Todd Jennings at Roanoke. Of course, that was last year. To me, the toaster represents the essence of the American consumer mentality.
Toasters are shiny, luxury objects.
The absence of a toaster lends a Third World patina to any home no matter how grand or how dismal. It's our totem. Toasters also represent the proactive nation we strive to be. We can't tolerate leaving bread in its unadulterated form so we must heat it, harden it, irrevocably alter its texture. No time to toast it suspended on a hickory branch over a campfire.