CPSC Notice 10/15/2010

Additional Injuries Prompt JAKKS Pacific® to Reannounce Recall of Spa Factory™ Aromatherapy Kits Due to Explosion and Projectile Hazards –

This children’s product was originally recalled in January 2009. Since that time, there have been additional injuries caused by the Spa Factory™ Spa Fantasy Aromatherapy Fountain & Bath Benefits Kits. Pressure from the buildup of carbon dioxide in the jars of Bath Bombs/Balls or Bath Fizzies that come with the kits can cause the unvented lids to blow off, posing explosion and projectile hazards. The flying pieces also can cause property damage. Additionally, the mixture of water with the Bath Bombs/Balls or Bath Fizzies can create citric acid. This acid can get into consumers’ eyes when the jars explode, posing a risk of eye irritation.

As of January 2009, CPSC had received 88 reports of exploding jars, including 13 injuries to children. Since that time, CPSC has received 12 additional reports of exploding unvented jars of JAKKS’ Bath Bombs/Balls or Bath Fizzies, including 13 additional reported injuries. The new injuries include irritated eyes, irritated skin and one eye injury from projectile jar lids.

CPSC Microfiction 10/15/2010

With only a preamble blip of picture, the feed was gone. And we continued to watch. As chairs were pulled from underneath heavily sedated patients, dropping us to the floor in fully subservient embrace of the rule of gravity. Drafted youth organization members of Purely Physical Cause and Effect Party, impassive faces blank as static field of electromagnetic distortion replaced newscast. Eyes automatically releasing anxious iris grip on focus, soft human lenses flexing back slowly, trained ease of first position. Black and white reduced to grey. They say static is residual time-traveling energy noise, in a Theory of Relativity sense anyway, visiting always, from the moment of the beginning until what is whatever is now.

Bath bomb. Took out the whole news room, the engineering room, the server room. The bathroom too, but that wouldn’t have affected the feed. An exothermic reaction in a teacup, or at least in a gift basket set with bath products, imported tea, service set to match, poured in custom carbon porcelain with metal wire reinforcement, jagged little children becoming-shrapnel with dreams of growing up to be grape shot one day. Sent by a dissident start-up, vengeance weapon made of salts and soaps, and something chemically reduced from a skin tightening lotion. A public response to an unfavorable column. Interview over.

We didn’t know that, until another newscast from another channel brought us all up to date. And so we sat, facing the screen. Reconnected with the world. Wondering where the remote was.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 9/8/10

The Land of Nod Recalls Toy Vegetables Due to Laceration Hazard – The metal wire in the toy asparagus can become exposed, posing a laceration hazard to children. The firm has received a report of an exposed wire in the asparagus. No injuries have been reported.

Microfiction 9/8/10

Haven’t eaten anything since they put wires in my food. Five days ago. Starvation is beginning to affect me. Mentally. Physically, I felt weak and unbalanced by day two. Now my mind is working slower. More animal-like. Needs visualized using only the nerves in my spinal column. Hunger has stopped taking a form of a want, and is an stitch in the torso. Throb in the kidneys. Soreness in the arms, where the muscle is dissolving.

Better than wires in me.

I could inspect the food, go back to the store with wire in hand, making a lot of noise about a free replacement asparagus, double-cheeseburger-hold-the-wire. I know better. They get in eventually. Matter of time. Can try to prevent them, but I’m destined to be wired. It’s the way that it is.

Been thinking, last few hours, maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe you should just let ‘em win, Johnny. If it’s inevitable, why not? Never been a fighter. That’s why they go with wires. Fighters don’t get wired. Get killed outright, dragged to the streets, heads on lamp posts and built into walls. So who am I, other than a future human prawn, dangling on the end of the wire? Why be anything else? Shrink myself into skin, animal madness, cornered in the alley. Is that life? What is it?

