Re: Had the fire brigade called to a five star hotel, in Malta....
"We had a supply company install a vending machine for frozen microwave meals [...]"
Back in the 1960s the night shift mainframe operators had free meals in the factory's staff canteen. In the fridge were plates and dishes - each with a preset arrangement from the day's menu left-overs.
The microwave ovens had a timing system operated by tokens that were plastic strips of various lengths with a row of teeth along the sides. You pushed one into the oven's timer slot and it slowly consumed it by some rack and pinion mechanism. Thus the length determined the cooking time.
The different lengths were colour coded and it took practice to select the one for the apparently random selection/quantity of food on your plate or dish. The result was usually just about edible.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
