Ah, the microwave oven. Machine of housewives’ and bachelors’ dreams, or receptacle of domestic fears? According to this fun roundup of microwave myths from The Daily Green, it’s both. I love the fact that most of the myths are actually facts, and vice versa. Growing up in rural Maine, my family’s attitude toward microwaves mirrored our ambivalence about technology in general. My father was all for it, my mother was highly suspicious of anything that involved “radiation.” It was, after all, the 80s and they were No Nukes people. After we finally did get one, my mom wouldn’t let us stand directly in front of it for fear of leakage. Off to the side was somehow ok. According to The Daily Green, that makes her one of the “tinfoil hat people.” Turns out leaking radiation is a myth, at least most of the time… but nuclear weapons still suck.
Posted on July 15, 2009 by Brook – 
3 Comments
I’m not sure how mythical this one was, but I once “knew” that TVs radiated off to the side but in front was OK. Maybe yer mom heard that one too but reversed it for microwave ovens.
(I keep my tinfoil apron right next to our microwave.)
Actually come to think of it, we weren’t supposed to sit “too close” to the TV either, for fear of cancer. Also, it rots your brain. That part might be true 🙂
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