They’re in my skin now, oh boy. Can see ‘em snaking in my veins. Never quite made it to animal, I guess. Wired now. No more asparagus for me.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 8/12/10

Circus World Recalls Wireless Video Baby Monitors Due to Overheating Hazard – Wiring in the baby monitor camera can overheat and emit smoke, posing a burn hazard to consumers. Circus World Displays has received two reports of the camera portion of the monitors overheating and smoking. No injuries have been reported.

Microfiction 8/12/10

Blue light, and he had hated the color. The insides of the trailer shone with it: bright against the water-damaged ceiling tiles, absorbed by the dark metal of the shelves and equipment racks, luminous on the front of his work shirt, dirt and grime illuminated. Blue glared up in front to his face and eyes from his clothing, a squinted halo on a humid day, a mist he couldn’t clear, repeatedly blink involuntarily. And then there was the screen itself.
The people walked by, in groups of universally ugly threes and fours, the occasional child straying across the screen and then running back to whatever person, place or thing might be serving as its caretaker. Occasionally a hot body might stray across the curved luminescence of the monitor, but it was too quick, the video feed refresh rate too staggered-full of white lines and blue ghosts… the mind couldn’t capture the image. The contrast was off, the color an approximation of light and shade only. The long hair was jagged lines, breasts were pixelated pits, exposed skin was bluish-white, bodies turned to drowning corpses in the bottomless cold lake of closed circuit.
A wave of mist and static blew across the screen, and he leaned forward to adjust a knob, blue square filling his picture. Wait–vertical lines, rolling thicknesses of mist, increased foreground brightness. Now he could see the flames. Goddamn it, those fucking kids have set fire to one of the cameras again!

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 8/2/10

Miami Breaker Recalls Counterfeit Square D Circuit Breakers Due to Fire Hazard – The recalled circuit breakers labeled “Square D” or “SQD” have been determined to be counterfeit by Square D and can fail to trip when they are overloaded, posing a fire hazard to consumers. No injuries reported.

Microfiction 8/2/10

You feel it first. Feedback.
Then you think it. Feedback.
Will it work? Feedback.
Is that what I felt? Feedback.
Am I feeling what I’m thinking? Feedback.
Will what I’m thinking and I’m feeling work? Feedback.
Pause for a minute. Something happens here. Not thinking or feeling. Feedback.
Pick up the tool. Feedback.
Stretch your new limb. Feedback.
Think with the tool. Feedback.
Will it work? Feedback.
Is this the right tool? Feedback.
Do I know how to use it? Feedback.
Pause for a minute. Something happens here. Not thinking or feeling. Feedback.
Feel what you made. Feedback.
Think about what you made. Feedback.
Will it work? Feedback.
Is that what I felt? Feedback.
Am I feeling what I’m thinking? Feedback.
Will what I’m thinking and I’m feeling work? Feedback.
Pause for a minute. Nothing happens. Feedback.
Feedback.
Feel: Feedback.
Think: Feedback.
Work: Feedback.
Make: Feedback.
Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.
Overload. Feedback.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notice 7/8/10

PDi Communications Recalls Televisions Installed in Healthcare Facilities Due to Fire Hazard – A capacitor on the television’s power supply board can fail, posing a fire hazard. PDi Communications has received one report of an incident involving a flame in February 2010. No injuries have been reported.

Micro-fiction 7/8/10

It was a list of ingredients. It faded from vision as the thin text bent and blurred within its printed box. Now it was back. Gelatin. Glycerin. Polyethylene glycol. These were inactive ingredients. Where was…. He turned the small cardboard box over in his hand.
It was the remote control. He turned it over in his hand. There was a way these things were to point if they were have the desired effect. He mashed the buttons. No, that won’t work. One at a time. The noise got louder.
FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR WITH OUR NEW CAREERS KIT YES RIGHT NOW, TELL THEM ENOUGH WITH THE GRIND, THE COMMUTE, THE OFFICE POLITICS, AND BE YOUR OWN BOSS, WORK FROM HOME, MAKE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A WEEK….
The cardboard box. There it was, in the other hand. Take two as needed, not to exceed twelve in a twenty-four hour period. If you consume more than three alcoholic drinks per day, consult your physician. The ingredients, the ingredients. Was there acetaminophen in this? Or was it the food coloring allergy? What was that smell? Plastic? Fire? Where was the phone?
The colored lines on the screen grew further apart. Waves, escaping the electromagnetic belts that ought to keep them where they were. They bent out into the room, across the white tile floor. There was foggy mist in the air, no peripheral vision. Or was it… smoke?
The screen burst into flames.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 6/24/10 (Stitched together from all seven notices pertaining to the companies)

