• Step 1: Preheat oven to 450f.


• Step 2: Open oven. Insert damp Sunday newspaper.


• Step 3: Close oven.


• Step 4: Forget about newspaper.


• Step 5: Go shopping.

No, I didn't do this. But apparently someone has. Because the second page of the operating manual for our new oven has this as a warning bullet:



I file this under the category of Surely No One Would Think to Publish This as a Warning Unless Someone Had Actually Done It.

Look — I dislike damp newspapers just as much as the next newsreader. I mean, you spend the cash for your subscription to the Sunday Oklahoman, or Dallas Morning News, or whatever, and you'd like the thing to show up on your driveway at least mostly dry.

But put a damp newspaper in the oven to dry it out? Are you serious?

I've been known to do some Dumb Stuff in my life, but I would've never considered such an idea unless I'd read it there in the oven's Operating Manual.

It rather begs the question: Would folks who are likely to dry newspapers in ovens be the same ones to ever even read the operating manual in the first place?

Labels: Odd 'n' Fun