Output Stream of Consciousness

Okay, okay, I'm exaggerating, but I feel the sting of lines of dinnerware and flatware being discontinued because it seems to affect the stuff I really like... disproportionately.

When you're on the hunt for plates and such, you generally have choices of kitsch, flowery, arse-plain, or every now and again, 'interesting'.

When I was a bachelor, I wanted something... just kinda nifty. A bold pattern without hearts or flowers... so I settled on Optic, because it resembled one of those optical spinning illusions where black and white makes color.

When I went to get more, not too many years later, it was already discontinued. The non-floofy selection had narrowed considerably, but when push came to shove, I decided to go with Winding Gate.

Well, you can guess what happened when I needed more of those.

I guess I oughtn't moan too much - lots of patterns are now in Corelle's graveyard, so to speak. Perhaps other companies are better?

Well, so far so good on our wedding pattern, Mikasa's Windows stoneware set. Mind you, you can't find it anywhere right now. They had a wonderful stupid-cheap sale on their site, and it has been a long time since it's been available. I guess we'll find out the status... eventually.

Cool stuff seems to disappear from flatware as well. Oneida had a set of flatware with the coolest damned knives. Waiting for more stock to come in did not work. No sooner had we set our eyes on it than it was discontinued, it seems.

I speak of the Sestina pattern.

What's cool about this otherwise ordinary-looking set? The knives. The knives are so cool.

If you look at them more closely in the pictures, you'll see that the handle on the knives is... rotated somewhat. This seemed improbable-enough-looking at the store to merit picking up the knife and playing with it. It was comfortable - a lot more than I would have ever guess - to hold this in a normal food-cutting position. A lot more edge to put your finger on.

If anyone sees something like this crop up again, please tell me!

There we go. There's my self-therapy for the day for my unrequited dinnerware pattern love ;)

Anyone lucky enough to have found a pattern that they still like that they can still get? :)