Squeeze This

This is one of my favorite designs for the kitchen, the Alessi Juicy Salif. One of the cooler citrus juicers around, this design by Philippe Starck in the late 1980s is "an excellent example of Alessi's role as artistic mediator in the most turbulent areas of creative potential," according to the designer.

Apparently, this juicer has sparked semiotic debate among philosophers and sociologists: "To fully understand the true meaning of its existence, it is possibly necessary to refer to the theories of Leroy-Gourham, who considers the notion of functional approximation to be fundamental. This notion suggests that there is always a certain degree of freedom in interpreting relationships between Form and Function..." Read more here.

Yikes! All that symptomatology is hurting my brain. Can't I just appreciate the throwback design to the "speed whiskers" of the post-war atomic age? Or an homage to the three-legged insect? This is one product I regret not adding to my wedding registry.