June 25, 2013

"Firefighters use lid to put out kitchen pot fire in Berkeley."

Of all the headlines I have ever read, that one most exemplifies the loss of individual know-how and the instinct for self-defense in the face of dependence on government.

45 comments:

Bob_R said...

When you have as many posts as you do under "written strangely early in the morning" it ceases to be strange.

Bob_R said...

And next to my stove I have a drawer with lots of large lids, a salt cellar from which I can quickly grab a handful of salt, and a fire extinguisher (which is probably out of date, so I shouldn't be patting myself on the back.)

J said...

It is FL here and I get calls at the hotel to come crush spiders and Palmetto bugs in the middle of the night.Once it was from an IT consultant we were working with to upgrade our systems.That basic lack of competence in dealing with life caused me to be way more skeptical about everything coming out of her mouth.Reminds me of a government that wants to control my medical records but can not adequately vet an IT contractor tech and hands him accesss to stuff an AF retired Col who worked in the DOE doesn't get after forty years.After three months.Kafkaesque and Keystonish don't begin to describe that level of dumb.

J said...

Just to be blatant about it.Computers>Snowden>Berkeley>IT>Darwinian inadequacy.

rhhardin said...

That's how woman discovered fire.

rhhardin said...

You'd think there'd be a lot more kindle fires.

fivewheels said...

"the loss of individual know-how and the instinct for self-defense in the face of dependence on government."

Certainly the headline sounds like that. But reading the article (quickly) it seems like maybe no one was home? Someone accidentally left the stove on, perhaps? So, maybe it's not really like that.

rhhardin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
edutcher said...

It's hot and Ann can't sleep.

Saint Croix said...

the loss of individual know-how

I once read an article in Playboy about Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The book was written by Cameron Crowe, who went undercover in a high school and did some journalism, IIRC. The movie was based on his book, which was non-fiction. (Although his screenplay, obviously, was make-believe).

Anyway, apparently the sex ed in Ridgement High involved putting condoms on bananas. Also the girls would practice sodomy on bananas. I don't remember if that was a class assignment or a do-it-yourself project in the cafeteria.

Saint Croix said...

In my sex ed class, they taught us stuff we didn't want to know. Fallopian tubes.

We had no porn, and we had no pictures. We had body diagrams. And even the body diagrams were boring. And I think they skipped the interesting parts of the body. It was like a map of the world without Red China.

I guess they figured we could find it.

Saint Croix said...

In Monty Python and The Meaning of Life, they do a funny skit with the sex ed professor (John Cleese) having sex with his wife in front of the class. And yelling at the kids to pay attention because he was not going to do it again.

J said...

Saint Croix before the government stuck it little head in the knowledge transition model was called the sleepover.They say it was a mystical bonding experience.I don't know It was exlusive.

Saint Croix said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Saint Croix said...

What I learned at my sleepover is that if you're the first person to fall asleep, all the guys will put toothpaste on you.

This is How We Become Men.

Saint Croix said...

"I got some toothpaste in my eye," I said.

But There Was No Sympathy.

tim maguire said...

In my school, sex ed was taught by the football coach. No thank you.

J said...

I seem to recall that in our milieu the disstaff side called them sleepovers and the convex side called them camping trips.On our side of the house we learned more about how to get thrown in prison today.

Dan said...

Turning off the gas/electric would have also help put out the fire as it would have reduced the heat from the bottom.
Total damage to the apt., about $10, maybe a little more to perfume the place.

Saint Croix said...

On my camping trip I learned about grain alcohol.

And I Pissed On The Fire Like A Man.

They thought that was funny. "He's peeing on the fire!"

That was my first experience with alcohol. I think we were seriously underage, which meant Mom Had To Pick Us Up.

I can't be sure of this because I have obviously blocked out the non-manly parts. I remember pissing on that fire, though. Caveman style.

Saint Croix said...

Don't ever have sex when you're sunburned and peeling. Because you'll get sweaty and when you are finished your girlfriend will have little bits of dead skin all over her.

Just a heads up.

J said...

thermite,nitro,garrottes,bang sticks,spearguns,cyanide and other such things.Might have been because we were military brats and our mentors had just spent a lot of time in SE Asia.

J said...

Oh and sand gets everywhere-repeat- everywhere.A word to the wise.

tim said...

Here in my town some fine democrats called the local housing authority to remove a limb from "their home" (mine and yours actually) which was blocking the front door, while the residents did not have the requisite knowledge of limb removal (nor apparently did ANYONE they knew), the folks did know how to put up a basketball goal.

Of course the housing authority came out after two weeks and said "limbs? Don't know anything about them, we will have to hire a contractor, but we did cut down that basketball goal for you, it being unauthorized and all."

I loved the comments "hmm, I put up a goal at MY house and no-one is coming to cut it down. Because it is actually my house."

lemondog said...

