Mark Orton playing French horn 1964
In my senior year at Taft I was one of the first students to participate in a novel venture for such a traditionalist institution, the Independent Studies Program (ISP). Here is a contemporary description from the school’s website: Continue reading
This morning I was scanning through Zite and found this article claiming that some guy had definitively crushed the “hoax” that men landing on the moon in 1969 was shot on the back lots of Hollywood.
Now most of you will think this is very old history. Another bit of 60s’ paranoia. Who shot JFK, MLK…….? If you want to brush up your conspiracy theories for the rest of this jeremiad, here is a Wikipedia article, Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories
But, wait, there is more to my mental weirdness around this moon landing. Continue reading
I received an email today, five days after my initial attempt to communicate with Cuisinart and two days after my second attempt. The initial posting on this toaster meltdown is here
So far Cuisinart has expressed no interest in the fire, only the fact that our toaster is apparently out of warranty.
Valued Customer,
Thank you for your inquiry. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. Based on the information you have provided, your CPT-120/90416 is out of warranty. If you have a proof of purchase that states you have had the unit for less than 3 years, please let us know. We will be able to provide you instructions on how to obtain a warranty replacement under that circumstance.
The only other option that we can offer to you is another unit, at the cost of $29.95 plus shipping and any applicable tax.
If you have any further questions please reply, with history, to this email. We welcome you to call our Customer Service Department at 1-800-726-0190, if you prefer. The hours of operation are 7 AM -11 PM EST Monday through Friday and 9 AM – 5:30 PM on Saturdays and Sundays, excluding major holidays.
Sincerely,
Laney
Cuisinart Customer Service Representative
I will follow-up with Laney about any interest they have in investigating this fire. Maybe this is part of corporate liability avoidance. If we act as though nothing happened beyond “inconvenience”, nothing happened. I wonder, has the Consumer Product Safety Commission survived our age of little or no government (excepting, of course, the burgeoning allotments for domestic and international “security”)? Will have to Google for that.
Fortunately we had not wandered too far from the kitchen and realized that the crackling sounds were not those of burning toast. Even more fortunate was the fire extinguisher at hand to douse the flames that had already burned a good portion of the plastic housing along one side of the toaster adjacent to the electronics inside. But, the bread was barely warm!
You may be thinking that this fire was caused by sloppy housekeeping here. But, in fact the crumb tray had been cleaned within the last month and this picture of the crumb tray clearly shows no evidence of fire. It didn’t get started there. From the location of the fire right where all of the electrical components are, the obvious conclusion is bad design and/or manufacturing by Cuisinart.
I sent off an email with a picture to Cuisinart last Friday. Still no reply from them.
Saturday morning we went shopping for a replacement toaster. This time we bought a model by Hamilton Beach that has an all metal housing instead of the obviously flammable plastic housing.
By the way, if you want to replicate this experience at your house, the very same Cuisinart toaster is for sale at Lowe’s where we bought ours.
One lesson is clear – the value of having a fire extinguisher in the kitchen ready to go. make sure it is one designed for the kitchen environment.
We are planning to implement a retirement funds management system based on John C. Bogle’s The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. At this point in our lives we are focused on achieving the lowest possible investment costs and market average returns.
To kick this off, and provide annual advice, we are seeking an independent financial advisor. This person must have the expected financial planner certifications, work on a fee only basis, and understand that we will not buy any financial products from them nor retain them to manage assets. We only want to pay for their expert advice. The advisor does not have to be local to Hudson, NY. We are happy with videoconferencing.
Though the Bogle strategy is straight forward, visits to companies like Vanguard and Fidelity reveal a surprising number of choices. These need to be sorted out. In addition, we need to understand better the mechanics of withdrawing money from funds, tax issues, and probably other matters not currently visible to us. Based on our current investment strategy we have a good starting point for the distribution of funds between equities and bonds.
If you meet the minimum requirements set forth in the second paragraph, contact me at mark@markorton.com
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