Nothing Like the Smell of Burning Rubber in the Morning

Time: About 7:45 a.m. Place: The Kitchen. My thoughts: Now what is that smell? It doesn't smell good at all. Like burning rubber.

Burning rubber usually isn't associated with breakfast, and for good reason. I made biscuits this morning. At a certain point, they looked nice and brown on the outside, so I took them out and put them on the counter. Or more exactly, I put the circular pan on which the biscuits rested on the counter, which itself was protected by a dishcloth.

But they weren't quite done. So I put them and the pan back in the oven for a few more minutes. Then the smell started, a faint bad smell. I didn't realize the oven had anything to do with it at first. Then I did, but the biscuits weren't burning. If they had been, they'd have been those special petrochemical biscuits that you don't really want to eat. I didn't see any smoke, either. But the smell got worse.

Part of the problem was that I didn't have my glasses on, so I got those and inspected the oven again. Kusai! Yuriko said (臭い) from the stairs as I did so. That's a most visceral word in Japanese, and in this case I can translate it, "Something stinks!" Yes it did.

Now wearing my lenses, I saw a little bubbling at the bottom of the oven -- a rubber-band shaped bit of bubbling. Instantly, I knew that a small rubber band, which get loose and roam around the house sometimes, had been on the counter and had hitched a ride with the circular pan into the oven, where it met a smelly fate. At least it wasn't one of the large rubber bands.