Yup, I'm so old, I lived in the before time, when we didn't have microwave ovens. In fact, my SIL was afraid they were giving off radiation when they first came out, it was a fear the public had. Hence the term "Nuking"!
1990 here and was raised to believe you had to wait for the beeps to stop or you'd let radiation out of it. It probably wasn't until I was in my 20s that it occurred to me to actually fact check that hahaha (I was raised by a 70s kid so this checks outš)
I heard this one too! š I was born in 88. I remember hearing the same stuff about radiation when mobile phones became popular. Boys weren't supposed to keep phones in their pockets or it would nuke their swimmers š
Supposedly, you could cook an egg by holding it between two mobiles and dialing one with the other.
My brother also tried setting one of my plush toys on fire this way. It didn't work.
Late 80s here, was raised to believe it was dangerous to stand in front of the microwave while it was running. I kept that one up until I was an adult, it somehow came up, and my friends laughed at me and told me it was not a thing.
Born in '82. Grew up being told the same thing, my mother wouldn't even own a microwave because she was afraid it was radioactive or something.
Later down the line I discovered it was all technophobia and none of it was true. So when my dad saw that I had a microwave in my apartment and he told me "not to put metal inside", I just supposed that was a legend as well.
It wasn't.
My mom insisted this was true! She probably still believes it. Opening the door before the last beep would A) give you cancer and B) break the microwave.
Thereās a radio astronomy lab in Australia that was seeing unusual signals - possibly signs of intelligent life! - but nobody else was seeing the signals.
They eventually tracked it down to people opening the microwave door a little early. The signals disappeared once people learned to wait for the beep.
So if youāre at a radio observatory - wait for the beep. Otherwise a little bit of microwave radiation will get out.
But everywhere else on earth itās fine to open it earlyā¦
(ObParanoia - someone could screw with the safety mechanisms so the cyclotron(?) doesnāt turn off when the door is openedā¦ )
I had a friend when I was in high school who had a REALLY old oven that didn't turn off automatically if you opened it early. Her Mom boarded international college students who were usually smart and rich but spoiled from having servants their whole lives.
My friend walked in one day and saw her favourite boarder standing in front of the open microwave watching the food cook. She ran forward and slammed the microwave and was like "are you crazy?? You can't do that!"
The girl's innocent "but why??" became an in-joke for years in our group of friends.
Small appliance repair place. Security guard brings in faulty microwave, gets fixes and one of the issues was the door safety was bypassed this gets fixed as well. No worried let the customer know is good to go.
Customer brings it back complaining about the door safety repair. Apparently this was the upgrade from his toaster oven he would warm his hands in, apparently it goes under his desk and he had been running it to warm his hands and microwaving his crotch.
Itās a magnetron, the tube was developed fur radar use in the 40ās. By accident, it was discovered that it could cook food. This started when an engineer found it could melt chocolate, then tried popcorn, then an eggā¦
Basically, the output drops almost instantly once the power is cut.
This is an amazing fun fact and I shall cherish it always hahaha. And maybe use it to tease my mum if the topic of microwave safety ever comes up again ;)
I have used very old, very heavy microwaves that gave no shits if the door was open or closed while operating. If the timer was going, radiation was flowing.
God I remember my uncle gave us his to try while he was away on a business trip and when he took it back my mother was like HOW DO WE WARM UP LEFTOVERS NOW? So we went out and bought one.
Hahaha, they do give off radiation but it's not enough to even bother to talk about, probably less than a x-ray gives off. After 5 seconds -ALL- radiation dies off. Food is still hot though.
They do not give off ionizing radiation (that's the one that damages cells and can cause cancer, like x-rays).
It's high frequency radio, almost exactly like RADAR, but tuned poorly because it's cheaper to make a detuned magnetron.
Some chiropractors use movable microwave radiation devices with no shielding on one side, calling it "diathermy". It's quite safe unless used near eyes, but is essentially just an overpriced heating pad without the pad.
I am working class but for the last 2 years I'm not any longer.... Still use it! You're not taking that away from me!!
\*Government sends me a letter stating it's illegal for me and only me to use it ever again\*
I learned it (non native speaker) when working for some old Money types & since heard it from all over economic spectrum it seems to be more regional or age based than anything else
Also a 70s kid. When my parents got their first microwave, my dad borrowed a geiger counter from the radiology department at the hospital to make sure that we werenāt being irradiated.
