Agitated about gay men and washing machines...

Okay, I understand the desire to collect old machines. In the last year I fell down the ebay antique typewriter rabbit hole and have yet to emerge. In an small Manhattan apartment I have more than a dozen machines ranging from a Franklin circa 1892 to the typewriter that's part of the Museum of Modern Art's design collection — the Olivetti Lettera 22, circa 1959. But washing machines? I mean, it's true I've met some Speed Queens at the Saint but this?

Clearly you've got to live in the burbs. And permanently set on spin. I jest. Who am I to throw mud at people who are certainly just a little compulsive about cleanliness when I've gotten more than one shirt dirty with typewriter ribbons and oil. Over at Automaticwasher.org you can see just how serious these guys are. And most of them are indeed guys. And yes, many of them gay guys. Hey, when you can buy a detergent called Fab for camp value, collection value and stain removal I have to shut my lid. In fact, I really should come clean — I'd be happy to marry a man with a washing machine collection. If he could stand the ink stains.