First the mess, then the cleanup.
My friend Saura Fabra runs [Casa Oliver](http://www.casaoliver.com/), a Spanish food mail-order house in Seattle, and she recently brought me some products to try. The one that blew me (and Iris) away was the ulmo tree honey, which is not from Spain but from Chile. I don’t know what an ulmo tree looks like, but it produces the brightest-tasting honey I’ve ever come across. Highly recommended, and not very expensive at about $9/jar.
Meanwhile, I was becoming dissatisfied with my paper towel holder. It was a U-shaped device that gripped the roll from either end. The problem was exactly what you’d expect: give the roll a sharp jerk and it falls to the floor and unrolls semi-comically.
So I found an awesome replacement. I say “awesome” in the sense of “cool,” but also in the sense of “awe-inspiringly loud.” The roll slips over a ratchet mechanism, so it can’t get out of hand and unroll too fast. The ratchet mechanism sounds like a sci-fi movie robot sound effect. “Just don’t get any paper towels while I’m sleeping,” said Laurie.
It’s available in a wall-mounted or countertop version:
Perfect Tear Chrome Paper Towel Holder, wall-mounted
Note that for reasons I can’t explain, the wall-mounted version has free shipping, even if you don’t spend $25 or more, and the countertop version isn’t eligible for free shipping at all.
I wonder if it is from Elm trees – the latin genus name for elms is Ulmus.
Dude! The real solution was to quit using paper towels.
The countertop paper towel holder is fulfilled by Target, not Amazon, so you don’t get the nice free shipping (or Prime) deals. On the other hand, you might find it on the shelf if you are at a Target store.