Walter, a friendly clerk at the Sear’s Scratch and Dent Appliance Store down in the East Bottoms, announced that it is the beginning of Oven Season. 

“From here on out,” he says, “people start dreaming of what they can bake, roast, broil, saute, boil and lightly sear. They’ll squint at their old stoves and mentally switch them out for sleeker, bigger, more robust models. I’ll see ‘em coming in,  all the way through December.”

He nods toward a bunch refrigerators.

“Those sales slump after summer. Nobody’s thinkin’ about guh spah choh,” he drawls,
“ it’s all about beef stew.”

Sometimes you just have to listen to learn.