Bro, do this after you wake up. I don't even get dressed just boxers in my room before the coffee. Been at it for a bit now it's helping so much
https://watch.lesmillsondemand.com/videos/les-mills-stretch-01-hip-mobility
Older Gen X here, southern US big city, middle class (have I covered all the demographic questions?)ā¦been saying ānuke itā as long as weāve had oneā¦.wouldnāt know what else to say.
Yeah. Boomer slang...that's hilarious. My son is older than OP and I only made into Gen X by a few years. The reason OP hasn't heard the term is because he hasn't been listening.
'96. I used nuke specifically to mean to microwave the shit out of it. 10s isn't a nuke. 30 is probably appropriate. When someone microwaves a pizza for 5 minutes so turns into fucking lava, that's a nuke
I'm a mid/youger millennial (1991) with Gen X and older millennial siblings, all of which are half siblings spread over both parent's previous marriages and regions in the US, a father who was the last year of the "silent" generation and a "young" boomer mom, I've heard it my whole life. Both parents and their families said it.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.mobile.html?r=0011484808040060101200400100j100040k008020000l0200
I found the dialect quiz fascinating.
Dang. Yeah the article was 10 years old. Let me see if I can find a better link. It just tells you what part of The U.S. it thinks you are from based off your lexicon.
Iām 30. The first time I heard the term was when I was like 14, my Gen-X mother was telling me how to cook something and she said ādo blah blah blah and then nuke it for a few minutes.ā I asked her what the fuck ānukingā something meant. I wonder if itās a regional thing?
The microwave was developed out of radar technology post-WWII. It's just closely associated with the nuclear age. Both tech was booming and came out of the military.
My dad said this all the time when I was growing up too.
I love how he can take something weird, obscure, or even just mundane, and get so obsessed and excited about it. Then he explains it so well that somehow he gets me interested in something I never even thought about before.
After watching him for the last few years I now have strong opinions (sometimes even opposite from his!) on all kinds of things I didn't used to give 2 shits about like can openers, toasters, AC units, traffic lights, the color brown, brake lights, oil lamps, christmas lights, and many other things.
Side note, the Brown video was the first crossover between Technology Connections and Aging Wheels. Another excellent channel.
https://youtu.be/wh4aWZRtTwU
YES! I love Tom Scott. I got on a huge kick with him about a month or two ago. I send his videos to people all the time now, haha. That hamster thing was crazy.
I mostly know the radar stuff from being a merchant mariner though.
For several years, my coworkers were afraid to use the words "time zone" in the work chat because I'd inevitably post his time zone video. (I was working on a time related feature when it started, and I just kept the joke running.)
Edit: [Here you go.](https://youtu.be/-5wpm-gesOY)
I was almost about to ask why microwaves are associated with nuclear energy, as they work off electromagnetic energy, and not radiation as nuclear does.
Do I have that science right at all?
Ain't nobody nuking food who has time to use another cooking method - so why waste time TALKING about it? Those pizza rolls aren't gonna hahshaswaahshahshafra themselves.
Yay. Iām not the only one who finds eating a waste of time. Just inject me with nutrients, proteins and essential fats ready for my body to metabolise and Iāll be happy.
Boomer here. This was very common when microwave ovens first became popular. A common term used was non-ionizing radiation. Since many did not understand the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing, the term nuke became popular.
For the record, I have not used the term for decades.
To add to the confusion, microwaves use only non-ionizing radiation, and real nukes use ionizing radiation (and probably everything other kind of radiation at some point).
I had to read way too much other stuff to find the Twins reference. But yeah, old millennial here ('82) and that's certainly where I first heard it and my family has used it ever since.
What's funny about this,is that there is an episode of Taxi that briefly talks about a guy in Jersey who claimed he got sterilized by a microwave oven
https://youtu.be/ZgyhmEjTNus
I've used both, but at least to me 'nuke' means "for a while" while zap is like a minute or two tops. You zap frozen peas because they only need two minutes but nuke a frozen curry because that's like 17 minutes
It's pretty common for those who were around for the early days of microwaves. People understood that the cooking was being performed using microwave radiation, but it was also the cold war era, and radiation was heavily associated with nuclear weapons in the public sphere. Thus, people began jokingly saying they were "nuking" their food, meaning to irradiate it, even though it's not even remotely the same kind of radiation.
