The kind of Kosher salt I'm used to is flaky; I bought little rocks. Thus the grinder. Oh, I'll use this salt. You bet I will. In fact, I'll insist everyone use it for a couple of weeks. Then we'll get tired of having to grind our salt, which really isn't necessary—salt isn't better freshly ground like pepper—and the grinder will be moved into the cupboard, with all the other salt products I've purchased the last couple of years.
You see, salt is my current obsession. Do you know how many types of salt you can buy? Probably two or three thousand. Maybe more. You can get it smoked (really good for BBQing meats), flavored, flaked, chunky, finely ground, pink, black, red, orange, white ... cheap and expensive. With iodine and without iodine.
My current favorites are a smoked salt from Washington, Murray River flake salt from Australia, and Maldon Sea Salt. Unfortunately, they're all pricey. Especially the Murray River salt; eight ounces is $15.50 retail! Alternatively, you can get a two-pound package for $37.76. With free shipping.
No one in my house dares to say "It's just salt."
I get obsessed about things. Before salt it was watches. At one time I had fifty watches. I participated on four on-line watch collector forums, took and posted pictures of my watches on and off my wrist, and on my wife's wrist... I still notice other's watches. For instance, a guy at church was wearing an Omega SeaMaster Pro yesterday. It's a sickness I have.
Years ago I collected fountain pens. As I recall, I got started after buying my first Mont Blanc ballpoint pen. I got that one at Costco for less than $100. You can't touch a Mont Blanc for less than $150 now. I bought one fountain pen for $650. And that's nothing. The name of the game nowadays is for pen manufacturers to produce limited editions, only two hundred made. That way they can charge $2,000 on up for the pen.
The one I bought for $650 (retail was $1,000) looks like this:
The one in the picture sold for $1,000 recently. Hmm...
One day, after opening my credit card statement, I realized how much money I'd spent on pens. That put a stop to the pen obsession. I've bought one or two nice pens since—OK, maybe three or four—but only after I'd had a good year.
You know, after seeing how much that Galileo pen sold for, I might look into unloading some of my nice old pens. I could get some of those pink Himalayan salt tablets you can cook on. You know the ones I'm talking about, don't you? Every house needs one or two of those.
