<p>You all may be right about the pressure cookers not being that big a deal to lug around, but if so my memory is off. My grandmother used one a lot, and it was pretty wide around. Backpacks and such are designed to distribute weight, and I’m not sure that two large round pressure cookers would even fit in a back pack. They’re not very malleable. It would be like putting two pool balls in my purse - it’s not just the weight, but how they’re shaped that would make it impossible. Unless of course, pressure cookers are shaped differently these days, which is certainly possible.</p>
<p>Anyway, the way the killer(s) got to the site is the same whether or not it was a big backpack or a duffel bag. My main point is that there are many other video evidence the FBI can look at - department stores, hotel lobbies, cabbies’ memories, etc.</p>
<p>My pressure cooker was the size of a three quart saucepan. The ones you are thinking of that are larger are for canning…they are MUCH larger, bigger than a Dutch oven.</p>
<p>It would be VERY easy to fit the 3 qt size pressure cookers…two of them…into a backpack or duffel.</p>
<p>Pressure cookers increase heat above the normal boiling point of water by (wait for it) increasing pressure.
They are pretty unwieldy but cheap and easy to buy. I could fit two of the smaller type into a larger bookbag type backlack if I ripped out the middle dividers.</p>
<p>The pressure cooker I used had a rubber seal around the edge of the lid, a clamp that clamped the lid down, a pop-up thingy to show you when the pressure was high enough, and a little valve for excess steam.</p>
<p>The top edge of the pot was curved inward. The diameter of the lid was a little smaller than the diameter of the pot. </p>
<p>You put the food and liquid in, then clamped the lid down and set the pot on the heat. After a few minutes, the pop-up thing popped up, and this was the signal to turn the heat down very low. You then proceeded to cook the food according to the recipe. Small amounts excess steam would come out of the valve in the lid during cooking. </p>
<p>At the end of cooking, you turned off the heat and waited until the pop-up thing went back down before opening the lid.</p>
<p>That’s the kind of my pressure cooker my mom used. She used it a lot. I remember corned beef and cabbage made in it that was so tender, it melted in your mouth. I had one too but it was lost in a move years ago. My cast iron skillets and pressure cooker never made it to the new house.</p>
<p>I found out today that some friends from work, were up close and saw many awful things, one gave cpr, we work in some really tough stuff already, and they are traumatized by what they saw and had to do. hat is saying something feel bad for them</p>
<p>thumper, I just checked and - if we can believe anything on the news these days - the pressure cooker the killer used was 6 liters, or just over 6 quarts, which is twice the size you are thinking of. I really do think that’s duffel bag size, I’m not sure two of them would fit in a back pack.</p>
<p>To quote the FBI guy, someone saw this person, someone knows who he is, and we’ll get him.</p>
<p>This (hopefully) unrelated, but now there has been an explosion in a fertilizer plant in Waco, Texas, and a nearby nursing home collapsed. How much more can we stand?</p>
<p>I read about that, jym. Many people are dead and there is much destruction. It’s awful.</p>
<p>I believe that fertilizer is made from unstable components. Wasn’t the Oklahoma City truck bomb made from fertilizer? I am hoping that the explosion was a result of “natural” causes.</p>
<p>The NY Post appears to have obtained the law enforcement photos that have been circulated. </p>
<p>If these are the true suspects, it would appear to have 9/11 type associations, based on my own “profiling”. You could put the two guys right next to those bums and they’d fit right in. </p>
<p>Post reports that they know their names, but the implication is that they don’t know where they are. We’ll see what develops, I suppose. Other reports are implying that there is surveillance video that shows one of them leaving a bag. Not authoritative, but it fits a certain scenario…one that is very possible.</p>
<p>NYMom-
I only heard snipits of Matt Lauer asking questions on the morning show (about the Texas explosion), so what I am about to type might be completely wrong. So take it with a grain of salt. I thought I heard him say there was a fire at the fertilizer plant and that possibly it was a volunteer fire department that responded, and that using water on these fires can cause vapor to form and possibly cause the explosion. Did anyone else hear this? The damage to nearby homes was bad, with many injuries reported. Awful.</p>
<p>I heard that, too, jym. And now there are reports that there are people looting the area that’s been evacuated. Great. What is wrong with people?! Do they get up in the morning, turn on their TVs, see there’s a disaster, and say “hey, let’s go see what we can steal!” ? Awful, indeed.</p>
<p>The thing that is crazy about the two men the NY Post printed, is that the amateur sleuths
on another forum I frequent, had posted pictures of one of these guys yesterday. They had photos of him WITH a backpack, and then later without a backpack. Plus, they pointed out that in the photo printed int he NY Post, the guy with the white baseball cap is the only one in the photo who is not looking towards the race.</p>
<p>Of course, I am so distracted that you could take a group photo of me at a marathon, and I would be the only one not looking at the runners.</p>