Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Coffee Carafe
Last week, making coffee while still half-asleep, the removable lid on the carafe went missing. It was a snap-on plastic lid with little bump on it that pushes a button up on the bottom of the basket so you can pour a cup before the cycle is done. I was completely baffled. Did I absent-mindedly put in the garbage? In the fridge? I could not find the lid. I looked everywhere - I thought. Maybe it somehow slid far beneath the fridge & got stuck there, & that's why I couldn't find it when I moved the appliance. Fortunately, a spare carafe fit the machine. It remained a mystery.
Today, I found the lid inside the coffee machine water well. Of course. I use the carafe to measure the water. It simply popped off. If an intelligence test could be designed around the puzzle, I flunked it. If I had logically backed through the process, I would've found the answer: The lid was missing when the machine was ready to be turned on. Before I turn on the machine I use the carafe to pour water into the water well - oh look, the lid can fit inside the water well, therefore the lid could be in the water well. I think that's inductive reasoning.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Today, I found the lid inside the coffee machine water well. Of course. I use the carafe to measure the water. It simply popped off. If an intelligence test could be designed around the puzzle, I flunked it. If I had logically backed through the process, I would've found the answer: The lid was missing when the machine was ready to be turned on. Before I turn on the machine I use the carafe to pour water into the water well - oh look, the lid can fit inside the water well, therefore the lid could be in the water well. I think that's inductive reasoning.
Labels: home furnishings
