For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for June 10, 2017

Still opposed to new appliances, John?

your wife is dead serious, John, about wanting a new kitchen (not even Andy Capp would want to eat that though)

Well John are you going to spring for a new stove at least?

This one is a little confusing based on what we have seen before. Earlier this week, Elly’s complaint with the stove was that the broiler drawer wouldn’t work. Then Elly emphasized the linoleum, the cabinets and the toaster to John as if those were the important things to her. My guess from what I saw earlier in the week was that the broiler was the part of the oven that was not working.

Now we learn differently. The broiler is the only part of the oven that is working. Me personally, if the stove only works on broil, that would be the thing I would be talking about with my husband. You are seriously limited in your cooking if you have no effective oven where you can vary the temperature. On the old ovens, broil has only one temperature, which functions at about 550 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything you cooked that way, you would have to watch very carefully. Judging from the meatloaf, Elly was not watching that carefully.

I had a stove that the oven started cooking everything at 500 deg plus. Turns out the thermostat was broken.

Had this happen to us. Turned out it was the thermostat. It was a rental house and it took 2 weeks to get them to send someone out to fix it. Then another month to get the part (yes, we were already looking for another place to live). I learned to be very creative when the oven only had one temp and it was at least 500 degrees! Now days you order the part over the internet and have it the next day. Back then though, you were at the mercy of snail mail and repairmen who were in no hurry (and landlords that took their own sweet time fixing things, too). I hope Ellie gets her new kitchen!

First thing I did when I moved in was the kitchen. Did it myself, a little at a time.

Elly’s sarcasm reflects her frustration with her paleo stove.

Smart girl..now it’s just a matter of time…and not much of that!

The StoveMusic and lyrics by Zae MunnOne day my mother took up a sledge hammer and pounded her kitchen stove into bitsShe served cold cuts to my father for lunchIn that age, and in that place, Such a challenge to my father’s authority and rightWas mysterious, outrageous, outrageous, outrageous, even apocalypticThe demise of the stove, its piecemeal destruction – poked at the heart of the country,At the quality of life in the townAnd one day, without warning,My mother took it apart, and laughing beat the old stove to deathAnd one day, without warning,My mother took up a sledge hammer, and pounded her kitchen stove into bits.

Maybe he hadn’t noticed before.

Better “get cooking” with that kitchen remodeling, John.

Hit him where it hurts…in the stomach!

I saw a video, last year, where some guys put an electric clothes dryer in the back yard and hooked it up with an extension card and then put a brick into it and turned it on. It was fascinating to watch in a weird sort of way. The dryer completely self destructed in a matter of minutes. Anybody happen to have seen that besides me?

Yum! Meatloaf jerky!!

Happy wife, happy life. Right now Elly’s not happy. Either buy a new stove or a miserable life for John is ahead

That’s one way to convince John to get her a new stove.