NT I just had to share this one from the Darwin Awards letter.

[kcjenkins]

Father stories are all the rage this winter, and MORE THAN ONE

FRUITCAKE is a great holiday tale of extreme cooking gone wrong.

MORE THAN ONE FRUITCAKE

At-Risk Survivor

Personal Account

Unconfirmed

Reading 'My Father, The PhD; reminded me of my own father,

and in particular, one little incident that came to be known

in the family as "The Great Fruitcake Incident."

I love cooking. Every year I bake a few fruitcakes for family and

neighbors. I mix in various alcohols, so people actually EAT my

fruitcakes. Now, I've been known to experiment with various types

of alcohol. In 2005 I was suffering from a shortage of Jack

Daniels whiskey, so I searched the kitchen and settled on a bottle

of tequila. After mixing a measure of the Mexican liquor into the

batter, I poured it and slid the pan home.

Alcohol burns, so when you bake a fruitcake you use a low

temperature. Set the oven no higher than 250 degrees so your cakes

don't catch on fire--never a good thing, and besides, it's hard to

explain why the top of the cake is charred.

As I slid the pan in, my father came into the room. He also loved

cooking, and he was darn good at it. Poking around, he started

making suggestions. I remember seeing him look at my oven, look

back at me, and laugh, "You'll never get it done like THAT." He

reached over and turned the heat up to 350...

Remembering my previous flambe, I sighed and reached toward the

stove. I started to say, "Dad, you have to cook it that low,

alcohol..." But all I had uttered was, "Dad..." when my hand

touched the knob. There was this loud WHOMP! The oven door blew

open and a sheet of blue flame shot straight up out of it, burning

ALL the hair off my arm--which never grew back!

I stood there dazed, the smell of fruitcake and burnt hair filling

he air, my dad with a look of utter shock on his face... Before

heading to the ER, which he was nice enough to take me to to,

I managed to finish my sentence. "Alcohol burns."

And YOU try explaining to the ER that your fruitcake exploded...

[Catherine]

GREAT story!!