Seven Manufacturers Announce Recalls to Repair Cribs to Address Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), with the cooperation of seven firms, is announcing voluntary recalls of more than two million cribs to address drop-side hazards and other hazards that affect the safety of young children. The recalling firms are providing consumers with free repair kits to immobilize the drop sides or other remedies. Do not attempt to fix these cribs with homemade remedies.

The cribs’ drop sides can malfunction, detach or otherwise fail, causing part of the drop side to fall out of position, creating a space into which an infant or toddler can roll and become wedged or entrapped, which can lead to strangulation or suffocation. A child can also fall out of the crib. Drop-side incidents can also occur due to incorrect assembly and with age-related wear and tear.

Simmons Juvenile Products – CPSC has received 30 reports of drop sides that have malfunctioned or detached. Two children became entrapped between the drop side and the crib mattress but were freed without injury. Two other children fell out of their cribs when the drop side malfunctioned and one child sustained scratches due to the fall.

Million Dollar Baby – CPSC and Million Dollar Baby have received 43 reports of drop side failures. There were eight reports of children being entrapped between the mattress and drop side resulting in three reports of bruises to the head or upper body. Additionally, three children fell out of the crib when the drop side failed but they were not injured.

LaJobi – CPSC and LaJobi have received 40 reports of drop sides that detached or malfunctioned. In one incident, a child fell out of the crib when the drop side detached and sustained a bruise.

Jardine – CPSC and Jardine have received 47 reports of drop sides that detached or malfunctioned. In one of these incidents, a child was found unconscious after becoming entrapped and was hospitalized. Nine other reports involving entrapments or fallouts resulted in scratches and bruises, including one child who sustained a broken collarbone.

Evenflo – CPSC and Evenflo have received 31 reports of drop sides that malfunctioned or detached. One involved the entrapment of a seven month old boy between the drop side and the crib mattress. He sustained bumps and bruises to his head. Nine children fell out of the crib when the drop side detached, unlocked or fell off. Seven of those children sustained minor injuries, including bumps, bruises and cuts. Fourteen other incidents involved no injuries. In addition, CPSC has received two reports of children who became entrapped when the mattress support detached in one corner of cribs manufactured between 2000 and 2004.

Delta – CPSC and Delta have received 57 reports involving drop sides that have malfunctioned or detached, resulting in three entrapments, including two reports of bruises and one child who fell out of the crib. Additionally, CPSC is aware of 19 reports in which stabilizer bars were installed upside-down, resulting in 10 mattress platform collapses. Two children were entrapped but freed without injury and one child sustained scratches.

Childcraft – CPSC has received seven reports of the drop side failing. In one of those reports, the child became entrapped in the gap created by the drop-side failure. In another incident, a child fell out of the crib and suffered bruises to his head when the drop side disengaged.

Microfiction 6/24/10

I put up another gate. It held, and I turned to the left, and then it fell, clattering down to the floor, bouncing back and forth on its corners. I put down the next one, and picked up what had fallen. I drove the anchors deeper, choosing fresh spots. It held. I waited a moment. Yes. I picked up, now, the next, and began to work. The corner came loose, and swung down, banging into my knee. Shock of pain vibrated and, I grabbed my kneecap, cursing, to make sure it was intact. I got the bolts in place. Turned left again, and picked up the next. On a hard spot, and I couldn’t get the anchors deep. I struggled, pushing my weight against the bolt, driving it deeper, swore, flailed, screamed with exertion. As I spasmed against wood and metal, I felt it slip into place, and I released my grasp. Too soon. I pressed on the far edge, and it pivoted toward the wall, ripping out the far anchor. It levered outward, my weight transformed into acceleration, and it slammed across the narrow space into the opposite gate, swinging, loose and dropped, which swung down and back to the last gate to the left of it, also knocking it loose. In frustration, Hanging loose on a single anchor, the last droppe to the ground, clattering on the rest.
I was a child. I couldn’t do this. I was no better than a helpless infant.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notice 6/16/10

