Look, I'm not on trial here

December 19, 2018 7:38 AM

Dad And The Egg Controller
posted by Chrysostom (15 comments total)

That is a perfect memorial piece.
posted by congen at 8:02 AM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

What a lovely story. I enjoyed reading it.
posted by slogger at 8:06 AM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is such a lovely tribute, and made me miss the handy people in my life.
posted by hepta at 8:11 AM on December 19, 2018

This is a sweet piece, and reminded me that Heat Signature is fun as heck and I need to go back to it.
posted by The Bellman at 8:23 AM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm a Big Fan of my Big Green Egg, and I totally rely on one of these little boxes to control the temp for long cooks. A large pork butt can take 20 hours or more, and you can't let the temp run away on you.
posted by mikeand1 at 8:34 AM on December 19, 2018

Aw, that was so sweet!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:10 AM on December 19, 2018

Great story; it had a nice smoky flavour!

(I’ve owned and used a Big Green Egg or similar cooker for about twenty years as well as had a dad that loved to tinker with things. I could really identify with the whole tale.)
posted by TedW at 9:18 AM on December 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

This was amazing. I have a pretty good dad, compared to far too many others. But there will never be a paragraph in my memorializing of him someday, not too soon, I hope, about us thinking alike.
posted by DigDoug at 10:23 AM on December 19, 2018

His brain wasn’t entirely gone, I still have a partial version of it in my own head.

Reading this was a real light-bulb moment for me. I know I have a significant version of my dad's brain in my own head, and that my children each have a significant version of mine (though it's a different version for each of them). It made me think — and smile — about continuity in a way I couldn't when I just thought of reproduction in terms of genes.
posted by ubiquity at 11:09 AM on December 19, 2018 [8 favorites]

My gf just told me that my 22 year old son thinks and has a personality just like me. She meant it as a compliment. I am scared.

This is a terrific article. Great tribute. Thanks for posting.
posted by AugustWest at 12:10 PM on December 19, 2018

ah, the stuff I will leave to my kid ... :)
posted by twidget at 12:41 PM on December 19, 2018

I love this, thank you for posting it. Tom Francis is one of my heroes in that he successfully made the jump from thinking / talking / writing about games to making them, and did so in style with the immensely fun Gunpoint. I really should read his blog more often.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 1:17 PM on December 19, 2018

PIDs are pretty cool. I have one hacked into my espresso machine to control the brewing and steaming temperatures.
posted by slkinsey at 2:13 PM on December 19, 2018

Around this time of year, I start missing my dad, thinking back on the hours I spent keeping company or “helping” him in his workshop — especially in the winter, when he would take time off from work and had more time to tinker — as he made something like this to improve a process. As I read the part “His brain wasn’t entirely gone, I still have a partial version of it in my own head,” and I started to tear up because I have always felt like I wasn't able to think like my dad, a brilliant engineer and carpenter.

But then I realized that I do, at least, have that same instinct: how do I rig something up to make this situation better? I am constantly on the lookout for ways to improve processes but I cannot engineer things, so I generally need to buy and cobble together a solution instead of making it from scratch. But still, being able to realize that I do have a partial version of my brilliant dad's brain, it meant a lot this time of year. Thanks a lot for posting this!
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 3:37 PM on December 19, 2018 [6 favorites]

Thanks a lot for posting this. My dad died just over a year ago and left a similar, but virtual, workshop in his Dropbox folder; I'm amused it's a more widespread concept.
posted by katrielalex at 8:13 AM on December 23, 2018