Ode To Pressure

When I hear the word “Pressure,” one of two classic songs pops into my head: Under Pressure by Queen (of the late Freddy Mercury), or Pressure Drop by Toots & the Maytals. That’s just me… I tend to remember songs, tastes, smells, lyrics, but not names. Google has been such a blessing, because I can usually find the names of my favorite songs or movies by using the snippets of lyrics or lines that I remember. In another way it’s been a curse, since the availability of Google has enabled my brain to get even worse at remembering names.

I don’t usually think about Pressure Cookers, even though I use mine almost everyday. The word “Pressure” should be immediately followed by “Cooker” in my mind. But I guess it’s the things we see everyday that are most likely to fade into the background. I am aware of the fact that I don’t pay my pressure cooker much mind, and it has become second nature to me. For most people in my generation, it’s the opposite. They have literally no exposure to pressure cookers, beyond the general metaphor for “stress” in American vernacular.

That being said, I still would like to encourage anyone and everyone to go out and get a pressure cooker today. In fact, don’t even go out, just tell Siri to order you a pressure cooker on Amazon. I know that the very term “Pressure Cooker” probably has a bad connotation for you. It’s what happens to you when you are in a highly competitive and stressful environment like investment banking or graduate school. And I guess in the metaphor, getting “cooked” is analogous to soul death? I’m not sure. Every metaphor breaks down and that’s where that one fails, in my mind.

I am aware that “Instapot” contraptions, which are both slow cookers and pressure cookers, are supposed to be all the rage. I know every time I go into Amazon, the Instapot is always in my recommended items. Little do they know that I am literally the last person on earth who will ever buy one!