Entertainment Centers Recalled by American Signature Due to Fall Hazard – The recalled entertainment centers’ shelves can detach and fall onto consumers when the entertainment centers are moved. American Signature Inc. has received four reports of the shelf above the television collapsing, causing two injuries. Injuries include a child who was struck on her fingers and an adult who required stitches to his mouth. There were also two reports of minor property damage.

Micro-fiction 6/16/10

The light flickered as the channels changed. The men and women moved into one another; their words stuttered and combined into a meaningless language of grunts, moans, and ejaculated syllables; their hairstyles merged and blended in a cloud of color; their bodies met and twisted, finding joint and union in the open, secreting orifices of the moments between shots; the scenes spun around each other, pivoting on access points of revolving light, wall, fashionable furniture, and the littered food items, the stars and planets of colliding galaxies and boiling nebulae; this plot of utterly doomed human astrology spelling out the places and times, war and seduction, fatigue and respite, story and meaninglessness, crashed down like disintegrating airliner across open sea en route to paradise, leaving vast swaths of narrative wreckage floating in slicks of emotional mirth, and we were meant to receive this eucharist as the point, the entertainment value, the take away message, the happy ending, the orgasm before bed; but suddenly the whole thing came detached from the wall, smashing downward and exploding in glass and hot fragments of ceramic, a massive shard of jagged plastic housing flipping outward and catching me on the mouth, ripping open my skin a good two inches upon that edge and sending a flood of hot iron across my tongue and down my throat.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 6/15/10

Crate and Barrel Recalls Succulent Plant-Shaped Candles in a Pot Due to Fire Hazard – The wax in this candle melts quickly inside and overflows outside the pot and can ignite, posing a serious burn and fire hazard to consumers. The firm has received one report of the wax igniting. No injuries or property damage were reported.

Risk of Strangulation Prompts Recall to Repair Roll-Up Blinds by Chicology – Strangulations can occur if the lifting loop slides off the side of the blind and a child’s neck becomes entangled on the free-standing loop or if a child places his/her neck between the lifting loop and the roll-up blind material. No injuries reported.

Micro-fiction 6/15/10

Chico stared into the inverted droplet of candle flame, imaging himself crouching in the black fragment within the column of fire, in the dark element of expelled fumes from the dark candle wax, the space where no oxygen exists, before the superheated vapors escape out of the envelope into air, reuniting with their third sibling in a trinity of oxidizing splendor, exploding in further heat and energy, light and brilliant silence, fire in the vacuum, pushing into the outward void of the world, and then extinguished, lapsing into nothing, their force sapped by the entropic osmosis of the weight of the rest of the universe. Burning brightly, and small, or… something… as some poet had said, but Chico could not remember.
It was time for him to go as well. He reached forward, no more hesitation now, and drew the string downward from where it hung against the wall. Such a simple motion. His own little fire. The blinds slid up, opening the window to Chico’s sight, and the light poured through.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

Most people into urban infomatics are male. For the same reason that going out in NYC isn’t a lot of fun, in my opinion.

Something to do with how the sexes find their roles in an urban landscape.

In the sexual urban landscape, men throw the party, women go to the party.

There’s something about Delirious New York that reads like a “Men’s Magazine Guide to Sex”…

…and Cosmopolitan reads like Time Out: The Female Body.

CPSC Notices 6/3-10/10

Maytag Recalls Dishwashers Due to Fire Hazard – An electrical failure in the dishwasher’s heating element can pose a serious fire hazard. Maytag has received 12 reports of dishwasher heating element failures that resulted in fires and dishwasher damage, including one report of extensive kitchen damage from a fire. No injuries have been reported.

