Dream with Our Eyes Open

So I was reheating some cold polenta (cornmeal mush - that is, maize meal) in the microwave. And a second or so after it started, there were HUGE bright flashes of light, burning smell, microwave making ominous sound ... !

I stopped it, of course. There were faint burn marks on some of the edges. (The polenta was very uneven in texture and thickness: it was home made, not one of those very compact, sausage-like commercial polenta logs.)

At my husband's request, I tried it again. Cue the fireworks and melodrama. The remaining polenta blob was pitched into the food waste pail (we have food waste recycling in our town).

The only thing we can figure out is that maybe this batch of stoneground cornmeal had a really good mineral content. One site notes that stoneground cornmeal can supply about 25% of your daily magnesium needs. And magnesium is very flammable. And other vegetable products can smoke and flame in the microwave, including fresh veggies that are thin, irregular, and contain lots of iron, such as spinach and kale (link to NPR article).

To end this on a fitting note: create plasma in your microwave with a grape!

It's outside right now. If you're in this time zone (U.S./Canada Eastern), you should hurry and look, before Venus sets. In other time zones, this alignment of celestial bodies will also be visible shortly after sunset, but given the Moon moves about 12° along the Ecliptic every night, the exact configuration will differ as time goes on. In the arrangement outside right now, the Moon appears much closer to Jupiter than to Venus.

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