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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • My thoughts on kangaroo are, kind of unsurprisingly, that it tastes exactly like it evolved on a different continent than any other meat you’ve ever eaten.

    It’s still definitely in the red meat family, but it’s different and it’s hard to explain how. I’d say it’s maybe more like venison or maybe lamb than beef, but it’s definitely its own thing.

    There’s a lot of cases where depending on how you prepared and seasoned it, I don’t know if I could necessarily tell you with 100% confidence if I was eating venison or beef, and maybe even a couple things you could probably pull that with lamb or goat vs beef. I’m pretty sure I could reliably pick out a kangaroo dish from a lineup 100% of the time.

    It was good though, I would absolutely eat kangaroo again if it was more readily available around me. It’s kind of a stronger flavor that some people might have an issue with.


  • Tasted like fishy dirt meat

    I’m not a fish-eater in general, but I am an avid fisherman (I just catch them, the wife eats them,) so I’ve heard a lot of stories from my fellow anglers (which should, of course, be taken with a grain of salt, there’s a reason they’re called “fish stories”)

    There is a persistent rumor I’ve heard that some people will take catfish and other bottom-feeders like carp home alive to let them swim around in a bathtub of clean water for a day or two to sort of flush all of the mud and everything out of their system before cleaning and cooking them

    Allegedly it’s more of a southern thing.


  • I have yet to find seafood that I like.

    Irony of ironies is that I love fishing. Luckily anything I catch worth keeping my wife is more than happy to eat.

    People always tell me that good fish shouldn’t taste/smell fishy. I retort that I suppose good beef shouldn’t be beefy either.

    I’m willing to hear people out, try different fish prepared in different ways, still haven’t found one that I liked, at best they’re mostly tolerable.

    I’ve figured out that I generally tend to enjoy freshwater fish over saltwater. If I catch a couple nice trout I’ll eat that for dinner with my wife instead of having to make a separate dish for myself, I won’t hate it, but I won’t like it either and I’d probably rather have a hot dog.

    And I like raw fish better than cooked.

    I might actually kind of like raw oysters, but they are in no way worth the cost.

    Lox isn’t bad, but I’d prefer just about anything else over it.

    There are a couple fish-based products out there that are so far removed from fish that they’re hardly worth mentioning for the purposes of this comment that I do enjoy, like Worcestershire sauce and Asian fish sauces, katsuobushi, Caesar dressing, Crab Rangoon (let’s be real, you could probably leave the crab or “krab” out of most takeout rangoons and it wouldn’t change much) some Japanese fish cakes, etc.

    The absolute worst is shrimp though. Nothing about shrimp is appealing to me, the taste, smell and especially the texture are all pretty repulsive.

    I’m not otherwise a guy with a lot of food hangups and consider myself a pretty adventurous eater. Weird tastes, textures, bizarre fermented stuff, strange meats, etc. are all generally OK in my book, there’s not many other foods out there that I don’t enjoy. In my house right now I have some double salt salmiak licorice, a bottle of Malört, a wide selection of hot sauces going up to around 1 million scoville, I’m pretty sure I have both Vegemite and marmite somewhere in my fridge, some very peaty scotches, and plenty of other very divisive foodstuffs that I enjoy.

    I have tentative plans to visit Iceland next year, so I’ll probably end up torturing myself with some hákarl at some point. And I don’t intend to seek it out, but if it happens to be offered to me for free somewhere I may consider trying whale, which I suppose is technically seafood.


  • I think there’s a fine line to be walked

    Personally the only lights on my PC itself are the Ethernet ports on the back, and one little blue power indicator on the front

    And since I built it in an HTPC case and stuffed it into my entertainment center, you kind of need to be looking at it from just the right angle to even see those. The case itself is a pretty unassuming black rectangle that looks pretty much like any other piece of AV equipment you might expect to see under a TV. About the size of a normal AV receiver, with a disc drive, a power and reset button, 2 USB ports, and a headphone and microphone jack.

