On my Facebook page there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a photo album which I call \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Desperately Seeking a Caption.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I often put a humorous photo on display and invite Facebook friends to come up with a caption as inane as the photo.<\/p>\n
This time I posted a photo I took on our last visit to our family in Copenhagen, Denmark. Surprisingly, a half dozen people jumped in.
\nI took the picture in the kitchen. The subject is an odd electrical object which combines two handy appliances.<\/p>\n
But first, let me explain that in Denmark, people make a meal out of bread with butter, or if you want a real treat, a tablespoon of one of the wonderful jams and jellies that country is famous for. In fact, virtually every convenience store devotes much acreage to the bread section alone.<\/p>\n
There are pastry shops all over downtown, where business is so brisk that we need to take a number, much like we do at any motor vehicle department. But what you can buy at any convenience store, to take home, is as good as what you find in a bakery.<\/p>\n
I asked Lizbeth, my daughter-in-law, if she owned a toaster for my bread. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got something better,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said, bringing me a seldom-used mystery appliance, the subject of which is on my Facebook page.<\/p>\n
Underneath the photo, I asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What is this?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Khrushroo Ghadiali was the first to answer: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A toaster with a built-in radio.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I told Khrushroo, a former member of the reportorial team at the Optic, he was wrong. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Actually, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a radio with a built-in toaster,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I answered. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let the first one to guess spoil it for everyone else.<\/p>\n
Others chimed in. A former Highlands prof, Bruce Papier, guessed it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an upcoming version of the iPad.<\/p>\n
Facebook friend Lupita Gonzales opined that the appliance is a multi-tasker, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153just like me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d meaning her.<\/p>\n
Clara Romero Enriquez calls it an alien zapper. And Barbara Dorris, who noticed a cord wrapped around the appliance, looking much like a stairway, wondered whether the cord led to the balcony.<\/p>\n
There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a telescoping aerial atop the toaster, which would allow the user to park a piece of untoasted bread while waiting. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a meshed opening for the radio speaker, from which one might expect heat to emanate.<\/p>\n
The toaster-radio became a required item at the breakfast table for the days we visited our family. But it also made me wonder who came up with this combo. I thought about the little ditty KFUN runs, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The best news around, the hottest talk in town.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Would Lizbeth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contraption serve to super-heat the toast when there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a hot news item on?<\/p>\n
One couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t prove it by me, as I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand Danish. The lyrics to many of the songs on Danish radio are in English, but the talk is in their language.<\/p>\n
The item did a fine job, toasting the bread to my satisfaction. Most toasters we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve bought merely raise the temperature of the bread to about 80 degrees.<\/p>\n
One thing I learned quickly on our first trip to Scandinavia was how easily toast happens if one isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t aware of wattage differences. I took some gadgets along, a digital camera with battery charger, a plug-in radio (without a toaster), and an electric razor.<\/p>\n
In Denmark, at least, things apparently run on D.C. current, and one can buy adapters. But that merely helps you to plug in your American items; it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change the voltage. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how an item or two became toast.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll try to recapture some of the dialogue between my son and me:<\/p>\n
Stanley Adam: Watt happened, Dad?<\/p>\n
Me: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. Something revolting for sure. I just plugged it in. What a shock!<\/p>\n
Stan: Wire you saying that?<\/p>\n
Me: According to the instructions, your outlets should have given me power, not toast.<\/p>\n
Stan: Well, when you get ohm, you can buy some new electronic stuff. Use your Visa card and charge it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On my Facebook page there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a photo album which I call \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Desperately Seeking a Caption.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I often put a humorous photo on display and invite Facebook friends to come up with a caption as inane as the photo. This time I posted a photo I took on our last visit to our family in Copenhagen, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}