It's the middle of 2022 and the New York Times has just published a piece touting the joys of "A Swift and Easy Way to Heat Water Without using a Stove."
It's an electric kettle. That's it. That's the big discovery.
Tea kettles.
Did you just mentally picture every Brit in the world smugly chuckling like:
"*gasp* Well hello, if it isn't the Americans finally catching up with civilization! See what happens when you throw all your tea into the harbor?"
jonathan groff hamilton GIF by Official London TheatreGiphy
... because yeah that's pretty much what happened.
The article got roasted so hard, in fact, that the publication has since changed the headline. Right now the headline indicates that the article will be a review of multiple electric kettles, but what initially went up sold the article differently.
The article was originally published June 24 with the headline:
"A Swift and Easy Way to Heat Water Without using a Stove"
and the subheader:
"Consider the electric kettle. Many models will even let you set a precise temperature - key for getting the best flavour from coffee and tea."
Twitter treated the article like a coffee bean and set it's precise temperature to "roast."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, because electric kettles aren't exactly new technology, there were just as many Americans chiming in on how ridiculous this all was.
Lots of Americans know what a kettle is and use one regularly.
Lots of Americans even know what an electric kettle is.
Lots of Americans use their electric kettles just as regularly as Brits or anyone else.
... and then there's this brave soul willing to put their truth out there for us to judge.
Moment of honesty, readers: Do you think the original headline was silly? Or are electric kettles really a magical new discovery for you?
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A1