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Bagel | Jun 21 2005

I set my bagel on fire.

What happened was, I put it in the broiler to toast it and promptly forgot it was there. Sometime later, while sitting at my desk, I smelled smoke and ran immediately to the broiler. When I opened it, the bagel was on fire. I tried blowing on it, but it didn’t go out.

It’s interesting to see a bagel on fire, I suppose because one doesn’t often see this. The flames were pretty.

I tried blowing on it again, and this time the fire went out.

After waiting a few minutes for the bagel to cool, I moved it to the cutting board, where I tried scraping away the burnt part. This proved more difficult than expected, plus little bits of burnt “dust” were getting everywhere, so I turned the bagel on its side and in one motion sliced away the entire burnt layer.

The layer was at least a quarter inch thick and made me think of calcified lava. Foolishly I nibbled on a corner. It tasted like dirt.