That laser trick probably saved him 3 minutes of rechecking.

lol jennifercooper you're asking the real questions. I did the same thing with an old laptop that would only work plugged in - turns out it was just a loose connector inside, not a dead battery at all. Saved like 100 bucks by just opening it up and looking instead of tossing it.

My sister caught me doing the exact same thing with coriander a few years back. I was convinced I was "unlocking the flavor" with that loud sizzle, but she just rolled her eyes and said I was making expensive smoke signals (which, fair point). Now I do the whole gentle warming thing and it actually smells like something instead of a campfire. Took me ten years of bad chili to learn what a 45-second head start could do. At least your grandma's recipe survived your cumin crimes.

Holy cow, wait - I didn't catch that part until you said it. So the old bricks actually weighed more than the modern ones? That's wild. I always figured brick weight was pretty much the same across the board (you know, a brick is a brick). But if they were denser or something, those guys back then must have been absolute beasts to stack those all day. Makes me feel like a total wimp complaining about carrying my groceries in from the car.