Baking soda to extinguish fire

Greg Hlatky said...

We need commomsense Federal regulations on pots to prevent tragedies like this. If it saves just one microwave...

Rusty said...

You're stuck in traffic and you notice the needle on the temp gauge starting rise.
What do you do?

Fprawl said...

This was a technique that i was taught in the Boy Scouts. We had to know how to react in an emergency, and a cooking stove fire was in there somewhere, as i recall.
The best hamburger i ever ate on a campout was when we didn't have a grille, put the meat in our aluminum pan, and the grease caught fire.
Boy you talk about seared.
There will be a lot fewer Boy Scouts because a lot of churches looked at an Organization that blatantly promoted a "God and Country" Award for a myriad of religions and foolishly thought it was a religiously based organization. They will have to do with MYF.

Boy Scouts was always a crapshoot anyway. A lot of parents sent their totally delinquent kids to scouts to straighten them out. When the ratio of bad kids to good kids reached about 20%, all of the kids turned rotten.
Ah, the rule of unintended consequences.

madeleine said...

Turn on the heater. Even when the traffic you're stuck in is in Phoenix and it's 115 outside.

dreams said...

This has been happening for a long time now, just imagine very many people in the nineteenth century or early twentieth century being anti meat, anti fur or anti trapping because in that era the people still had a real relationship with the land or at least had memories of what was required to survive.

Astro said...

What madeleine said... with the fan at full blast and with the fresh air vent open, and with windows down, 'cause it's the 4th of July and you're in costume, driving a van in a parade, and there's already a puddle of sweat the size of Lake Erie on your lower back.

And for an hour you're cussing-out the boss in your head for making you do this, but you know you won't actually cuss out the boss because you need this job to help pay some of your college expenses.

DanTheMan said...

>>You're stuck in traffic and you notice the needle on the temp gauge starting rise.
What do you do?

Call the Fire Department, silly.
Next question.

Astro said...

No pot/marijuana/Berkeley jokes?

'I am disappoint'...

MisterBuddwing said...

Dunno if it's relevant or not, but:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URvMd-pjSMc

David said...

The very first time my wife and I left our two youngest children alone, we went to a party about a mile and a half away. We left them the phone number, prominently posted, and clear instructions. They were to call if there was any issue. My daughter was ten, my son nine.

About an hour into the party, I got a call from my 10 year old daughter. (This was pre cell phone.)

First words: "Don't worry, Dad. the fire is out."

Me: "!!!??"

A plastic popcorn popper in the kitchen had shorted and caught on fire. A big hot flame resulted and the entire thing combusted.

The kids had grabbed a large pot and put it over the popper to snuff out the flame. They had quickly rejected the idea of water on an electrical fire. The house was grimy from black soot, but the fire had done nothing but singe the nearby wood cabinets.

I asked if they had called the fire department.

Daughter (exasperated): "No, Dad, the fire is out."

I went home zoom zoom to check, and indeed all was well, except they wanted popcorn,

Both are now in their mid-30's and doing great in life.

J said...

David don't you just love it when they validate you didn't get it all wrong afterall.

Paul said...

Are Californians that stupid nowdays?

I guess so. They vote in Gov. Moonbeam again, they let their cities go bankrupt, they spend all their money on way overpriced houses, and are so unionized they have to call the shop boss just to go piss at home.

Lots of luck California. Here in Texas we do things OURSELVES.

carrie said...

Too bad they don't make everyone take Home Ec in high school.

SJ said...

At least the apartment dwellers didn't do the stupid thing and throw water onto a grease fire.

(I remember that piece of fire-safety. I also remember seeing a demonstration at a Fire Station in which a person did throw water on a grease fire, and the burning grease spread wide...though that may have been a rigged demo.)

Most building codes require access to the gas/electric shutoff for kitchen appliances. Not all buildings are 100% up to the most recent building codes, though...and even then, a grease fire (supplied with enough grease) can remain very dangerous.

Unknown said...

You can also put the car in neutral and race the engine at stop lights.

Unknown said...

Or just when you are not moving.

Ann's schedule is almost the direct opposite of mine. I can't get to sleep until about 3:00 AM so I sleep in until about 10:00 in the summer when I don't have to go to work. I get a lot of reading done from midnight to three AM.

mariner said...

Rusty,

You're stuck in traffic and you notice the needle on the temp gauge starting rise.
What do you do?

Mine or the car's?

Rich Rostrom said...

Geez. The Berkeley FD are no fun anymore.

If you have a lid, just add it to the burning pot and inhale...

Bob Loblaw said...

In my sex ed class, they taught us stuff we didn't want to know. Fallopian tubes.

We had no porn, and we had no pictures.


We had pictures in sex ed: "Here's what herpes looks like, and here's the canker sore from syphilis."

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