Point of randomness: Sniff to detect heat

I do a funny thing after I pull out leftovers I stuffed into the microwave. I sniff them. I don't do it to sample their superiority like some fancy glass of vino. I do it, instead, to check the temperature. That's right. I could use my hand but I've found that my nose and surrounding skin is far more sensitive to the subtlties of luke warm heat than anything else. It also helps if you're not like my dad who nukes everything into quadrupal digit temperatures. In his case, a visible glow and plumes of steam can help gauge temperature. Not for me, however. Sometimes this catches me by surprise like when heating wet kitty food when one of our little ones is sick. It helps them smell the food better and encourages them to eat it. When I check the temperature with the nasal method, however, I get a pretty strong whiff of the whatever entrails and leftover fish, turkey, or other animal parts they put into that stuff. Aside from that, it's a pretty fool-proof method if you do it for things you know to be under the boiling point. Anything hotter and you might burn the inside lining of your nostrils and I can only imagine how that would feel!

Comments (1) | To Top

9/17/2005 @ 2:41pm

Yum! Turkey innards for kitty! Come 'n get it!

In unrelated news, I like the idea behind labeling these comment fields internally, but it makes the first few letters of each line you type look a bit wonky. Does the label text work in an even lighter gray, or does that make it completely illegible?

I don't have any brilliant suggestions at this point, but I'd argue that it's better to have legible labels and fields than to marginalize the readability of both.

by Matt Turner