Keeps the heat and moisture in.

But I don't WANT the moisture in my baked potato. If I wanted it moist, I'd have boiled it.

Also, the One True Potato is rubbed with butter and kosher salt.

Microwaved baked potatoes seem to me more chunky and less likely to disintegrate into cloud-like numminess.

This. While microwave potatoes still taste fairly good, they have a consistency somewhat like clay, whereas the oven-baked variety are like potato-flavored dandelion puffs. I think it may be that instead of evaporating away, all the moisture remains inside as the actual medium for heating up the potato.

2. Oogy doesn't sound good. But people do this on purpose! 4. Probably. I don't know.

ita, it's a Sharp Warm & Toasty

Emily, I want to hear all about the Chauceriffic and math punny wedding. Sounds fabulous already. And congrats on the 35, that project sounded very cool.

I generally prefer balsamic vinegar to red wine vinegar for any application. Then again, I will drink the stuff straight on occasion. Balsamic vinegar is seriously tasty.

I'm starting to feel like I should bake a bunch of potatoes all the different ways I can find and figure out which I like best. But they'll probably still just taste like potato to me, and I don't care much how crispy the skin is, so I won't bother. Though the deep-frying idea is intriguing.

I've only ever wrapped potatoes in foil when camping and "baking" said potatoes in embers. Mostly so the skin was still edible and not coated in soot.

Emily, I want to hear all about the Chauceriffic and math punny wedding. Sounds fabulous already. And congrats on the 35, that project sounded very cool.

Okay, so my mother used the creation story from Genesis 2, instead of 1, which is kind of weird, right? But she's got Aelred's text saying that this was God's way of showing that neither man nor woman was inferior, but that they should be equal, side by side, "as it were collateral." Ha! My mother and I chuckled, stifledly. Of course, it's not really a joke -- that's what he means, is side by side. But... okay, never mind. It was kind of funny. If you were there. And two noted Chaucerians read part of the Franklin's Tale, one in Middle English (with gestures to aid comprehension) and one in English.

Balsamic vinegar is seriously tasty.

Word.

(Stifledly's not a word, is it? Le sigh.)

Okay, yes, it sucks the "blank" system has been down all day. However, calling me and asking "Is it up yet? When will it be up? Why is it taking so long?" when

1) The server resides in our data center which is an hour away and therefor I have no direct control over it or its repair and

2) The administrator in charge of said system has been sending out hourly status reports via e-mail which state we have a technician on-site replacing various parts of the server and it will take awhile

over and over again serves absolutely no purpose beyond pissing me off.

Hi, how's everyone else today?

Anybody else having trouble getting into Gmail?

It's working fine for me here, Wolfram. I know I've been trouble getting to it from home off and on the past few days, though.

I've been trying for the last 10 minutes in both firefox and IE and all I get is "be patient and try again later" messages. Grrrr.

Anybody else having trouble getting into Gmail?

I've had it open all day with no difficulties. (eta: signed out and signed back in just to check. No trouble)

Hee. Collateral. That sounds like a great ceremony.