    My keyboard is a Keychron Q6 max with side-printed shine-through key caps, and my mouse is a Gameball Thumb (I like trackballs, and it’s nice since I’m gaming on the couch so not much convenient flat space to move a mouse around) which has single ring of LEDs around the trackball and a small indicator LED to show the DPI settings on the mouse. Both of those turn off when they’re idle, and when they’re in use I have them set to a pretty simple spinning color mode.

    My setup is in a finished basement and the lights are usually down so it’s nice having them light up for the ease of seeing what I’m doing, and the simple color animations aren’t too distracting.

    Where my lighting excess does come in though is with the Philips hue lights I have synced up to my TV the overhead lights, a light strip behind my tv, and a light tube underneath it. Between that and the surround sound I think it’s really immersive for movies and gaming. I think I’ve hit a good balance of it having some wow factor without being too distracting but opinions will of course vary on that.


  • I don’t know if I can pick just one favorite hot dog, so instead I’m just gonna wax philosphical about hot dogs at whoever cares enough to read this.

    Most importantly is to start with a quality hotdog, something with a natural casing, that snap is critical I like all-beef personally but I’m not outright opposed to some frankenweenies either.

    I’m told that in Iceland hot dogs generally contain at least some lamb, that sounds delicious to me, I like lamb. I’ve actually made and smoked my own hot dogs before so that may be something I experiment with in the future. I actually have a trip planned to Iceland next year so that may be something I try to recreate after I come back (I swear I’m not actually going for the hot dogs, just a happy accident, but I figured I might as well do some recon while I’m there)

    A good bun is also important, something well-sized to the dogs, soft but structurally sound that’s not going to fall apart and get gross and soggy. When I made my own dogs I decided to go all-in and make my own buns as well. Pretty sure I used whatever recipe was the first Google result was for “sourdough hot dog buns” (because of course the crazy foodie who’s making his own hot dogs is also maintaining a sourdough starter) and I was very happy with how they came out. Barring that, get any decent brand of bun, there’s not that much variation. I like potato buns, but a regular ol’ white bun is fine. I also decided at some point that I like top-split as opposed to side-split buns, but that’s more of a nice thing to have than something I’m going to agonize over if I can’t find them.

    Grill your dogs, or roll them around on a hot pan or griddle, don’t boil them. If you’re really fancy (even I’m not this nuts) get yourself one of those hot dog roller machines you see at gas stations and sports stadiums, I think those are the perfect hot dogs.

    Now onto the real meat of the question - toppings

    I don’t know that I have any one favorite dog, it all depends on my mood.

    I hail from the philly area, so when in doubt when I’m presented with any cheap food item in need of a sauce or condiments, my answer is Cheez Whiz (keep that shit off of my cheesesteak though, that’s for tourists, I’m provolone all the way)

    Closely-related, you have the chili cheese dog or plain old chili dog. These are all options where you really need to make sure to have a bun that’s going to hold up to some heavy, wet toppings. I think mustard is not unwelcome on a chili cheese dog, along with chopped onions and maybe some jalapenos. I’m normally a fan of beans in my chilli, but I don’t think they have any place in a chili intended to be a hot dog topping.

    I’ve been to Cincinnati and sampled skyline chili from the source. If you expect chili you’re going to be disappointed and confused, but if you go in expecting a spiced meat sauce, you might really enjoy it. I think it makes for a damn good hot dog topping.

    Outside of the situations where you’re going to have chili available for your hot dogs though

    I’m also fan of sauerkraut. For the love of God though, don’t rinse and squeeze all of the sauer out of your kraut. Let it be sour and funky. Serve it rwith or without heating it up onto your dogs just as it came out of the can, jar, plastic bag, or crock.

