The Leafblower: The Worst Invention in History?

Three years ago I'd have said yes. Now it's a tie with the too-loud attention-whore novelty ringtone.

Leaf blowers are awesome for yard work. They just get a bad rap by the people who use them to blow shit from the gutter of the road into the middle of the street.

Who says so?

WTF people: a post it note that is also a pen

http://www.popgadget.net/images/belkin_pen.jpg

Those things are hilarious. They should put a lip balm on top and an LED flashlight on the side.

Those are moderately useful for doing editing, especially if you do it on the run -- you mark pages and flag them without needing to carry around two items!

More useful on a blue or red pen, though, obviously

I mean geez, it's like you guys have never done copyediting on the subway

i wish the pen was better. and the post it note was further up on the pen, towards the non writing part of the pen.

i have copyedited on the bus and the subway, but i don't use stickies to copy edit so maybe that's my basic problem--plus i am very picky about the way pens feel

No, I hate fat pens like that, too. I rarely edit anything huge enough to need lots of stickies, but if you're working with a 500 page stack, or something, flagging things is ... necessary. Maybe they could wrap them around a thinner pen (with a better ball and more gel ink)

i would totally use that pen and all its functions! esp if there was also lip balm and a flashlight! and a mini taser!

but yeah i never use thick/fat pens like that. pencil width is ideal width but not a lot of pens are that thin. also yeah where wld the stickies go, i don't know, maybe on a wrist cuff <-- NERDDS

xpost to leafblowers - in college, i worked at the theater in town that showed rocky horror on friday at midnight. yeah, we used them to blow toast, playing cards and toilet paper out of the rows and into the aisles.

i hated those rocky horror fuckers.

so, yeah, useful.

also yeah where wld the stickies go, i don't know, maybe on a wrist cuff <-- NERDDS

ha like this but with stickies insteada tape

http://www.clicksitebuilder.com/home2/gs/giftwraptools.com/images/temp/handsfreewhite.jpg

or like the things that hold pins when people are hardcore abt the sewing!

omgosh that post-it note oen is hilarious

but i have to be honest, i love leaf blowers. very invigorating

Anyone have a brand/model rec? Looking to clear my folks' gutters and front walk. Using at a reasonable hour, naturally. Leaning towards a battery model, as their house may/may not have the exterior outlets to support a corded model.

thought this was gonna be a Cate Blanchett post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwVqqJxvyZA

Ha, that is excellent. Apparently no one takes the piles away after blowing around her?

If I have a choice between resetting a ladder every four feet to hand clean their gutters and using a leaf blower, opting for the latter.

Thought we had a "homeowner questions" thread somewhere, but didn't search hard for it.

you might have some success here

repairing things

Thanks!

I was trying to teach a French class the other day over the very loud noise of someone leafblowing across the street, and I expressed some mild annoyance that one dude clearing leaves could disrupt classes in half a high school. One of my students immediately turned to the window and yelled "SILENCE!" in French. This did nothing to stop the leafblower, but it cracked me up.

Has there ever been a decent noise band called Leafblower? Seems like it'd be a natural.

Or, has anybody ever played a leafblower onstage, like maybe Neubauten?

lol at the first two posts itt

... first three in fact

I found myself leafblowing yesterday, although it was a shop vac and not a real leafblower. The back and side of my condo abuts a rock wall and after a while you get a couple feet of leaves and dirt accumulating between them which (if you live in karst-rich Central Texas) becomes a scorpion shantytown so I decided to blow it all outta there.