Whats your REAL job?

[SG15Z]

To use a ridiculously popular saying on this site in a far more literal sense than it usually gets used: "It burns! It burns!"

Damn it Jester! I'm so glad I wasn't consuming any beverages at the time.

Too bad I don't make min. wage...but then, I'm not horribly far above it.

Yeah I'm not terribly far above it either. But I'd join the min. wage crowd anyway. It sounds like fun! I'm gonna go join the picket line now!

[MadMike]

I dunno. I'm an introvert, and after dealing with customers over the phones for 5 years, I'd be happy 1) never touching a phone again, 2) never having contact with unknown people again.

Same here. I've been working on computers for 20 years now, and while they piss me off just as much as customers sometimes, at least if I cuss out the computer, it doesn't go complaining to my supervisor. My coworkers who might overhear me, well that's another story...

[42_42_42]

Because it's culinary school I'm going to - I'll be attending the culinary institute of america since I want to hone my cooking skills since I want to work in a kitchen as a cook, chef, baker, actually preferably pastry chef.

Do you have any idea just how jealous I am?

Here's my sugar hint: if you burn the pot of sugar, do NOT put under a tap of cold water until it's had a chance to cool way down, otherwise it will cause a sugar-lava explosion.

[EvilEmpryss]

Agreed on the sugar explosion. Also, don't use flour to put out a fire. It amazes me how many people don't realize flour is flammable. I even had to prove it to a military firefighter once in the middle of a fire safety class.

[Jester]

It amazes me how many people don't realize flour is flammable.

I cook. I use flour from time to time. And I have to admit, I was one of those people that did not realize that it is flammable. Still kind of puzzling to me, to be honest. It just doesn't seem like it would be flammable, if that makes any sense.

[OfficeSlug]

. If I could and if I wanted to be a bitch about it, I'd ask them "What's YOUR real job then?"

LOVE IT.
Oh, man, wouldn't that set some of them back on their heels!!?

Funny thing (well, not funny ha-ha funny) is - they'd complain to a manager that you're being a smarty-pants!!

[Seshat]

Any flammable substance, ground to a dust or powder, is even more flammable. Google 'dust explosion', and watch some of the videos. Grain elevators are particularly prone to dust explosions.

Flour is made up of lovely organic materials that do a great job of burning, even when not ground into a dust.

Fire and another fuel, such as margerine, is really dangerous. See the 1999 Mont Blanc tunnel fire.

[EvilEmpryss]

Flour will make a beautiful *poof* of fire if it's thrown at an open flame. It has a high tolerance for just plain old heat (like in a pan of oil), but toss it at the flame on a gas stove and it'll ignite in a heartbeat.

I about had a conniption when the fireman teaching that safety course told the group to keep flour next to the stove for grease fire. :runaway It's *baking soda* that you use on a fire, not flour!!!

[Jester]

I hope you corrected that fireman, and didn't allow all those people to go home with the idea that flour would save them the next time they burned the mushrooms and set the stove on fire!

[Broomjockey]

I know flour is flammable. You wanna know how I know?

I spent an entire evening playing around in the kitchen with candles and various ignitable substances. If you do it right, flour makes a very lovely *pwoof*

[EvilEmpryss]

I hope you corrected that fireman, and didn't allow all those people to go home with the idea that flour would save them the next time they burned the mushrooms and set the stove on fire!

I was in the military at the time, so when I corrected him, and then refused to back down even though the fireman outranked me, I actually had to prove it to the group, fireman, our respective 1st Sergeants, and our respective squadron commanders. Apparently, not one of them could grasp the concept that flour was flammable. They sent someone to the commissary for a bag of flour, set up a propane burner with a pan of oil, and insisted I prove flour would ignite.

Ah, the looks on their faces when the flour dust went *fwoof* was all the vindication I needed.

[MrsEclipse]

I never knew flour was flammable. I learn a lot of important things on this forum.

I also never thought that flour would be good to put out a fire, so I guess I'm in the clear. I mean, flour is so light. Not like sand. Sand is heavy business.

[Hyndis]

Anything that can burn, when in dust form and suspended in the air, becomes explosive.

This is how car engines work, for example.

Gasoline can burn, but just a puddle of gasoline on fire isn't all that impressive. Vaporize the gasoline so its suspended in the air, put a spark to it, and it explodes. The explosion then drives the piston in your car engine.

Windmills were prone to this problem. A mill is a mostly confined space that would mill grain all day long. This milled grain would fill the mill with dust. Then night would fall and the miller might sometimes have a lantern lit for lighting. Bad move!

[CoffeeMonkey]

Know what makes a HIGHLY awesome fwoof in a fire? Powdered coffee creamer. It's light and particulate, like the flour, but also loaded with fat, and thus extra flammable. A handful of that thrown at a campfire makes a great special effect. Lord knows I'd never put the stuff in my coffee.

[Food Lady]

See how smart we all are? Lots of brilliant minds on this board, yet the SCs find it necessary to put us down. I'd bet none of them know this stuff!