GE Recalls Front Load Washers Due to Fire and Shock Hazards – A wire can break in the machine and make contact with a metal part on the washtub while the machine is operating, posing fire and shock hazards to consumers. GE is aware of seven incidents in which flames escaped the units and caused minor smoke damage. No injuries have been reported.

Micro-fiction 6/10/10

They sit, outwardly motionless, oscillating within themselves, the stoic face of contained kinetic energy, the holy halves of power and silence. One for processing clothes, the other for dishware. These gods sanitize. They take that which our bodies have soiled, and they make them whole again. Machinery of redemption, their spark of heaven’s alternating current heats the water, and with it, our bodily sins are wiped away.
But for too long have these gods been ignored. In haste we order them to our purposes, pulling them from the firmament and into our dusty, earthen homes. We deposit our discarded waste into them with mere purpose, the profanity of routine, with the haste of exuberant humans with better things to do that to pay homage to the forces of nature that allow us freedom of the will we claim.
And so it starts with a spark. The smallest copper wire, the capillary beds of powder-coated steel deities, bursting in electric stigmata, insulation opened in the mercy of heaven, and the current finds a ground. Then the smoke, the odoriferous fumes of combustion, the smell of the sacrifice that ought to have been. And still motionless, the gods reach out and touch our homes, passing flame through invisible finger tips, self-immolation their passage back to the sky. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. As the gods’ will, justice is done.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

Seed: charged potential to root through tangles comprising planets’ cores–unconscious desire to spark given the slightest tinge of conductive aminos held solute in soil-water. But, there will be no exploding erosion, no earth-flow released, no lost viscosity in vicious rain of pre-catharsis melting peaceful sediment into murderous lahar. Mortality won’t wind its coil. Heavy sex of humid afternoons grow to thunderheads unburstable, without wounding discharge. It’ll die here, unable to live: tight chemical consort of void, un-growth caught within stone fissure, crystalline matrix blank-wall prison shell stiff, ever-slow undead rot, no cellular transport, no impression of acceleration.

[submitted for Ballardian.com micro-fiction contest. Didn't win.]

CPSC Notices 5/27/10

Cost Plus Inc. Recalls Tea Glasses Due to Risk of Lead Exposure – The Moroccan tea glasses contain excessive levels of lead in the exterior coloring. Lead is toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse health effects. No injuries reported.

Buckyballs® High Powered Magnets Sets Recalled by Maxfield and Oberton Due to Violation of Federal Toy Standard – The high powered magnets sets were labeled “Ages 13+” and do not meet the mandatory toy standard F963-08 (effective August 17, 2009) which requires that such powerful magnets are not sold for children under 14. Magnets found by young children can be swallowed or aspirated. If more than one magnet is swallowed, the magnets can attract each other and cause intestinal perforations or blockages, which can be fatal. The firm has received two reports of children swallowing one or more magnets. No injuries were reported.

Micro-fiction 5/27/10

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
I held the tea cup in my hand. The light stroked over its china curves, it’s thin handle. I wouldn’t let anyone to touch it. Only the light.
“Should you really be holding it?”
I looked at him. He would ruin this moment.
“Just a few more minutes can’t hurt.”
“But it’s been ten minutes now. And days previous.”
“A few minutes more won’t kill me.”
“Your exposure is already intense at best. We need to run tests. We have to extract some of your bone marrow as soon as you destroy that thing. With the output of that thing, you’re brain might already be microwaved leftovers.”
“Don’t call it, ‘that thing’.”
I held it up once more, and smiled, as the reflected sunlight beamed off its yellow paint, the intricate details of the design.”
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
He sighed. “Yes, it is beautiful.”
I let the tea cup rest lightly in the palm of my hand, and thought of its beauty. I pushed the vision I absorbed from the cup, back out of my mind, up my arms, and into my fingers, where the force of its weight drawn by gravity pressed into my skin. I concentrated, briefly. I pushed back. The tea cup rose out of my hand, a few inches into the air, and spun slowly on an invisible axis in the morning sunlight.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 5/25/10

Cummins Power Generation Recalls Portable Generators Due to Fire Hazard – Fuel can leak through the carburetor during normal usage, posing a fire hazard to consumers. The firm has received 25 reports of fuel leakage. No injuries or property damage have been reported.

