Giggleboxes Were Meant To Be Upended

On a whim -- because that's the way I roll -- I decided to Google the word "giggle" ... and what follows was one of the first search results.

WARNING: Do not watch if you are allergic to laughter.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Two Things, Both Blue

Thing One:

The other week, out of the cerulean, one of the elements on my quasi-ancient Jenn-Air range began giving me the cold, silent treatment. As in, when I requested that it apply heat to food in a pan, it ignored me.

Butter wouldn't Immelt, as it were.

The nerve of some appliances! Or portions of appliances.

Sweet TG, after only a half-dozen subtle (make that five subtle, one not-so-subtle) prompts courtesy of moi (because motivation is my middle name), removed the useless part and took it to one of the local mega-home improvement stores, hoping (as we all do, live-in-hope-die-in-despair style) for a quick and inexpensive fix.

I've never seen a robin's egg blue porch ceiling.

Which, as it turned out, he/we got.

My hero hadn't been in the store five minutes before he had located an entire wall of replacement electric range heating elements. Because he'd done his Googlework at home, he knew GE sold a part that would fit a Jenn-Air range like ours.

Done! Component necessary to secure continued marital and gastronomic harmony located, purchased, and borne home on wings of glory in record time. Pays to bring your A-game.

Only, the stimulus packaging for our new appliance part cracked us up. Yes, we are easily amused, but still.

The card inside the plastic molded around our heating element was white, with lots of pretty Wedgwood-blue writing that matched the classic GE logo poised prominently in the upper right-hand corner.

It bore this message:

I know you can't read it all. It says: "Fits most brands EXCEPT GE^® and Hotpoint^® models."

???

Maybe GE stands for "Go Elsewhere."

Either way, it's only words ... my stove works again and I have resumed avoiding the use of it for real actual meal preparation!

Now, the ice maker in our Whirlpool fridge is on the fritz. Audrey? 

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Thing Two:

Speaking of cerulean. Which we were, sort of.

While watching The Weather Channel on Saturday, I learned that in the olden days (my sister and I used to say that, importantly, all the time: "In the olden days ..." like we knew what we were talking about, which we didn't ... when we were kids, I mean) people often painted the ceilings of their wide, wraparound porches robin's egg blue.

I've never seen a robin's egg blue porch ceiling in my life, but I did not doubt because they showed a picture. Also I took their word for this next part, which I find extraordinary if not downright bizarre.

The voiceover person claimed -- and I'll have you know it sounded for all the world as though he was talking right to me -- that there is logic behind the blue ceilings apart from the fact of their attractive appearance.

According to The Weather Channel, wasps and dirt-daubers and other similar insects will not build a nest on or near a ceiling painted blue, because they are under the impression that it's the sky.

???

I just have to wonder how many dirt-daubers they had to waterboard in order to obtain that very important information.

Also I think South Carolina wasps and dirt-daubers are smarter than that, but I have no real, actual proof. Our porch ceiling is a beigey color and they've never tried to nest there that I know of. Maybe they think it's the sidewalk, or a dish of coffee ice cream.

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As you were.

Like Poor Old Charlie, We May Never Return

"Charlie, your sandwich ..."

Happy Weekend, everyone!