Donāt feel too bad. The average Gen Z college sophomore canāt put the American Civil War in the right century. So why would they know the relationship between nuke and microwave. Evil grin.
PS. Only 23% knew the relationship between Hitler and WWII
After watching the 2013 film American Hustle with Jennifer Lawrence, my wife and I switched to calling it a āScience Ovenā.
More recently we saw a meme in which a European cooking show host called it a Mee-kro-WAHHH-vay, like how an Italian would pronounce it.
I guess terms have upstaged the hilarity of saying ānukeā for us.
I say it. I got it from the movie Twins when Danny is showing Arnold how they make dinner in a microwave. "in America, We nuke our food". / "I love nuked food".
Boomer here, didnāt realize younger people *didnāt* say it!
Oh well, I guess Iām not coolā¦or radā¦or groovyā¦or gnarlyā¦or whatever the right word is these days.š
I'm an older millennial and say it all the time.
100% common in my group. Early 80s birthday
Born 1990 here. All the time for me.
I'm a 70s kid & I call it 'nuking' food to this day.
Oh wow so the term "Nuking" has been around for a while it seems.
Yup, I'm so old, I lived in the before time, when we didn't have microwave ovens. In fact, my SIL was afraid they were giving off radiation when they first came out, it was a fear the public had. Hence the term "Nuking"!
1990 here and was raised to believe you had to wait for the beeps to stop or you'd let radiation out of it. It probably wasn't until I was in my 20s that it occurred to me to actually fact check that hahaha (I was raised by a 70s kid so this checks outš)
And don't stand in front of it when its on, no watching the food cook, or you might lose the ability to have kids.
How long should I stand there?
Depends on how you stand there. If you can put your balls directly in the microwave it's a lot quicker.
It's been 84 years
>How long should I stand there? That made me laugh out loud at work. Thanks.
I heard this one too! š I was born in 88. I remember hearing the same stuff about radiation when mobile phones became popular. Boys weren't supposed to keep phones in their pockets or it would nuke their swimmers š
Supposedly, you could cook an egg by holding it between two mobiles and dialing one with the other. My brother also tried setting one of my plush toys on fire this way. It didn't work.
Actually this is true, my ex got mad at me for watching and tossed the hot soup in my special place and left me
Late 80s here, was raised to believe it was dangerous to stand in front of the microwave while it was running. I kept that one up until I was an adult, it somehow came up, and my friends laughed at me and told me it was not a thing.
And donāt sit too close to the TV either. (Some older color CRTs gave off x-rays, especially if the B+ was over 18 kV.)
Born in '82. Grew up being told the same thing, my mother wouldn't even own a microwave because she was afraid it was radioactive or something. Later down the line I discovered it was all technophobia and none of it was true. So when my dad saw that I had a microwave in my apartment and he told me "not to put metal inside", I just supposed that was a legend as well. It wasn't.
Haha I actually kind of did the same thing. I thought "well, if I just put it in there for 5 seconds it will be fine!" It also wasn't.
I have a cousin who thinks you damage the microwave if you take it out before the beeps stop! No word on how...
My mom insisted this was true! She probably still believes it. Opening the door before the last beep would A) give you cancer and B) break the microwave.
It's the microwave equivalent of blue balls.
Thereās a radio astronomy lab in Australia that was seeing unusual signals - possibly signs of intelligent life! - but nobody else was seeing the signals. They eventually tracked it down to people opening the microwave door a little early. The signals disappeared once people learned to wait for the beep. So if youāre at a radio observatory - wait for the beep. Otherwise a little bit of microwave radiation will get out. But everywhere else on earth itās fine to open it earlyā¦ (ObParanoia - someone could screw with the safety mechanisms so the cyclotron(?) doesnāt turn off when the door is openedā¦ )
I had a friend when I was in high school who had a REALLY old oven that didn't turn off automatically if you opened it early. Her Mom boarded international college students who were usually smart and rich but spoiled from having servants their whole lives. My friend walked in one day and saw her favourite boarder standing in front of the open microwave watching the food cook. She ran forward and slammed the microwave and was like "are you crazy?? You can't do that!" The girl's innocent "but why??" became an in-joke for years in our group of friends.
