a phone book.
That's not the case anymore. So it begs the question: What's a household item that you used to find in every home but would be hard-pressed to come across today? It could be a stack of CDs...
...a landline...
...or a Tuscan-style kitchen aesthetic. (Okay, this one you still might find occasionally.)
Whatever it is, let us know in the comments or through the anonymous form below. The best responses may feature in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post!
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USA Today
5 hours ago
- USA Today
Iconic televangelist Jimmy Swaggart's rise and fall remembered
Swaggart embodied the transition from traveling evangelist to radio preacher and then televangelist, garnering huge audiences along the way. Before his career ended in shame, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was a pioneering legend, a magnetic preacher and performer whose mastery of both pulpit and piano earned a groundbreaking national and global following. Along with Robert Schuller and Jerry Falwell, the Louisiana-born televangelist was among the primary trailblazers and at his 1980s peak one of the most familiar faces in Christian television, bringing an expressive Pentecostal-style of worship into the evangelical mainstream. 'His preaching on television was particularly powerful because of his facial expressions,' said Quentin Schultze, professor emeritus of communication at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 'He helped lead many viewers to a more charismatic style of worship.' Swaggart, who died Tuesday morning at age 90, was a riveting and dramatic preacher, said Randall Balmer, a professor of religion at Dartmouth College, a private university in Hanover, New Hampshire. 'He pulled out all the stops – the tears, the exclamations,' Balmer said. 'He understood pacing and had an innate sense of how to manipulate people.' Swaggart, he said, embodied the transition from traveling evangelist to radio preacher and then televangelist, garnering huge audiences along the way. 'He was phenomenally successful at each one of those iterations,' said Balmer, author of 'Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture of America.' Swaggart pursued full-time ministry in 1955 and in 1969 launched 'The Campmeeting Hour,' broadcasting on more than 700 radio stations around the country. Four years later, 'The Jimmy Swaggart Telecast' would pivotally put him in front of a television audience. At the time, well-financed preachers could purchase nationally syndicated, Sunday morning airtime with the potential of reaching large audiences, Schultze said. Swaggart was among the few able to significantly capitalize on that opportunity, mastering the small screen with his intensely emotional delivery. In the 1970s and 1980s, television was really 'a medium of the face,' said Schultze, author of 'Televangelism and American Culture.' 'Not so much anymore, because of big screens, but back then most visual expression came from the face, and he had a very expressive face, along with his musical voice.' Swaggart's show would eventually air in more than 100 nations weekly. At his peak, according to the publication 64 Parishes, Swaggart's TV ministry would reach more than 2 million Christians around the globe. 'There was a time when 30% of all Americans who had their televisions on, on Sunday mornings, were tuned into Swaggart,' Schultze said. Pray for the family of Rev. Jimmy Swaggart who passed away today at the age of 90. He had been hospitalized since June 15 when he suffered cardiac arrest. In life and in death, we can thank God for His great mercy and His offer of salvation if we repent and put our faith in His… By the time sex scandals sledgehammered Swaggart's career in the late 1980s and early 1990s, cable and satellite TV, and eventually the internet, would make it 'virtually impossible' to attract the volume of viewership he achieved in his heyday, Schultze said. Religious audiences had become balkanized and many stations had discontinued paid programming. 'There was a short window where if you were a great television entertainer and could hire an advertising marketing agency to promote you, you could get some tremendous audiences,' Schultze said. "That's gone now, and there won't be anyone on TV or on the internet who's as popular as these guys were.' Preacher's rise and fall 'a cautionary tale' Swaggart, Schultze said, was a gifted singer with an affected, heartfelt style. As a younger man, he'd pondered a secular music career; his cousins were rock-and-roll icon Jerry Lee Lewis and country star Mickey Gilley. Instead, he chose the ministry, infusing traditional hymns with emotionally delivered, country music arrangements, upending notions of what Christian music could be and bringing mainstream legitimacy to Pentecostal-style worship. Swaggart sold 17 million gospel albums, though his enduring 'Southern gospel version of contemporary music' continues to divide churches today, Schultze said. 'Pentecostalism was always kind of tribal and seen as outside mainstream evangelical faith,' Schultze said. 'He brought it more into the center, and what became a lot of its faith and worship music was partly of his influence.' Had his career not been felled by his own missteps, Swaggart likely could have continued on, Schultze said. In 1988, Swaggart was embroiled in a scandal involving a sex worker, leading to his legendary 'I have sinned' apology delivered on live television. The incident led to Swaggart's suspension and then defrocking by the Assemblies of God, though he would eventually continue preaching without a denomination. 'He realized that unless he got back to TV he would lose everything,' Balmer said. 