Andrew: Hey Dad… How Attached Are You to the Toaster?

Editor's note: We challenged all of our finalists to "Write a random/funny blog post you think will make 18-25 yr olds smile‬"

‪Have you ever blown up a toaster?  I have.‬
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‪I’m the oldest of four kids and often found myself baby-sitting my younger siblings while growing up.  Shortly after finishing 8th Grade, I was enjoying a summer afternoon playing The Sims while my brother was watching TV.  After awhile, he asked me to make him a grilled cheese sandwich.  Now, for any of you who have made grilled cheese, you know that it’s not a difficult or time-consuming process. But I just wanted to slap a sandwich together and get back to my game.  So I decided to use the toaster to expedite the procedure.‬
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‪Brilliant, right?  Toast the bread so that it’s crunchy and then it’ll be hot enough to melt the cheese – you don’t even have to use the stove!  Oddly enough, that part went off without a hitch.  Before returning to my game, though, I decided to take care of some dishes, being as I was already in the kitchen and all.   It then occurred to me that I should probably unplug the toaster so it could cool off.  One problem: The plug was stuck in the wall outlet and my hands were wet.‬
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‪Thinking myself an intelligent young man, I decided that the best course of action was to find myself a wedge and use it to pop the plug from the socket.  After all, I didn’t want to pull it myself, for fear of the electrocution that would certainly result from pulling the plug with wet hands.  But where could I find such an item?‬
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‪My search quickly yielded the perfect result.  It was long enough that I could hold it at a distance, flat enough to squeeze between the plug and the socket and wide enough to push out a significant portion of the plug.  And just what was this miracle device?‬
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‪It was a butter knife.‬
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‪Take that in for a moment.  Now, for those of you thinking, “Oh no he did not!” … Yes.  Yes I did.  And the plug popped out of the wall, that's for sure, along with a stream of sparks right before the toaster started smoking.  I did wedge the plug from an electrical socket with a metal object, after all.  Miraculously, I was not hurt, having immediately jumped back upon the first sight of sparks.  The toaster was not so lucky.  That poor machine had toasted its last sandwich.  (Come to think of it, the knife and the wall outlet didn’t fare so well either…)  Let me tell you, that was a fun phone call to my dad.  Thankfully, he was just glad I was not hurt.‬
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‪And secretly, I think we were ready for a new toaster anyway.‬

Andrew