Proposed Course: Common and Not So Common Sense

[Çelís del Þeracour]

Aspra, - I would like to propose a Continuing Education Course on "Common and Not So Common Sense". We can share this information for the betterment of all.

If I were to begin a common sense and not so common sense blog it would include things like: Rice Milk separates when you heat it up - and therefore it makes a lousy latte. I'll bet nobody else knew that and now you are all saved from the disgusting results! (you're welcome).

And another: If the church lady recipe book says to microwave the sugar and water until carmelized for 4 minutes, they are lying. Don't even try putting sugar and water in the microwave for 4 minutes or you will set off all of the smoke alarms in your house.

Just an idea, I know that everyone here has some bit of hard learned wisdom that could be contributed to this type of Continuing Education Course.

[EM Vürinalt]

celise said:

And another: If the church lady recipe book says to microwave the sugar and water until carmelized for 4 minutes, they are lying. Don't even try putting sugar and water in the microwave for 4 minutes or you will set off all of the smoke alarms in your house.

Ha!! My chemistry teacher actually did a demo just like this. DON'T DO IT! She's right!

And common sense seems to be something most Talossans lack, so I'd sign up if there were a class.

But how would you teach and grade it?

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

I am not sure how an academic course on this could be crafted... maybe this could be a fun course not for credit?

[Sevastáin Casálmac'h]

mbenzschawel said:

And common sense seems to be something most Talossans lack, so I'd sign up if there were a class.

Hey! I have plenty of common sense, I just choose to ignore it. Bah! Who needs the stuff anyway?

[Sir X. Pol Briga]

There could be cola and mentos demonstrations....

(among many others)


or mabye that would be another "weird science" course.

[Çelís del Þeracour]

I would propose the course as one of those extension type courses - taught by us all. No grading or credits. Just good knowledge -

I thought of another bit of Not So Common Knowledge - if you have a cat (especially a kitten) make sure the toilet paper rolls toward the wall and not off the top of the roll. It is much harder for a kitten (or child for that matter) to pull and un-ravel the whole thing.

When we have a huge compilation of these bits of wisdom, the University could publish a book on important trival knowledge.

[Hooligan]

I don't know if this is common sense or not, but when mixing cake batter, it turns out it is actually okay to bake metal utinsils right into the cake, even if you do so by accident. I believe Celise and Aspra can vouch for the fact that I have proven this theory out personally.

Hooligan

[Aspra Roseta Laira]

mha said:

I don't know if this is common sense or not, but when mixing cake batter, it turns out it is actually okay to bake metal utinsils right into the cake, even if you do so by accident. I believe Celise and Aspra can vouch for the fact that I have proven this theory out personally.

Hooligan

Finally admitting that it was you who baked the fork into the cake and not me? I've got it in writing.

Celise, I don't know about an academic course, per se, but perhaps the collection of common sensisms (just coined that one, watch it take on new life) could be done as a campus club. The club for senseless folks. Every club needs a good acronym, I'm sure someone has a witty suggestion for that.

Here's a piece of common sense I learned from a friend just tonight. When reading a recipe for making sourdough, don't follow it if it says to keep the oven moist by spraying it with water while the dough is baking. Following those instructions led to shattered stoneware.

[Çelís del Þeracour]

Aspra, I saw that and yes, he finally admits it after about...I don't know...28 years?

I like the idea of a club.

Here is another common sensism, if you are cooking on the stove and you are about 10 years old, it is a good thing the style of the day is to wear several layers of shirts so and have your big brother handy so that as they are catching on fire he can be pulling them off your body and you will never burn up (or was that Joy that saved you that time?)

[Aspra Roseta Laira]

If I remember correctly, I was trying to deep fry dough-nuts, so it was an oil fire. Someone didn't pay attention in home-ec -- he was going for water, but Joy remembered to use flour to put the fire out. That's what I was told afterwards, my memories consist mostly of the smell of burning polyester. Grandma's knit sweaters saved my skin. Good thing it's cold in Laramie in the winters!

Surely someone can think of a good name for the common sense seeker club.

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

molroselle said:

Someone didn't pay attention in home-ec -- he was going for water, but Joy remembered to use flour to put the fire out.

Did she stand back before throwing the flour at you? Maybe she was just trying to create a dust explosion.

[Çelís del Þeracour]

Which reminds me of another common sense tidbit. If the stove is on fire, start by turning it off

Seems obvious, but - (sorry to keep Handifying things) Aspra, remember the time when we caught the meatloaf on fire and I sent everyone out of the house. Lord Hooligan and our folks were gone - My friend had the sense to turn off the stove and I called everyone back in the house...minutes later, we heard sirens..LOTS of them...and Laura was shrinking in her chair because she had run to the neighbors and called 911....You would have been pretty young, Aspra, probably only 3 or 4 so you might not remember this one.

[Aspra Roseta Laira]

siervicul said:

molroselle said:

Someone didn't pay attention in home-ec -- he was going for water, but Joy remembered to use flour to put the fire out.

Did she stand back before throwing the flour at you? Maybe she was just trying to create a dust explosion.

Didn't some workers die recently in a sugar factory due to this? It was somewhere in the southeast if I remember correctly. I suppose anything that has calories is a possible fuel.

And no, Celise, I don't remember that fire. But it does remind me of another common sense tidbit I could share about something that happened to me recently: Don't leave good-smelling food on top of your stove unless your burner buttons are dog-proof. My lab jumped onto my stove to take a taste of something I had cooling on top of it while I went to the movies. His paw pushed the burner lever on, and we came home to a house full of smoke and the smoke alarm blaring. The pyrex plate completely melted.

[Flip Molinar]

Yes and I believe those workers died from the sugar exploding in a factory in Atlanta, though I could be wrong.

[Çelís del Þeracour]

OMGoodness...you are right Flip!

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23059948/

Had we started our common sense blog only about a month earlier we could have SAVED LIVES!