'He needed that huge influx of money and made a calculated decision to defy suspension and go back on his own as an independent. It didn't work out all that well for him.' A second scandal in 1991 would set Swaggart back for good. Balmer, who visited him in Baton Rouge while researching a 1998 magazine piece about the disgraced preacher, said Swaggart struggled mightily after his fall from grace. 'The whole enterprise was a shadow of its former self,' Balmer said. 'He'd had a whole empire, a bible college and various missionary organizations. I don't know how many acres he had in Baton Rouge but it was a large complex. And it was a ghost town by then.' Ultimately, Balmer said, Swaggart's legacy may be a cautionary tale. 'Here's somebody who rose to the pinnacle of evangelical stardom and through a series of missteps utterly destroyed his reputation and ministry,' he said. 'There were a few hangers-on to be sure, but by the time I got there 10 years later, the crowds of thousands were down to dozens.' While Swaggart's rise had been concurrent with the rise of the Moral Majority, the political organization founded by Falwell that helped elect Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and made the religious right a political force, politics was never his game. 'He was all about preaching and the music,' Schultze said. 'Sitting at the piano and doing an emotional hymn. None of the other TV evangelists could do that.' Contributing: Natalie Neysa Alund; Greg Hilburn, USAT Network
Miami Herald
10 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Rare half-ton statue — once guarding medieval gate — unearthed in France. See it
Built along the banks of the Moselle river, the ancient city of Toul, France, has seen centuries of change. Once the capital of a Belgic tribe, the town was on the edge of the Roman Empire, then evangelized in the fourth century and ruled by sovereign bishops. It wasn't until the middle of the 16th century that the city became part of the Kingdom of France. By then, the city had been built and torn down more than once, leaving remnants of past communities buried under new layers. Now, archaeologists are pulling back the layers of the ancient city, revealing the stages of history as they sift through the rubble. Archaeologists were working on 'La Place,' a medieval northern city gate that was demolished in the 1700s, when they found a large, carved stone, according to a June 27 news release from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research. The stones of the gate were broken down by military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, but the pieces were put back together as a fortified wall and later as a retaining wall established in the ditch where the gate once stood, archaeologists said. The lower section, possibly used as a cellar or low room, was then filled with rubble and some of the more architectural elements of the gate, hidden below the surface, according to the release. In this rubble, archaeologists uncovered a rare Renaissance-style equestrian statue, broken but mostly preserved, officials said. It included the body, upper legs, neck and head of the horse, as well as the pelvis, thighs and a saddle cloth belonging to the rider, according to the release. The head and limbs of the rider, which may have been able to identify them, was missing, archaeologists said. The statue stands out from other examples of the style by its sheer size — the main fragment alone weighs more than 1,000 pounds and is 3.6 feet long and about 2 feet wide. The entire piece likely stood about 5 and a half feet tall, and a similar length, when pieced back together, archaeologists said. The sculpture is made from a white shell limestone, possibly originating from Barrois in eastern France, according to the release. Archaeologists believe the statue would have been placed in a niche overlooking the city gate during the 15th and 16th centuries. When the gate was demolished, the statue was taken down and placed at the base of the monument, and its pieces were quickly buried. The style of art mimics examples seen from the Romans, archaeologists said. French and Italian Renaissance artists were commonly inspired by statues in the Roman capital depicting Marcus Aurelius on horseback, and their works would show a Roman noble figure draped in a tunic and cloak, according to the release. Similar pieces can be found across Naples, Florence and Milan, and Italian artists were sometimes commissioned to make these kinds of pieces in France, archaeologists said. The horse and rider sculpture, while likely made during the end of the medieval period, was inspired by the ancient Roman work and would have been symbolic of aristocratic power and Italian Renaissance ideas reaching France, according to the release. A total of 27 statue pieces were found, and additional analysis aims at putting them together through 3D modeling. Archaeologists are also hoping to identify who may have commissioned the work, because mention of not only the statue but also the gate are mainly absent from archives and historical accounts, according to the release. The statue was possibly commissioned by King of France Henry II, who conquered the Three Bishoprics of Lorraine in 1552 and worked to reinforce the fortifications around Toul, archaeologists said. It could have also been commissioned by the Cardinal of Lorraine, who was a lover of Renaissance art and a close friend and diplomat of Francis I with the Pope, as the style stands out from the 16th-century architecture still seen in Toul today, according to the release. Toul is in northeastern France, about a 200-mile drive east from Paris. Google Translate was used to translate the news release from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research.
