Figure 1: Lucky Oven
A while back my mother told me to turn the oven on to 350∘. So I opened the oven door, closed it again, and then dialed in the desired temperature. That initiated a conversation with my young cousin:
−− Why did you do that? Why didn’t you just turn on the oven like she said?
++ Some people are luckier than others. I mentioned that a couple weeks ago, and you asked about it, but I never got a chance to explain. Well, you just saw the explanation, the reason why some people are luckier than others.
−− Huh?
++ This is a crowded and busy household. Suppose somebody stuck a plastic bowl or something in the oven, just to get it out of the way temporarily. If you turn on the oven without looking, it will fill the house with toxic smoke. You’d have to evacuate the whole house for half a day. People would say wow, that’s really unlucky. Well, that particular unlucky thing is not going to happen to me, because I check before turning on the oven. It costs nothing, it might help, and it can’t hurt.
Additionally, if you want to reconfigure the racks for turkey as opposed to pizza, or vice versa, that’s easier to do when they’re cold.
You and I know some people who take a lot of unnecessary risks. Unlucky things keep happening to them.