Elementary Science

I don't eat as much as I used to, which is probably a good thing. Back when I competed with the local livestock for feed, I got into the habit of eating out of large bowls. The bigger the better; thick, sturdy, soup-spoon proof. My choice for wedding china was a set of oven-safe mixing bowls.

During an extended stay out of town some years back, I needed a bowl but couldn't find one at the local grocery store. I ended up for an over-sized cereal bowl kind of thing made out of something called "Corelle." This thing has been a mystery ever since.

It feels kind of like metal, tin, maybe, with a coat of enamel. It could be some kind of plastic, I suppose, but it seems much less brittle and rings with a hum when you flick it hard with your fingernail. It could even be some sort of better-living-through-chemistry processed glass but again, it seems too un-glass-like somehow.

Internet searches have proven fruitless. Apparently it's a common enough substance though it has yet to crack the periodic table. I've been using it for close to a decade now and it still looks as white and unblemished as they day I brought it home to the Holiday Inn in Cairo, Georgia.

It's going to suck when I take a hammer to it and see if I can shatter the bastard, though. I just don't know if that would help unravel its inner secrets but what the hell. Maybe it can't even be broken. Maybe the hammer will shatter, or worse, bounce off and back into my unguarded forehead with a force equal to the attempted killing blow. Just to be safe I'll probably not do this as part of a homeschool science experiment.