WIRED
12 hours ago
- WIRED
A Dedicated Hot Dog Cooker Is the Spirit of American Summer
Skip to main content If hot dogs are America, hot dog cookers are how America gets made. We tried a few, and liked two. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Hot dogs are America: fast, cheap, often beefy, and heavily processed. The hot dog careens between extremes of puritanicalism (the mustard-onion demagogues of New York) and wild excess (kimchi dogs, Coneys, Chicago-style garden dragging). It is deeply romanticized, almost certainly bad for you, and full of controversy—mostly about ketchup and being a sandwich. Bless the hot dog. The hot dog is American holiness. And so of course we would need special cookers for hot dogs only. You can cook a hot dog on pretty much anything, sure. But why not cook them on the hot doggiest hot dog cooker, the best hot dog cooker for only hot dogs? After we tested multiple visions of dedicated hot dog machine, it turns out the best home hot dog cookers are offer the same thing you'd find at your local 7-Eleven. The Elite Gourmet Hot Dog Roller and Oven ($44) is a miniature hot dog maker, with a warmer tray beneath to lightly toast buns. For larger party vibes, the best hot dog maker is a big steamer box like the Nostalgia. Either is a beautiful match to your preference of Nathan's Famous or Hebrew National. If you need to char up a dozen burgers and 20 hot dogs at the same time, you may need to graduate. Roll with one of our favorite big stand-up griddles like the Traeger Flat Iron 3-Burner ($900)—or check out our guide to the best grills. For an otherwise excellent summer, see other WIRED backyard guides to the Best Lawn Games, Best Outdoor Lights, and the Best Pizza Ovens. Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Elite Gourmet Hot Dog Roller and Toaster Oven This is no mere hot dog cooker. This is an Elite Gourmet hot dog cooker, designed in California's City of Industry—names whose epic sweep seems to outstrip all possible meaning. But the ambitions of the hot dog cooker itself are more humble, and so is its price. And so it succeeds. The Elite Gourmet hot dog maker is, at heart, a roller-style hot dog cooker like the one you'll find at any convenience store in America. Every American summer since the 1950s has been hotter, better, and meatier with the help of a roller grill, thanks to the dogged efforts of a crackerjack young engineer named Calvin MacCracken. In a little less than 15 minutes, this cooker will cook up four hot dogs to a food-safe 165 degrees Fahrenheit (yes, I measured), on heated stainless steel rollers that'll make sure the cooking is even. It'll also slowly warm four buns in the oven space below, well shy of true toasting. Each compartment gets a crumb tray or a drip tray, for easy cleaning. The rollers are best cleaned when still rolling and when still a bit hot, by using a gingerly held wet rag and the magic of steam. And that's it. Four hot dogs. Four buns. No real problems. It's too small for a big party. But maybe four hot dogs is already a party? Just note that the cheese from cheese-stuffed hot dogs will be hard to get off the rollers, if you let American cheese burn onto hot rollers. At least one truly angry Amazon review behooves me to point this out. Specs Dimensions : 7.5" deep x 12" wide x 7" tall Power : 210 watts Type : Roller hot dog cooker with toaster oven Capacity : 4 hot dogs, 4 buns Features : 30-minute oven timer, 5 rollers, removable drip and crumb trays Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Nostalgia Extra Large Hot Dog Steamer There's something about the particular softness of a steamed bun and a taut-snapped, natural wrapped, kinda wet hot dog—it is a study in American contrast. It is my childhood as lived near bleachers and parking lots, or amid the