@ www theotherpress.ca

 

A watched pot never boils?
Reports arise of old saying being proved false

By Joel MacKenzie,
Senior Pot Correspondent

ublic interest is bubbling
Pe over Canadian pots

reportedly boiling their
contents while being watched,
a phenomenon disproving the
common knowledge folk-saying
that a watched pot never boils.
The Other Press investigated to
find local opinions concerning
the event.

“T always took it for granted
to be true,” recalls Stu Parker of
Douglas College. “Although I
never really understood it; I only
ever heard it from my grandpa,
who would scream it when
I stared at the clock as a kid,
waiting for my mom to get me
from his house.”

Parker’s opinion reflects
the general consensus: an
AngusMeid study conducted
this month found that 83 per
cent of all Canadians “strongly
agree” that a watched pot never
boils (83 per cent of responders
chose “strongly agree” when
presented with that option
and “I am unfamiliar with this
subject matter” in an online poll
present at www.AngusMeid.com
for 17 hours).

Reports of watched pots
boiling have been appearing
recently in papers across the
country, including many in the
lower mainland. Jim “Slacks”
Meier of Port Coquitlam recalls
a recent experience: because of
other reports they had heard,

 

Meier and some friends got
together and put a pot on. After
only about two minutes, bubbles
began rising, and soon, “We
were in boil country. I couldn’t
believe my eyes.” Local Maple
Ridge celebrity, 12-year-old
blogger Emily Totes, posted
January 13 that she saw “[The]
[w]hole thing. [I]t went fr[o]m
not boiling [to] boiling. [I am
laughing out loud;] [I’]m [kind
of] scared.”

UBC Physics Professor
Dr. Carl Mauro could shed
little light on the causes of this
phenomenon. When asked, he
confessed to “Having a hard
time understanding what exactly
[The Other Press was] asking.” He
could only offer, “If you heat any
pot of liquid, it will boil.”

A Pitt Meadows speculator
and self-proclaimed Mayan
Calendar expert could only
offer possible consequences.
“Knowing when to add rice
to the water?” he laughed.
“Seriously, though, this is just
one event of many that point
to one obvious conclusion.” He
cites this February having one
extra day, our unseasonably
warm Tuesdays as of late, and
the amount of people generally
becoming less interested in
his pamphlets and soapbox
speeches: “The end of the world
is nigh.”

The Other Press will
continue to provide reports
on this phenomenon as more
information becomes available.

 

Continued on pg.25

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