Faster Food

Hasty pudding, indeed. While cooking technologies change, our cultural obsession with speedy meal preparation—the Slow Food movement notwithstanding—remains constant. In 1951, the electric Corox burner helped homeowners beat the clock with its 30-second warm-up; today, a microwave would vaporize a pint of Ben & Jerry's in that same time.

One more thing: In those far-ago Happy Days, I hope there was an equivalent of speed-dialing 911, as Famous Television Star Betty Furness is risking some nasty third-degree burns to her stop-watch hand.