Toaster: Extraordinary Ordinary Things

When they wake up and prepare breakfast, one of the first things millions (if not billions) of people around the world do is slip a couple of slices of bread into a toaster, before preparing the rest of their morning repast. However, the toast is almost always first because, to paraphrase a famous advertising slogan for orange juice, “a breakfast without toast is like a day without sunshine.”

While early electric toasters were a vast improvement over previous means of converting slices of bread into toast, they still had a long way to go before becoming the absolute go-to utensil required for composing the first meal of the day.

Because of the central role, it plays in human nutrition, and for numerous other reasons, I believe the electric toaster unquestionably deserves a place on the list of what I like to call “extraordinary ordinary things.”

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The Pillow: Extraordinary Ordinary Things

When was the last time you went to sleep without a pillow? Chances are never, or only under duress. Sleeping without a pillow is about as common as sleeping standing up. But why? It seems the human body is so constructed that sleeping without some kind of support for the head is extremely uncomfortable, and therefore of necessity to be avoided.

A head with eyes closed, snuggled down on a pillow is a widespread symbol for rest, relaxation, and contentment. But it wasn’t always like that. For much of human history, and still in parts of the world today, a pillow was not soft and comfy, the proverbial “sack stuffed with feathers.” Instead, it was solid and sturdy, what might better be called a headrest rather than a pillow.

The shapes and varieties of materials from which they were made have varied widely from culture to culture and from century to century. However, their purpose was always the same, to support the head to help induce and maintain sleep.

Because it plays such an indispensable role in fostering health and well-being, I believe the pillow unquestionably deserves a place on the list of what I like to call  “extraordinary ordinary things.”

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The Rose: Extraordinary Ordinary Things

Whenever I sit down to write one of these essays, I frequently start with an unusual personal experience and expand from there. I tried to do that this time, but it didn’t work. The rose, both physical and conceptual, seems to be so much a part of everyone’s thoughts and experience, any story I could tell probably would quickly be matched and exceeded by someone else’s. So, I gave up. But not entirely.

Anything so intimate and integral to so many people, which characterizes the rose, almost by definition is both ordinary and extraordinary. And occasionally surprising. The rose even plays a significant role in computing and computer science. A fulsome exploration of this unexpected phenomenon will be found in the section “The Rose and Computing” near the end of this essay.

For these (and other) reasons, I have no qualms about welcoming the rose into a place of honor on the list of what I like to call “extraordinary ordinary things.”

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Barcode: Extraordinary Ordinary Things

The barcode, those unreadable patterns of lines on most products we buy, are ubiquitous to the point of being banal. We see them everywhere, and therefore pay little attention to them. However, not so long ago, you wouldn’t have seen them anywhere. Nevertheless, in their short history (approximately 40 years), they have affected daily life in so many ways that if they suddenly disappeared, we wouldn’t know how to live without them. This is why the barcode unquestionably merits a place on the list of what I call “Extraordinary Ordinary Things.”

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