Don't Let Your Newspaper Melt!

It's that time of year again - warm weather is on the way and your days will be filled with picnics, cookouts (aka barbecues, for our friends north of the Mason-Dixon), and grocery shopping in the sweltering sun. In other words, it's Cooler Season! And when you get your favorite cooler out of the garage, basement, or attic it may need a little TLC. You're on your own for the cleaning, but here's a great tip if your cooler smells, well, less than fresh:

Put a few sheets of newspaper in it and close it for a few days - the ink will absorb the smells and your cooler will be as good as new! (This works for any plastic item - go ahead, try it!) And for bag coolers like the one seen above, it's a great thing to leave newspaper in the cooler when it isn't in use as small amounts of water often hide in the corners and the paper will take care of that, too!

And if you're in the market for a more exotic cooler - check out the selection at Hammacher Schlemmer. They offer this model that's can be controlled remotely:


Think how great this would be at your next family picnic - no more serving drinks on a tray, simply grab the remote and send the cooler over instead! The drawback is that your guests must be within forty feet of the remote control. Not to worry though, if you and your beverages need to travel longer distances. There's a cooler that will let you ride into the sunset with plenty of ice and several bottles of pop:

That's right - it's a cooler vehicle! Imagine a car lot full of these beauties - each one with a 13 m.p.h sign on the handle bars . . . and to paraphrase Henry Ford, you can have any color you like as long as it's red. So don't take your cooler for granted this summer - it doesn't have to be boring and it certainly doesn't have to be stuffy . . .

Must run, I'm off to snag some papers from the recycling bin - oh, I just had a thought, maybe I can convert our recycling bin into a remote controlled bin. What do you think?