Don't try this at home.

Knowledge has an interesting trajectory. We start by knowing zip, (except that you love your mother) and gradually add items of greater and lesser importance to the seemingly cavernous space between your ears. Then the fickle bits of knowing slip away again as you forget them, one by one (except that you love your mother).

What happens when we do dumb things either before the information comes in or after it has escaped? The detail #3,947 about not stabbing a fork into the toaster usually arrives somewhere is the line up after "This is a fork" but before Experiments in Physics 101.

There are marriage no no's that are good to bone up on too. Like "Don't make fun of your spouse in public." The rub shows up though when whole sit coms base their feeble plot on husband bashing and no one goes up in smoke. If a small child watches her determined daddy shove silverware in the toaster every morning with no visible consequences, it might not resonate that this is dangerous. If a young wife witnesses dozens or hundreds of instances where the leading lady flings cutting insults at her man, and no one appears to get shocked, she might infer that she too can get away with derogatory comments about the person she promised to love, honor and cherish.

I tell my children, "Don't poke knives in the toaster, or you will get toasted."

I tell young wives "Don't make jokes at your husband's expense, it is simply too expensive to repair."