    For your typical backyard BBQ where you’re grabbing the usual condiments off the shelf to have out on a picnic table for the 4th of July or whatever- ketchup has no place on a hot dog. I’ll always go mustard, and often relish (I prefer dill relish over sweet if available) and chopped onions are a welcome addition. I think you’d do well to serve them with some baked beans on the side.

    I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the Texas Tommy, allegedly another Philly-area invention, possibly originating in nearby Pottstown (though that’s a big " [1]^" IMO)

    I was recently at IKEA and on the way out the door before a fun night of assembling flat-pack furniture, I grabbed a hot dog with some red cabbage and crispy fried onions, and I also thought that was a great combination (the hot dog itself was nothing special)

    For a quick & easy weeknight dinner, I don’t think it gets much better than a hot dog or two or three prepared in any of the above styles, accompanied with some boxed Mac & Cheese, and some stewed tomatoes.

    For a couple local ish places to me that I’ve felt like I’ve always gotten a stand-out hotdog, there’s Yoccos in Allentown, Jimmy John’s near West Chester PA, and of all places, the gift shop behind the chapel in Valley Forge National Historic Park

    And of course, honorable mention goes to Costco for being one of the best deals going.


    1. Citation Needed ↩︎


  • Fondots@lemmy.worldtoAsklemmy@lemmy.mlwhat would you do?
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    1 month ago

    As I said

    pay is livable but not amazing

    I personally came up just a hair short of 69k last year, I’m paying my bills, treating myself to some luxuries, and usually manage to save a bit, but I’m not rolling in it by a longshot.

    But like I said that varies a lot around the country, I believe that’s a decent bit above the national average, but not a ridiculous outlier either, it’s fairly average for my area.

    For context, I’ve been there about 6 years, so I have some seniority, but I’ve also elected not to pursue some training and certifications and such that could have given me a bit of a pay bump. I rarely come in for overtime, but that’s always available if you want it (there have been a couple years where one of our supervisors ended up being one of if not the highest paid county employee here because the man is an overtime machine, he’s a supervisor so he of course makes more than me to begin with but not so much more that you’d expect him to be in the running for that without the insane amount of overtime he does)

    On average the county I work for is fairly wealthy and we’re not hurting for funding. We’re not union (although every few years someone starts talking about it, hasn’t gotten off the ground yet but we’ve gotten close a few times) but most of our surrounding counties are so that helps keep our pay competitive.


  • It’s absolutely not a job for everyone, but assuming you’re in the US, damn-near every 911 dispatch center in the country is always short-staffed and hiring, and usually only require a high school diploma or GED.

    Since you have a computer background, I think it’s safe to assume that you can type at a halfway decent WPM, that’s a pretty big chunk of our aptitude test that a lot of people fail on.

    A lot about this job varies from one jurisdiction to another, but in general pay is livable but not amazing and the hours are usually weird, but the benefits and job security are pretty solid.

    Background checks, drug testing, etc. are of course usually part of the hiring process, and again it’s just not a job everyone is cut out for.


  • I remember coming across the thing you’re describing years ago while digging through my dad’s collection of miscellaneous cables, adapters, etc. back in the 90s or early 2000s. It wasn’t quite so low-profile, it definitely stuck out from whatever you plugged it into maybe about a quarter to half inch or so, but otherwise it was a 3.5mm jack with a plastic cap on the other with no wires or holes or anything that muted whatever you plugged it into.

    The shade of beige the plastic was on that particular example makes me suspect it was a relic of the 80s. I do feel like I remember seeing them for sale somewhere at a later time, but I couldn’t begin to tell you where.

    A little googling turned up this eBay listing

    Based off of that and a little more googling I think the term you’re looking for might be a shorting and/or blanking plug or or cap or dummy/dummy plug

    Without too much effort I was able to find “shorting caps” for RCA jacks, various coaxial connectors, and banana plugs, but had no luck finding any more for 3.5mm



  • Small typo in my comment, was supposed to say get a laugh out of my wife

    It served its intended purpose. It was for Valentines or our anniversary or something, so I was waiting in the bed for her to come home in my leopard thong, rose petals scattered around, and some funky 70s porno music playing, and she cracked the fuck up.



