Weenies 'n Table Saws

So I was on my way home from work yesterday, and I flipped on NPR, as there is always a dearth of music programming worthy of lending an ear to whilst driving.

As luck would have it, I tuned in just in time to hear the following story, which had me sniggering out loud in my car.

Apparently, approximately 3,000 "digits" are amputed every year in table saw accidents. And that is amputations alone. 40,000 visits to the emergency room every year are a result of table saw mishaps.

But this isn't what made me giggle.

It seems that this guy invented a safety device for table saws, which he calls the "Saw Stop." Basically, the saw is able to tell the difference been a piece of wood and a human finger. So when the saw detects that it's cutting into a finger, it immediately shuts off, thereby sparing the wayward digit from certain amputation. A pretty intelligent little device!

It works because of the electical conductivity properties of the finger, which are different from those of wood. And guess what else happens to have the same conductivity properties as your index finger? That's right---a Jennie-O turkey frank.

Yes, this guy is going around the country slaughtering poor little turkey franks left and right to show how his product works. My favorite line of his, for why he came up with this ingenious little device is, "Well, I know that MY fingers are important to ME."

So everybody gathers round and he begins to saw a piece of wood, and he sticks the weenie in front of the blade halfway through and the whole thing shuts down just as the weenie starts getting cut. Apparently even though he is using a frankfurter, there is much wincing among the audience when it hits the blade. How I would love to see THAT in person.

You can check it out on the NPR site. There's a video of the weenie and everything. Hilarious!

I don't know about your fingers, but mine are certainly grateful for this new little bit of technology.

Excepting the fact that now I have to come up with something else to slice my cocktail weenies with for my Christmas party. Crap!