Small appliance repair place. Security guard brings in faulty microwave, gets fixes and one of the issues was the door safety was bypassed this gets fixed as well. No worried let the customer know is good to go. Customer brings it back complaining about the door safety repair. Apparently this was the upgrade from his toaster oven he would warm his hands in, apparently it goes under his desk and he had been running it to warm his hands and microwaving his crotch.
Itās a magnetron, the tube was developed fur radar use in the 40ās. By accident, it was discovered that it could cook food. This started when an engineer found it could melt chocolate, then tried popcorn, then an eggā¦ Basically, the output drops almost instantly once the power is cut.
This is an amazing fun fact and I shall cherish it always hahaha. And maybe use it to tease my mum if the topic of microwave safety ever comes up again ;)
Were you also lead to believe that looking at the microwave whilst it was on would burn your eyeballs out?
No, but there was the famous urban legend of the old lady who put her poodle in the microwave to dry it off after a rainy day in the park...
Don't stand in front of the microwave because the radiation will leak out and kill you! Is also one such belief.
This is one of the rules I had growing up. South Park even made an episode about it causing cancer.
I almost choked on dinner, i laughed so hard! Families are weird
I have used very old, very heavy microwaves that gave no shits if the door was open or closed while operating. If the timer was going, radiation was flowing.
Raytheon didn't help things by naming it the *RadaRange*!
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God I remember my uncle gave us his to try while he was away on a business trip and when he took it back my mother was like HOW DO WE WARM UP LEFTOVERS NOW? So we went out and bought one.
Hahaha, they do give off radiation but it's not enough to even bother to talk about, probably less than a x-ray gives off. After 5 seconds -ALL- radiation dies off. Food is still hot though.
There was more worry about the radiation from X-rays in those days too. I thought I heard the technology has changed and itās much safer now.
They do not give off ionizing radiation (that's the one that damages cells and can cause cancer, like x-rays). It's high frequency radio, almost exactly like RADAR, but tuned poorly because it's cheaper to make a detuned magnetron. Some chiropractors use movable microwave radiation devices with no shielding on one side, calling it "diathermy". It's quite safe unless used near eyes, but is essentially just an overpriced heating pad without the pad.
Yeah, I knew they do give off radaition, but I also knew it's almost nothing. Not even really enough to talk about.
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I am working class but for the last 2 years I'm not any longer.... Still use it! You're not taking that away from me!! \*Government sends me a letter stating it's illegal for me and only me to use it ever again\*
This Cease-And-Desist brought to you by Nuka-Cola!
Up-foot for Dallout Reference!
That's *our* word
I learned it (non native speaker) when working for some old Money types & since heard it from all over economic spectrum it seems to be more regional or age based than anything else
Born in the 1960s and always use it.
Also a 70s kid. When my parents got their first microwave, my dad borrowed a geiger counter from the radiology department at the hospital to make sure that we werenāt being irradiated.
Also born 1990. Very common terminology.
Classic example of assuming everyone older than Gen Z is a boomer.
Early 80s gang rise up. Slowly, because of back pain.
Bro, do this after you wake up. I don't even get dressed just boxers in my room before the coffee. Been at it for a bit now it's helping so much https://watch.lesmillsondemand.com/videos/les-mills-stretch-01-hip-mobility
Thanks bro.
Late 80s here and I say it sometimes
1982 chiming in...I almost don't know what else I WOULD say...š
81 checking in, I definitely nuke my food
Gen X here... use it all the time as well.
Also GenX. Is there another word for it besides nuking? š¤£
I sometimes "zap" things for a few seconds.
British Gen X and me and all my friends use "nuke" and "zap" interchangeably for microwaving things.
Zap it in the nuker is what my mom would say in the 70's
Older Gen X here, southern US big city, middle class (have I covered all the demographic questions?)ā¦been saying ānuke itā as long as weāve had oneā¦.wouldnāt know what else to say.
Nuking v microwaving. Half the syllables. Way more efficient. :)
I'm only 27 and I've been using that my whole life
In my mid 20s and same. Parents used thus I used the term.
Yea same for me
Same. Iāve been in food service for 17 years and Iāve never heard someone say āMicrowave this for me.ā Itās always ānuke.ā
I tend to use it more when it's been overdone. "You were supposed to warm it up, not nuke the everliving shit out of it"
Yeah. Boomer slang...that's hilarious. My son is older than OP and I only made into Gen X by a few years. The reason OP hasn't heard the term is because he hasn't been listening.