  • Those are great, definitely gonna be saving those

    I basically want that kind of guide for curing meats and other such things

    Also there are some blind spots, something I was just looking for recently is canning some of my home-cured meats to save some space in my freezer. I know it’s a theoretically possible undertaking, I can go to the store and buy a can of corned beef after all

    But reputable sources like the USDA and NCHFP are kind of silent on it and pretty much leave it at “we can’t recommend doing that, curing can change the density and water content and such and we haven’t gotten the funding to test it.”

    I can find people who have canned their own bacon and such, and apparently not died of botulism, but I don’t exactly trust the processes cooked up by some off-grid homestead tradwife mommy-blogger.


  • Not any kind of scientist, but an adventurous home cook

    I’d really like the USDA/FDA/etc. (maybe not under the current administration) to publish sort of a food safety handbook full of tables and charts for stuff like canning, curing meats, cooking temps, etc. targeted to people like me.

    I’ve recently been experimenting with curing meats, I’ve done bacon, Montreal style smoked meat, corned beef, Canadian bacon, and kielbasa.

    And holy fuck, is it hard to find good, solid, well-sourced information about how to do that safely.

    And I know that information is out there somewhere, because people aren’t dropping dead left and right of listeria, botulism, nitrate poisoning, etc. because they ate some grocery store bacon.

    I just want some official reference I can look at to tell me that for a given weight of meat, a dry cure should be between X and Y percent salt, and between A and B percent of Prague powder #1, and that it needs to cure for Z days per inch of thickness, and if it’s a wet brine then it should be C gallons of water and…

    When I go looking for that information either I find a bunch of people on BBQ forums who seem to be pulling numbers out of their ass, random recipe sites and cooking blogs that for all I know may be AI slop, or I find some USDA document written in legalese that will say something like 7lbs of sodium nitrite in a 100 gallon pickle solution for 100lbs of meat, which is far bigger than anything I’ll ever work with, and also doesn’t scale directly to the ingredients I have readily available because I’m not starting with pure sodium nitrite but Prague powder which is only 6.25% sodium nitrite.


  • I’d be pretty hard-pressed to name any of my friends who graduated “on time”

    I’m well into my 30s now, a couple of my friends are still working on degrees or just graduated.

    Changing majors, bullshit scheduling nonsense, life

    Shit, there was a whole fucking pandemic that fucked up a year or two of your high school years, it’s pretty damn amazing that anyone your age is graduating even roughly on-time as far as I’m concerned.

    Maybe it’ll throw a bit of a monkey wrench into your social life because you gotta skip out on a couple things because you have class. That’s life as an adult, we all got scheduling conflicts all the time.

    Otherwise, it’s never gonna matter. You’ll have a degree, that’s the only “important” thing about graduating. Unless you’re looking to get into some highly-specialized, super-competitive field, no one gives a shit how long it took you to graduate, how your gpa stacked up against the rest of your class, etc. It’s like the old joke “What do you call the person who graduated at the bottom of their class in medical school? You call them ‘Doctor.’”


  • To the best of my knowledge, the most common parallel universe theory that has any actual real traction in physics is the “many worlds interpretation”

    Which is basically that any time some sort of quantum event is observed, the universe splits into multiple parallel universes where every possible outcome of that event is realized in its own universe.

    Now people take that and run with it and make up all sorts of pseudoscience bullshit where those splits happen anytime someone makes a choice, or some pseudorandom event like a coin flip or die roll occurs. That’s not really what it’s about.

    This is about wonky quantum physics, radioactive decay, collapsing wave function type stuff. I’ll be honest this is high level physics shit, I only kind of understand some of it, which is more than probably 90+% of people out there can say, for most people it probably means about as much as if you came up to them and started talking to them in a foreign language.

