Knives are sharp

Last night I was admiring my new birthday knives. They are exquisitely beautiful and shiny, especially the santoku knife, which has oval indents in it for "thinner slicing." I was standing in my kitchen admiring its icy, almost malicious gleam in the tinny fluorescent light, and found myself instinctively moving my finger toward the blade to touch its shiny edge. (I like to touch shiny things. I am a girl.)

Slow motion-- my finger's hypnotic trajectory is punctuated by my mother's voice-- "KNIVES... WILL... CUT... YOU..." I managed to stop my finger micrometers away from the knife, suddenly realizing that yes, running my finger along the edge would probably result in a terrible, annoying band-aid on my digit for the next two weeks. This probably saved me hours of irritation as well as 8-10 bloody paper towels.

Thanks, Mom.