Chairs Recalled by Brunswick Bowling & Billiards Corporation Due to Fall Hazard – The chair frame can separate from the seating section of the chair, posing a fall hazard to consumers. Brunswick has received one report of frame separation. No injuries have been reported.

Micro-fiction 5/25/10

I smell gasoline.
It’s just smells volatile, you know? Like heat, not yet exploded into flame. Like something you’ve turned your back on, that is falling, but you haven’t heard it because it hasn’t hit the ground.
Smells like potential.
People think they like the smell of gasoline. Don’t know what they like about it. Smells sweet, maybe.
They’re not the kind to light fires, though.
You have to love flame for the way it eats, the way it grows, the way the light gets bigger, faster, and hotter, no matter what you do.
I don’t set fires.
I just sit in my chair, and I notice things. The way people pass by, the way they speak without caring who hears them. Sounds stupid. Like ignorance, like insolence, like inelegance. Like whatever you try to do is failing, no matter what you do, but it’s other people, all around you.
Not that I care.
And so I just notice them.
Still smells like gasoline.
I wonder where it’s coming from.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 5/21/10

Chocolate Soup Recalls Children’s Hooded Sweatshirt Sets with Drawstrings Due to Strangulation Hazard – The sweatshirts have a drawstring through the hood that can pose a strangulation hazard to children. In February 1996, CPSC issued guidelines (pdf) (which were incorporated into an industry voluntary standard in 1997) to help prevent children from strangling or getting entangled on the neck and waist drawstrings in upper garments, such as jackets and sweatshirts. No injuries reported.

HP Expands Recall of Notebook Computer Batteries Due to Fire Hazard – The recalled lithium-ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers. Since the May 2009 recall, HP has received 38 additional reports of batteries that overheated and ruptured resulting in 11 instances of minor personal injury and 31 instances of minor property damage.

Micro-fiction 5/21/10

Your chances of exploding are roughly one in fifteen-hundred.
Used to be far worse.
And one in fifteen-hundred? Yeah, it could be you that bursts into chemical flame while downloading data to your hoodie. But the vast majority of people will enjoy the fabric net, and will live their entire lives comfortably in their e-clothes, until the day they’re hit by a bus, die of radiation exposure, or one of the other hundred ways to catch it in this day and age.
We need electricity. The info-blankets in which we shield our naked flesh require energy. Better lithium-ion covering your skin than fissile material, or soaking yourself in gasoline. Chance could be one in a hundred–could be one in ten. They’d still line up outside my shack for a battery swap, and then go off down the street, connected into the network, as they must be. As their employers must. As their friends must. As their sexual partners must.
Without these batteries pressing against their flesh, they would not be human beings. They would be monkeys with sticks. Neanderthals covered in hair. Peasants digging in the mud. Don’t believe me? Look it up. Check out the pictures. See? Explosive-free living is as about as fun as dysentery. I said, look it up. It’s all there.
You know what, kid? I’m busy. You don’t want it, live your life trailing a plug behind you. Standing against the wall. I’ve got customers here. I’ll have another thousand and five-hundred by 3PM.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 5/20/2010

Walmart Recalls General Electric® Coffee Makers Due to Fire Hazard – The coffee maker can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers. Walmart has received 83 reports of overheating, smoking, melting, burning and fire, including three reports of minor burn injuries to consumer’s hands, feet and torso. Reports of property damage include a significant kitchen fire and damage to countertops, cabinets and a wall.

Target Recalls Storage Trunks Due to Strangulation Hazard – The lid of the trunk can drop suddenly when released, posing a strangulation hazard to small children opening or reaching into the trunks. CPSC has received two reports of injuries that occurred when the storage trunks’ lids suddenly closed on children, including one report of an 18-month-old girl who reportedly suffered brain damage when the trunk’s lid came down on the back of her neck and pinned her throat against the rim of the trunk.

