Oooh I love the St Charles idea, Pal. Yum. Your color choice would be ...? I think it also merits pointing out that aside from the general dearth of color, we also have so little choice in finishes today. I'd be much more enamored of the current options if they were only more durable. As a renter in my younger years, I had terrible dented pebbly white, smeary steam-discolored stainless, scratched black glass -- you name it, from the 1980's through the 2000's. None of them was impressive. My 1940's O'Keefe & Merritt stove is porcelain enameled steel, a finish that has been taking serious cooking abuse for over 60 years, and still looks gleaming and fabulous in my kitchen. (It's white too, by the way, although I'd jump for avocado.) Why can't today's manufacturers make a good solid finish like that, in ANY color?

@msrose,Yes, I got the spray, it is a lightweight spray and it doesn't feel oily and not at all once it is dry. It's not thick like some of the sprays are. So far I'm in awe of it but this is the second day and so far so good! I have tried so many others that like you were saying, they are oily and I would have to rub and rub to get it to do anything and then it was streaky, or else it looked good but then would dry streaked. I hope it will work well for you too. I am sure you can find it in the store for less. I got it on Amazon and by the time I paid for shipping it was $10.95 or somewhere in that neighborhood for the smaller can but I knew I would never remember to get it when I was out and about so I just paid it "this time"... a2gemini, I gave up on training DH. I think he must have been a rebellious teenager, there is some hangover from that going on, lol. But he is so cute, I can't get mad at him : 0 This post was edited by gr8day on Thu, Feb 20, 14 at 9:59

Despising the wealthy solely because they are wealthy and for no other reason is one of the last socially acceptable prejudices in the United States. Just because someone is vulgar doesn't mean they made their money by illegal, unethical or exploitative methods, and a drug dealer or human trafficker might have exquisite taste. As far as the Victorians go, the Victorian era was a lousy time to be poor or working class in many ways. Poverty was considered a character flaw: if you were impoverished, it was your fault. The lowest level clerk or servant might get no more "salary" than permission to sleep on the floor someplace. A bootboy might not even officially get meals--he might only be allowed to eat off the dirty dinner plates before they were washed. I am not bothered by the price tag, I am bothered by the attitude about it. But Americans seem to be both fascinated and repelled by "other". On another channel, you get your own media attention by being obnoxious white trash.

The glowbar igniters are a really old and proven technology. You'll find it in lots of gas appliances (e.g. water heater, furnace, ovens, ...) as they are so safe. Whenever the thermostat calls for heat, it turns on the igniter. As a first approximation, a glowbar igniter is the same thing as an incandescent light bulb without the protective glass shell. It draws a couple of hundred watts and uses that to produce heat. Right next to the glowbar is a temperature activated gas valve. As long as no heat it produced (i.e. glowbar doesn't call for heat or glowbar is defective), no gas flows. This is very safe. But if the valve detects sufficient amounts of heat, it opens and gas flows over the glowbar and ignites. This is damn simple and there is very little that can fail catastrophically. So, it is inherently a safer design than using click igniters. Those are good for the stove top where a person can supervise the burners. But the oven has to work even when it cycles on/off without human intervention. The downside, of course, is that this glowbar behaves just like an incandescent bulb. Some bulbs live for decades, most live for a couple of years, and a small number dies within months. Same is true for glowbars. Nothing much you can do about it. Fortunately, they are cheap and standardized components. Every appliance manufacturer buys from the same factory. And yes, gas ovens always cycle on/off completely. There generally isn't a great way to modulate heat output. This is a noteworthy difference when compared to electric ovens, which frequently can keep constant temperatures much more easily. For many dishes, that doesn't actually matter. But there are some that do in fact cook much better in an electric oven. And I guess the reverse is true too.