@dadoes@Michael Mais: I'll second what dadoes said. Can you call the retailer and explain that your brand-new range isn't working? I would think they have some avenue with Thermador to return it as a bad unit -- which might put some heat on Thermador to get a tech out to you. Other options if you can't get to the plug: 1)power cycle the range using the breaker, 2)Get the oven up a reasonably hot temp (450) and then turn it off and see if it unsticks the thermostatic fan switch. 3)Disconnect it from the wifi*/remote control if it has that feature. There may be a "reset" option in the range menu that will do this. 4)If not connected to wifi -- connect it and see if it downloads a firmware upgrade. *My range is the "connected" version. When I connected it to the wifi/phone last year there was an annoying loud clicking noise. that would go on incessantly -- whether we were using it or not. When I disconnected it from the wifi it would stop. This is with no cooking going on. I repeated this a few times with the same results. I suspected it's some software/firmware bug and decided to wait to call in the warranty service to give them time to get a fix. Also hoping in part hoping that the fan noise might have a new fix.

The potential "problem" here is the word "timeless" because it raises certain expectations that will not be met. Sure subway tile as a Restoration Product was available *somewhere* as a relatively expensive, custom ordered product. So were stone countertops always available. But in the scheme of things virtually Nobody was installing them--and in the case of subway tile, nowhere but a restoration-type or period-specific project. Timeless is different than classic, and timeless means that you really wouldn't be able to identify when something was from, when it was done--and that's near impossible to achieve. Look at the kitchen materials that *are* timeless in the sense that since the modern kitchen came on the scene, they have been readily available. White appliances. Some kind of vaguely abstract-patterned, plain colored phenolic material for countertop surfaces (laminate). Shiny chrome fixtures (which replaced shiny nickel fixtures). Partial overlay cabinet doors. (And in general, shiny brass doorknobs). These are the materials that a lot of GWers are turning their noses up at, right now, and yet they are clearly "timeless" because they have been available in every decade of the modern kitchen's existence as soon as the material itself was introduced.

I also loved A Town Like Alice. It’s the only novel by Shute that I have read and have been meaning to try some others so with your recommendation, Bunny, I will look for Trustee in the Toolroom. I have been taking my time reading Betty by Tiffany McDaniel. It’s a coming of age story of a girl growing up in the Appalachian foothills in Ohio but it’s full of dark, depressing events so I have been reading in small bits. I went on a college visit this weekend with my son who is graduating. It was a long road trip which ironically took me right through the area in which Betty is set. It was very stressful drive, especially when crossing the mountains, as it was pouring rain the whole time. I downloaded Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlin to listen as I drove. It was perfect for the drive with an interesting story, albeit somewhat predictable. It held my interest and kept my mind totally preoccupied, making the weather/driving much less stressful. While I did enjoy it, it would make a good beach read but it’s not a book that I would go out of my way to recommend to friends. I’d give it 3.5 to 4 stars for its genre, which I suppose is a mystery of sorts. Edited to add, I just checked on Libby for Trustee in the Toolroom. My library has the audio version but not the kindle copy. I actually have a 4 hour road trip again tomorrow (going to get my first vaccine dose 2 hrs from home!). I’ll give the audio version a try but may look for a readable copy also (some books I prefer in print or kindle).

"I’ve had a lot of experience with my DH going into the hospital through the ER, both by ambulance and walking in. I’ve never seen the ER stacked up the way it was tonight. People were out in the hallway waiting to get in. Inside there were people on beds in the hallways. I feel so bad for the health care providers. I can’t imagine working like this for well over a year." Like NHBaskets I was in an ER this week and had the exact same experience/reaction. My father broke his hip Tuesday, evidently trying to get up and probably relieve himself at the ALF where he is in memory care. He was taken to the closest emergency room at an excellent hospital nearby. I've been there many times with my MIL who also has dementia and also is in memory care-at the same ALF(!) and who used to fall regularly. Because of his mental state I was allowed to go in. The entrances were closed, instead the only way in was through a giant tent set up with airlocks and which had a huge temporary waiting room inside, filled with what must have been a couple of hundred people sitting waiting for treatment-all with masks, some lying down, mostly young to middle aged. My dad stayed on a gurney in the hallway; there were no cubicles open. I sat with him in the hall for almost 8 hours, which happened to be near the ambulance bay. No exaggeration, literally every 2-3 minutes along came a pair of EMTs wheeling patients into the ER. People unconscious, people gasping for breath, people with those bag valve breathing masks, mostly young with a few middle agers and only a couple of elderly folks. It was like being in the modern version of those woodcuts of plague wards. My dad was there 24 hours before we could get him moved to an inpatient hospice care facility. The doctor told me 70 people were waiting for a bed so my father never got out of that hallway, with morphine IV going and COVID victims streaming by.