new fangled gadgets

Me, being dramatic, "WHAT?" "Did Mom DIE?"
Dad, "No, she doesn't know yet"
Me, "She said you could get a microwave over her dead body."
Dad, "She's in Maryland for the week at her sister's. So I needed one! Don't worry, she'll get used to it."

This was in the 60s. Recently I sent a link to friends with kids, grandkids, work with kids, for a summer fun project using ivory soap and a microwave oven.  One friend replied "I wish I had a microwave -- Not really."  She's an old-fashioned sort of cook.

Mom did find uses for the microwave.  Dad then got each of us kids a microwave so he could use it for his coffee and his oatmeal when they visited us. I foresaw it as useless, but once we had it, we found it handy.
 
It turns out the first microwave oven was sold in 1947. That's as in freaking NINETEEN FORTY SEVEN!  It's new like the TV, refrigerator and stove are new!  The countertop version was introduced in 1967 by Amana. Lots of people still refuse to have TVs, and dammit, you just can't get ice delivered for an icebox any more.

Some people are convinced microwave cooking is dangerous, radiates microwaves, chemically changes the food.  Could be.  I will say this, if you aren't careful, it for sure lets you to cook up all kinds of prepared foods best left out of your meal plan!

go

liz's cat died.
so sad.
but then,
you know i'm sure.

it was her smart cat.
so now will the dumb one be the smart cat?

i mean if you don't care about cats, why are you even on the internet?

anyway it's a chance to reprint (without permission) the best dead cat poem by someone who really gets it.

On the Death of a Cat
- Franz Wright

In life, death
was nothing
to you: I am

willing to wager
my soul that it
simply never occurred

to your nightmare-less
mind, while sleep
was everything

(see it raised
to an infinite
power and perfection)--no death

in you then, so now
how even less. Dear stealth
of innocence

licked polished
to an evil
luster, little

milk fang, whiskered
night
friend--

go.

^ ^