One of these things is not like the other / One of these things doesn’t belong / Can you guess which thing is not like the other / Before I finish my song?

Yep. Totally a Sesame Street song. Do kids still watch Sesame Street? I think Sesame Street was my frame of reference for pretty much everything until I was like seven or eight. There are worse influences, I suppose.

Manamana.

Anyway.

See that tea kettle up there? Can you tell what’s wrong with that picture?

I’ll give you a hint. Michael Lax designed this tea kettle for Copco. Michael Lax is a really good designer. What would a really good designer NOT have done?

Did you guess that the handle was a replacement? And not a very good one at that? Well…you guessed right!

I briefly debated just listing this tea kettle as is, but my sense of rightness got the better of me. Unfortunately, the right handle is not easy to come by. As a result, I decided to try for “better” instead of “perfect”.

What do you think?

Here’s how I did it.

First I went to Home Depot and looked at all their handles. They didn’t have a perfect one, but instead of worrying about that overmuch, I just bought the one that was closest to what I wanted.

It’s not quite as wide as the original, but it’s certainly closer than that awful white replacement.

But before I actually had the chance to put on the replacement, then I went a replaced all the handles on my husband’s childhood dresser.

I was getting ready to throw away the old handles when I thought…hmmm…

It’s wider than the Home Depot replacement. It’s the right color. It’s closer to the right age. I’m calling it done.

What do you think?