sawdust and gravel of budget fun. This hot dog steamer is made by a Wisconsin company that literally calls itself 'Nostalgia,' and that's precisely what they're selling. This bright-colored, thick-plastic, triple-tiered steamer feels like a Fisher-Price toy for carnivores. The water goes on the bottom. The hot dogs—28 of them if you double-stack the small ones—go in the middle steamer drawer. The top compartment will hold a tight-packed max of 12 small buns. But don't worry, the buns cook faster than the hot dogs. Turn it on high, and the hot dogs are cooked within about 15 minutes. Don't put the buns in till about five minutes before you want them, or they'll get not merely soft, but wet with steam. Turn it down to warm, it'll hold at a food-safe 160 degrees Fahrenheit or so. This is a slightly rinky-dink device, with the heft and feel of an old Igloo Cooler. But my family has nonetheless had the same Playmate Igloo cooler since I remember being alive. Keep it clean, and you should be able to hang onto this awhile. Just note that when you pull out the hot dog steamer drawer, a little bit of hot dog water will drip onto the table. If not outside, lay out a couple paper towels before firing this thing up. Specs Dimensions : 11" wide x 9" deep x 13" tall Power : 600 watts Type : Bun and hot dog steamer Capacity : 20 hot dogs and 6 buns (advertised). But I fit 28 and 12 Features : Warm and hot settings Look, if you're trying to feed a football team, no little hot dog cooker will do. What you'll want is one of our favorite griddles or grills. No wee steamer can beat a 33-inch Traeger griddle, my favorite griddle of all backyard griddles. There are a couple griddles, however, that seem custom made for hot dogs and buns. Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Photograph: Matthew Korfhage Photograph: Matthew Korfhage This Blackstone Iron Forged Air Fryer Combo comes with two air frying baskets and a third warming basket underneath the griddle. Well, guess what? If you don't turn on the air fryer fan, that means you've got three big warmer baskets, ready to make hot dog buns all toasty and nice. I haven't tested this claim, but Blackstone swears you can fit and cook 126 hot dogs across this griddle plate, for you and 125 of your closest friends. This Cuisinart griddle is actually a model I like best for smashburgers and steak sears, because it can get so ridiculously hot when cranked on high. But turn it down to medium, it'll be good for dozens of hot dogs—with a warming chamber below the griddle plate that'll lightly toast hot dog buns in a few minutes. If you're going to ask me for the implement that has cooked most of the backyard hot dogs I've had in my life—the ones that come with hard black grill marks? It's going to be something a bit like this Weber charcoal, a budget-friendly tank with low maintenance needs that WIRED has been recommending for years. It will serve you here, too. The 18-incher will serve a family of five. Bigger will serve more. But make sure you grab a cover to protect it. Hot Dog Cookers We Don't Recommend This little hot dog cooker works with all the simplicity of a toaster oven: Pick a toast level, push down the lever, then wait for the spring to pop back up. The hot dog buns fit into a pair of semicircular openings that look like broad cartoon smiles. The hot dogs get thrown down the metal-caged hot dog tubes. But alas, the buns get stuck on the way down, and also on the way up. The 'hot dog in a tunnel' design is not merely distracting visually, it doesn't cook the hot dogs to high internal temps before the edges of the buns start to burn. And depending on the length of your chosen hot dog, just the tips will emerge from the toaster when it pops up. This will leave you to fish scalding hot dogs out of the cooker with a fork.
