on microwaves

in contrast to the attitude of my colleague over at foodphile, I have nothing against microwaves. I do, however, have two comments to make regarding them.

first, our microwave has a time dial instead of buttons. that is cool, it is pretty fast to dial in a time. sometimes I feel that I am sacrificing precision, but that is okay. anyway, that dial goes up to 35 minutes. who microwaves for that long? what on earth could you microwave for 35 minutes? I do not think it is possible to fit a large enough foodstuff into our microwave such that it would require over half an hour of cook time. is microwaving for that long even legal? it seems very unsafe.

second, as much as I love popcorn, I think that I almost prefer it when the kernels come out half-popped. they should make some setting on microwaves that cooks a bag of popcorn so that it yields only those delightfully crunchy half-popped kernels. just an idea.