Micro-fiction 5/20/2010

He made the coffee. He always does. He’s so attuned to the vibrations coming through the grinder that he can feel the precise moment when the beans whirring through the blade are the optimal size, when the particulate matter is in the exact concentration of fragment, grains, and dust to best percolate through the filter. Something like that.
He poured the water into the reservoir, pushed the button, black on stainless steel. Then we sat at the kitchen table and didn’t look at each other. We looked at the wicker trunk, under the window, the rays of sunlight highlighting the dark gaps between the weave.
“I’m sorry,” I finally said. He didn’t say anything. The coffee pot clicked, and gurgled. He never says anything. This is my vibration.
“We never should have opened it. We knew, and we did it anyway.”
He folded his hands on the table and sighed, but imperceptibly, so I wouldn’t see.
“I’ll get rid of the trunk. It’s all we can do now. It’ll be gone by the time you come home.”
The coffee was finished. He stood up, and reached for the mugs.
“I never would have thought… inside there…” I started, but couldn’t finish.
He handed me a cup. “Be careful. It’s hot,” he told me.
We both sat quietly, watching the steam rise in the morning sun.

(I’m resisting the urge to provide commentary on these, to explain my motivations for the fiction based on the CPSC notices. The urge is made more intense by the fact that often there are real deaths, injuries, and damage associated with the recalls. I feel I need to phrase the fiction as a response to this distruction, to ensure my literary action is adequate. But of course, this violates the principle of micro-fiction, skirting the “rules”, as it were. Anyway, this “need to speak as action” dynamic was in my mind when I wrote this one, and perhaps that says it better than anything.)

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 5/17/10

Mall of America Recalls Plush Toy Due to Choking Hazard – Young children can remove and ingest the squirrel’s nose, which poses a choking hazard. No injuries reported.

Children’s Deaths Prompt Recall of Toy Dart Gun Sets Sold Exclusively at Family Dollar Stores – If a child places the soft, pliable plastic toy dart in his/her mouth, the toy can be inhaled into the throat and prevent the child from breathing. CPSC and Family Dollar have received reports of two asphyxiation deaths involving a 9-year-old boy in Chicago, Ill. and a 10-year-old boy in Milwaukee, Wis.

Micro-fiction 5/17/10

“It’s no crime,” she said, first time she kissed me.
First time we stuck up that man on the avenue for cash, it was.
Don’t matter where it starts, matters where it goes.
Where we were now, I don’t know, but I’m not letting her hold me back from where I’m going.
“No more of that Dollar Store shit,” I speak to her purple top, cinched tight in the middle how she wore it, always trying to change my mind. “I’m gonna knock off the Mall of America.”
“I know,” Susan looks at her bare feet. “And that’s why I called the cops. You won’t make it. They’ll kill you.”
I raise my Gordy Auto Fire 238, and pull back to cycle the first of eight bright red shells into the chamber.
She has a single tear running down the scar across her nose. “Sarah, I love you,” she whispers.
“Love is a crime, ” I say.

(The first actual injuries we’ve covered in this series, and two deaths to boot. Two deaths from a toy gun deserve some memorializing hard-boiled micro-fiction. Yes? No? What’s appropriate? More toy guns?)

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 4/13/10

Children’s Sweatshirts Recalled by Tommy Hilfiger U.S.A. Due to Violation of Federal Flammability Standard – The sweatshirts fail to meet federal flammability standards for wearing apparel, posing a risk of burn hazard to consumers. No injuries reported.

Junk Food Clothing Co. Recalls Children’s Hooded Sweatshirts with Drawstrings Due to Strangulation Hazard – The hooded sweatshirts have a drawstring at the neck which can pose a strangulation hazard to children. In February 1996, CPSC issued guidelines (pdf) (which were incorporated into an industry voluntary standard in 1997) to help prevent children from strangling or getting entangled on the neck and waist drawstrings in upper garments, such as jackets and sweatshirts. No injuries reported.

