Fable – The Marshmallow and the Microwave Oven

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The Marshmallow and the Microwave Oven There once lived Marshmallow in a busy factory home with his brother and sister marshmallows. While he was still a little fellow he was imprisoned by his makers within a small box of a prison that was stowed away onto a shelf in a faraway market. Lucky for Marshmallow, a well-presented lady, Lady Ampersand by name and title, hungered for Marshmallow's freedom. She paid the proper bail to the grocer, and away little Marshmallow went to Lady Ampersand's mansion. “Free at last,” thought young Marshmallow, even though he was yet too young to know the real meaning of the word, free. To Marshmallow, simply being taken off of the shelf at the market and carried to Lady Ampersand's mansion had sufficient meaning. Marshmallow did not care that he was still inside his cardboard cage and stuck high up on a shelf in Lady Ampersand's kitchen cupboard. In fact he did not know what a cupboard was, nor, for that matter, what a kitchen might be. Marshmallow's wishes kept right on coming true. On the second day at Lady Ampersand's mansion, she entered her lovely kitchen, took little Marshmallow from his cardboard dungeon, and gave him a nice, refreshing swim in some pretty brown-colored liquid in a tiny cuplike bathtub. Marshmallow thought, “Heaven on earth – I just knew it would be like this. I belong here.” And then he was put into Lady Ampersand's microwave oven, and its door was shut. Not having any arms or legs, Marshmallow could not jump out of his tiny cuplike bathtub to escape being closeted away in the dark interior of the microwave oven. He lay back in the bath, deciding to enjoy it, all the while hoping to be quickly taken out into the light once more. All of a sudden things started to buzz and zap at Marshmallow. These were all “growing-up” things to which Marshmallow and his siblings are often exposed early in life. When Marshmallow had received lots of the buzzing and zapping, he had rapidly grown to seven times his earlier size, but there was no pain to any of this. But microwave ovens cannot think for themselves. The timer had been set for a wee bit too long. Marshmallow overgrew. In fact he grew so large that he exploded. The inside of the microwave oven was covered with little pieces of sweet, young Marshmallow and drippings of brown bath liquid. Lady Ampersand went back to the market in order to rescue some more of Marshmallow's brothers and sisters. Moral: Sweet times do not last, and that, even a few unintended seconds can be enough time for technology to blow everything to hell and gone. * * * * * * * * * * Image source – My Broderbund image DVD * * * * * * * * * *