    So that means that all of those parallel universes are going to be following the same laws of physics since they all diverged from the same universe.

    That means that flying reindeer and traveling around the world in a night delivering presents down chimney and such is probably a no-go.

    As far as there being a universe where some weirdo named Santa Claus decided to live at the North Pole and build toys, maybe, but probably pretty unlikely. I have a pretty hard time imagining a version of the world where different quantum outcomes would lead to that. Would, for example, a single uranium atom decaying or not decaying make that happen? Probably not. Of course, untold millions of tiny events like that can eventually add up to some big difference, but I still have a hard time imagining a situation where that would be the outcome.

    Like I think someone in this thread already said, there are an infinite amount of numbers between 0 and 1 (0.1, 0.2, 0.001234, etc,) but none of them are “2” some things are just impossible.


  • It’s amazing how often that’s the solution.

    Once upon a time well before I was born my dad was a pipefitter, he still had most of his tools and so growing up we were sort of the first-line troubleshooters for everyone in my family when they had a plumbing issue. He had a pretty impressive collection of absurdly-large screwdrivers that you’d look at and go “when the hell would you ever need this?”

    Until you came across a giant screw like this, or you had the tank off a toilet and needed a 2ft long screwdriver to reach the tank bolts properly.


  • For me, a lot of it has to do with how it’s presented in schools

    Pi, for example. One day my teachers just kind of dumped this magical 3.14… number on me without any real explanation. Just basically “use this number to do stuff with circles,” no real explanation on what pi actually is on anything, just “remember this”

    Years later I found a gif of a circle sort of unraveling that showed how the circumference is π × the diameter of the circle

    And sure, mathematically, the formula tells you that, but actually seeing that animated out made a hell of a lot more sense to me.

    Now I got most of my basic math education before those gifs were so readily available, and smart boards were just becoming a thing when I was in high school, so it would have been a little hard to show that to a bunch of elementary or middle school students without having us huddle around a desktop.

    But that’s something that could have been illustrated pretty well with a couple circles of different sizes (cardboard cut-outs, printed on paper, different jar lids, etc,) a piece of string, and a ruler.


  • In the interest of battery life and redundancy, I think it might make sense to have 3 devices.

    Ereader with an e ink display for reading, a lot of these can last days or weeks on a charge easily

    An mp3 player for music. I don’t know what the current state of mp3 players is, I suspect a lot of no-name imported garbage, but over a decade ago I know my iPod used to go days or weeks on a charge with pretty heavy usage. Probably look for whatever has the least bells and whistles you can find- no touch screen, physical controls, etc. if you’re up for a bit of tinkering I’m pretty sure there’s a pretty active scene for people modding old iPods with better batteries, more storage, etc. that would probably be a great option.

    A tablet or smartphone for movies, or possibly a laptop (I’m not an apple guy, but I’ve heard MacBooks have pretty insane battery life these days.) Keep all the wifi/cellular/Bluetooth/gps, etc. turned off, keep it on power save mode, disable anything you can that you don’t need to watch movies. Unfortunately if such a thing as a dedicated video-only tablet exists, I couldn’t find it with a quick search. If such a thing can be found, I’d probably recommend that.

    A dedicated device that does one job well will usually be more efficient at that thing than a multipurpose device like a tablet, smartphone, or computer that needs to be able to do it all. An mp3 player only needs to be able to play music, it doesn’t need to be running a full-on OS that’s capable of sending emails, making phone calls, playing games, etc.

    Also that way if one of those things does die on you, you still have the other 2.

