Cruel Irony

Dammit!  I try to be an informed individual, keyed into all of the weird and awesome things that human beings do.  I knew about Mountain Unicycling pretty early on, but sometimes something ELEMENTAL blindsides you.  I let out a huge OMG WTF! This morning when I read BoingBoing's report about EXTREME IRONING!  There are plenty of people out there with a deep love of ironing, but I'm not one of them.  I like to be a little rumpled and lived in.  Maybe this is a by-product of the first Extreme Ironer I ever met--my host mother when I was an exchange student in Germany.  She ironed all of the sheets in the house every week with a big mangle after doing all of the wash.  It goes without saying that my jeans and shirts all got ironed...but even my underwear got a little attention from the iron.

Mutti would have loved Extreme Ironing, I have a feeling.  This is a sport where lovers of adventure (and neatly pressed pleats) compete to iron clothing under extreme conditions in adventurous locations.  Deep sea ironing?  Check.  Polar Ironing.  Check.  Ironing while Spelunking?  Check.  It turns out that the little light on the helmet is more than adequate for seeking out pesky wrinkles.  The leading organ of the Extreme Ironing movement is The Extreme Ironing Bureau, who have constant updates on the constant bar-raising of extreme ironers around the world.  There is also Extreme Ironing Japan, a relatively new organization on the scene who has embraced the sport with typical gusto.

If you're considering some Extreme Ironing of your own...just remember, lycra and polar fleece don't stand up to ironing very well...you'd do better to make a pleated cotton twill adventure pantsuit for your next expedition.

LINK via BoingBoing

Comments

[betsy]

holy crap. that was awesome and totally made my day. thanks, garth!

[Genevieve]

this is hilarious! never heard of it, glad to know about it. your blog is awesome! i'm looking forward to seeing you speak at lsu on sept. 24th, hopefully i can meet you in person and shake the hand of a fellow crafter.