Microfiction 5/13/10

His shirt was brown, and my shirt was blue. He pulled up his hood and I pulled up mine and I looked and him and he looked at me. He was an inch taller than I was but I weighed fifteen more pounds. He was an evil little sun of a bitch, and I was the only good one left on the earth. He knew he would attack me and I knew he would too, but he knew I would wait for him to move first and I knew he was impatient. He was the last one left to kill, and I was the last one left to do it. He was the devil child, and I was the murderous kid.
He leaped at me with his hands out stretched, I pulled all my chakra into my fists. He got his hands round my neck and my hands went up into his belly. He twisted his fingers into my flesh like screws, and I pounded against him like iron pistons. His flesh sprung alight, and his skin began to blister. My air disappeared, and the world went dark. He choked me, and I burnt him. He was a raging torch of holy flame, his life turned to ash. I was a stretched out Tartarus, falling into blackness. He was consumed, and I consumed myself. Together we died.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 5/12/10

Rome Snowboards Recalls Bindings Due to Fall Hazard – The snowboard binding’s base plate can break at cold temperatures, posing a fall hazard to snowboarders. The firm has received 14 reports of base plates breaking. No injuries have been reported.

Remote-Controlled Helicopters Recalled by Imagine Nation Books Due to Fire and Burn Hazards – The rechargeable battery inside the helicopters can overheat, igniting the helicopter and posing fire and burn hazards to consumers. The firm has received 49 reports of the helicopters overheating, including six reports of flames coming from the helicopters, and one report of minor property damage. No injuries have been reported.

Microfiction 5/12/10

No one would die today. The small helicopter fell out of the sky, in flames. The controls dropped from my hands, and I did not see them land. I flew into the air, as my broken snowboard bindings caught upon the white blanket of snow. I heard a snap, and felt my feet begin to move separately from each other. The helicopter began to fly erratically, not responding to my commands. I sailed down the hill faster, eyes in the sky, watching the helicopter attain its target. The wind picked up as I took off from behind the tree where I waited. I launched the helicopter on its mission, sailing through the air silently, it’s deadly package hanging below it. I put down the binoculars, knowing it was time. I looked at the men on the trucks, unaware I was stalking them from up the hill. I pulled the binoculars and the controls to the bomb from my white parka, two black objects against a pure white hillside. I would have to follow the bomb down the hill to stay in range. I had been practicing my snowboarding technique for weeks, preparing for this attack. I took a deep breath, and steeled myself for what I was about to do.

(I forgot to mention that the criteria I’m using for the micro-fiction is less than 250 words. If this gets boring, I might decrease it to 99 words, which for me anyway, is much more of a challenge.)

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.

CPSC Notices 5/10/12

A) Claire’s Recalls Children’s Metal Charm Bracelets Due to High Levels of Cadmium

B) The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced today that the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act’s (P&SSAct) State Grant program is now accepting applications for funding from eligible states. The P&SSAct intends to enhance the safety of pools and spas by reducing child drownings and suction entrapment incidents and educating the public on the importance of safety devices and constant supervision of children in and around water. CPSC is the lead agency in implementing and enforcing the Act, which was signed into law in December 2007.

Micro-fiction 5/10/12

I found the letters, each a different shape, just lines really, all bent together. I drew them for father and he thought they were pretty. “You say they spell words?” I showed him how. He went down into his shop and he got out the metals–he melted and smelted and poured and pounded. Then he asked me again to draw the shapes. I did, and he slowly etched them into metal, one each on the clasps, twenty-two in all, and then fastened them into a band. He slipped it around my wrist. “Now you’ll always have them with you.”
I showed them Europa, and she thought they were neat. We went out by the pool to play while father took a nap. We tossed the bracelet back and forth, so light, so shiny. My letters flew back and forth between us as we sang. I threw them up high, and Europa missed. We could see them sink down below, in the clear water. “I’ll get them for you,” she said quickly, and dove in the water. I saw her go down. But she never came back up. Neither did the letters. I’ve forgotten Europa’s little face. I still remember the letters though.

For information about this series, please see the introductory post.