    I saw in one of your other comments your concern about a tablet having a bigger screen would be a bigger drain on battery life. That’s true to an extent, bigger screens draw more power, but since the whole device is bigger they can compensate with a bigger battery. I haven’t exactly done an exhaustive survey of tablet battery life and don’t care to look into it, but in my (fairly limited) experience, they usually pretty much at least break even or surpass phones in battery life. I have a cheap tablet that I really only use for reading it lives in my bag, usually in my car, often forgotten about for days or occasionally weeks at a time, and doesn’t exactly get heavy usage, but it usually can go at least a few days without a change, even with WiFi and Bluetooth left on. If I’m not using it at all, it can sometimes go a couple weeks just sitting idle. It’s usually good for at least a couple hours of streaming HD video, with WiFi turned off and 720p video on internal storage I imagine it’s good for at least a couple movies.

    WiFi and cellular data are pretty big power drains too. I know when I check my battery usage on my phone that probably accounts for about ⅓ or so of it. Having those turned off can go a long way. Jailbreaking/rooting your phone to disable unnecessary services probably wouldn’t hurt, but that’s probably a drop in the bucket compared to just keeping your device offline.


  • I don’t really like brand favouritism, but if you’re able to find a Toyota in your price range, as far as I’m concerned it’s pretty hard to go wrong with them. I’m pretty hard-pressed to think of anyone I’ve ever known who’s had a Toyota who had anything really bad to say about them, even with the few years of Tacomas that had major rust issues around the early 2000s, everyone I know who had one felt that Toyota did a pretty solid job of doing right by them.

    My current car is an '07 4runner. I bought it used with around 150k miles on it about 5 years ago, I now at just over 200k miles. and except for the usual shit like brakes that are expected to wear down every few years, the only major thing I’ve had to deal with was replacing the alternator. It does have a small exhaust leak that throws a code for the catalytic converter every so often (it’s on for maybe a couple weeks every few months or so) that I’m not particularly concerned about. I’m fairly confident that with not much beyond regular upkeep this car could make it to 300k+ pretty easily.

    My wife is driving a Prius that’s a few years newer (2012 I think) she’s had it for a few years now, only thing she’s needed is new tires so far.

    Growing up my mom had an '89 Corolla, and there’s a damn good chance it’s still on the road. At some point we sold it to my uncle who later sold it to a cousin, and after that we lost track of it, but around that time (circa 2010-ish) it was still going just fine, even after having a pretty large tree fall on it and all of the usual wear and tear you’d expect on a 20+ year old car.

    Outside of my family’s favoritism for Toyotas, I also have a hard time thinking of people who have anything bad to say about Honda’s. I’ve also never heard anyone complain about their Subaru, I have less personal experience with Subarus overall, I’ve never driven one, but my overall impression of every one I’ve ever ridden in has been positive, and Subaru owners sing their praises.

    Most people I’ve known with Kias and Hyundais have also spoken highly about them…

    Overall, my general advice is buy from any of the major Asian car brands unless you need a larger pickup truck (¾ ton or bigger,) then pretty much your only options are pretty much American trucks. For ½ ton or smaller trucks, I’d personally stick to Asian brands still, with the possible exception of the Ford Maverick.

    As far as specific models, my personal recommendations are

    Subaru in pretty much any market segment they inhabit. Smaller sporty cars are dumb regardless of brand, but if that’s your thing, go Subaru.

    Sedans/hatchbacks- Toyota Corolla or Prius, Honda Accord or civic.

    Compact suvs/crossovers- Toyota RAV4, Honda CRV, Kia sportage, Hyundai Tucson. Wrangler if you actually intend to go off roading, Suzuki samurai if you’re going off roading and not in the US.

    Mid-sized SUV: Toyota 4runner (I’ve dialed in that a midsized SUV is the right sized car for me personally at this point in my life, not going to go into all of the reasoning for that, but having driven a few different brands and models I am personally confident in saying that it is the be-all end-all of mid sized SUVs for me, if Isuzu ever makes a comeback in the passenger vehicle segment and resurrects the trooper I may be open to reevaluating that because I loved my trooper, but they’re all 20+ years old now)

    Full-sized SUVs: do not recommend. If you can find one of the old school jeep wagoneers maybe do that for the cool factor, but if you’re contemplating a full sized SUV what you really want is a minivan, or maybe a Ford flex. They’re not “cool,” but trust me, minivans are the shit.

    Minivans- they’re all pretty good, never met a minivan I didn’t like.

    Small pick-up trucks- Ford Maverick, or if you need/want a “real” truck get a Tacoma or Frontier, or go for old rangers/Mazda B series or a t100 if you’re ok with an old truck, or replace all of those recommendations with a Toyota Hilux if you’re not in the US/Canada

    ½ ton pickup- Toyota tundra

    Bigger than ½ ton- you don’t need this unless you are regularly towing a heavy trailer or live and work on a farm, or do major construction business with your personal vehicle, or something to that effect. If that applies to you, take your pick of any of the big 3 American brands, I like Fords, but honestly I view this as the same as picking your favorite color, it’s what you like personally, don’t let anyone else yuck your yum.

    Personally, and I’m not saying this applies to everyone by a longshot, what car you need/want is fairly personal, but if I had carte blanche to go out and buy any newish car I could find to replace my current vehicle I’d be looking at

    Toyota 4runner or Tacoma Subaru Crosstrek or Outback
    Ford Maverick

    But I’m an outdoorsy, DIY-minded person, who goes “off-road” occasionally (I don’t go off roading for its own sake, but my life sometimes tak me driving onto a beach, or down some shitty dirt paths, over fields, etc.) has to commute in the snow, often has to pick up bulky lumber and such, and occasionally how small trailers.

    My wife who doesn’t usually have any of those needs would probably be looking at a newer Prius, or maybe a Hyundai Kona if she decided she wanted something bigger.

    And in an ideal world, I’d probably have a maverick or 4runner for my various outdoorsy and DIY pursuits, and whatever the smallest cheapest DIY hybrid or electric car I can find is for my daily commuting as long as it has 4 wheels, a/c, and a radio, pretty much anything out there would be just fine for me. But I can only count on having 2 parking spaces.

    Honestly at 5k in this economy, you’re probably scraping the bottom of the barrel of anything that can be considered a “good” car, and you’re probably going to just end up with whatever is available near you in your price range with relatively low miles. Go asian if you can’t but don’t expect anything amazing to present itself.


  • When you say it won’t loosen when turned, do you mean it’s totally seized up or it spins but the part doesn’t come off?

    If it’s totally seized up, have you tried dousing it with some sort of penetrating oil? WD40 might do it a pinch, but a specialized penetrant like PB blaster or liquid wrench would probably be better.

    Soaking it with some CLR or something might also help to break up and rust, lime, or other crud that might be in there.

    Still won’t come loose? Get the beefiest screwdriver you can find that will fit the slot. Maybe give it a couple good love taps with a hammer and see if that helps bust it loose.

    If you can find a suitable bit, an impact driver/wrench may do the trick too.

    Get a big ol’ set of channel locks, vise grips, a pipe wrench, etc. that you can grab onto the screwdriver with to give you some extra leverage, and go to town.

    Sometimes a little heat will do the trick, you can try hot tap water, boiling water, heat gun, and blowtorch if you’re willing to accept a bit of a risk.

    If it’s spinning but you don’t seem to be making any progress

    Do you have access to the back of the tub? Often there’s an access panel so you can get at the plumbing. If all else fails you can try to take the drain apart from the back/underneath

    EDIT: I suspect this is part of a pop up stopper something like this- https://youtu.be/c5_o166BCDQ (not my video) just so you have some idea how this thing goes together

    Edit 2: sorry I fired off a couple quick thought and this is still rolling around in the back of my head because I’m havi a slow night at work. These pop up drain stoppers are like $15. Don’t worry about breaking them too much, the whole assembly pretty much unscrews. Bust off the plastic parts and if you need to cut off the screw head, get a tub drain removal tool (also about $10 -15) try to find one that’s hollow if there’s still some screw sticking up, unscrew the whole drain and replace it.