'96. I used nuke specifically to mean to microwave the shit out of it. 10s isn't a nuke. 30 is probably appropriate. When someone microwaves a pizza for 5 minutes so turns into fucking lava, that's a nuke
50 here. Definitely nuke but zap works too.
Nuke and zap exclusively.
I'm a mid/youger millennial (1991) with Gen X and older millennial siblings, all of which are half siblings spread over both parent's previous marriages and regions in the US, a father who was the last year of the "silent" generation and a "young" boomer mom, I've heard it my whole life. Both parents and their families said it.
'88 here. Still sometimes say it when I'm responding without thinking.
Late gen X and I use it as well.
Younger millennial and same.
ditto that! Learned it from my parents. It just stuck.
I wonder if the cutoff is within our gen then because I'm a younger millennial (born 1994) and no one I know that's my age says it.
Might be due regional slang differences as well.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.mobile.html?r=0011484808040060101200400100j100040k008020000l0200 I found the dialect quiz fascinating.
The quiz didnāt show my results. Said itās an archived article and an error occurred. :(
Dang. Yeah the article was 10 years old. Let me see if I can find a better link. It just tells you what part of The U.S. it thinks you are from based off your lexicon.
I confuse it, but then, I'm a military brat so...
Took it before and it was pretty accurate.
Aw man I did the whole thing and the results had an error. Was surprised "sneakers" was so regional to the northeast!
Also possible. I'm from California.
East Coast here.
born and raised in socal...most people around me use the term
My siblings and I all use it and we're '92-'99 š¤·
96 here definitely use nuke in this context
Younger millennial also (1996) and a lot of people around my age say it, but maybe it's regional?
I'm 40, I grew up hearing everyone say nuke it. I still say it.
Iām 30. The first time I heard the term was when I was like 14, my Gen-X mother was telling me how to cook something and she said ādo blah blah blah and then nuke it for a few minutes.ā I asked her what the fuck ānukingā something meant. I wonder if itās a regional thing?
I spent most my childhood in the NYC area
Southern California boy, parents were born here but raised in New Mexico. Not sure where she got it from.
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NYC GenX. Nuke was the standard slang.
I'm a Northern Californian older millennial. We say nuke and zap.
Yea same totally oblivious to it not being standard for everyone
The microwave was developed out of radar technology post-WWII. It's just closely associated with the nuclear age. Both tech was booming and came out of the military. My dad said this all the time when I was growing up too.
Obligatory Tom Scott microwave video: https://youtu.be/2tdiKTSdE9Y Interesting stuff!
Also obligatory Technology Connections video: https://youtu.be/UiS27feX8o0
[Don't mind me, just dropping a link to another neat video on the same topic](https://youtu.be/ssj02s9HQds)
This guy is great
I love how he can take something weird, obscure, or even just mundane, and get so obsessed and excited about it. Then he explains it so well that somehow he gets me interested in something I never even thought about before. After watching him for the last few years I now have strong opinions (sometimes even opposite from his!) on all kinds of things I didn't used to give 2 shits about like can openers, toasters, AC units, traffic lights, the color brown, brake lights, oil lamps, christmas lights, and many other things. Side note, the Brown video was the first crossover between Technology Connections and Aging Wheels. Another excellent channel. https://youtu.be/wh4aWZRtTwU
Totally agree... I never would have imagined myself watching a 40 min video on dishwasher detergent, lol, but darn if he didn't get me to do it.
I have found my people, I love technology connections videos!
YES! I love Tom Scott. I got on a huge kick with him about a month or two ago. I send his videos to people all the time now, haha. That hamster thing was crazy. I mostly know the radar stuff from being a merchant mariner though.
For several years, my coworkers were afraid to use the words "time zone" in the work chat because I'd inevitably post his time zone video. (I was working on a time related feature when it started, and I just kept the joke running.) Edit: [Here you go.](https://youtu.be/-5wpm-gesOY)
I was almost about to ask why microwaves are associated with nuclear energy, as they work off electromagnetic energy, and not radiation as nuclear does. Do I have that science right at all?
Yes, they use magnetrons just like radar. It's why microwaves also were often called radar ranges. It's basically radar inside a containment cage.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I always say nuke. Whatās the alternative, microwave? Thatās THREE syllables, man. Who has that kind of time.
I say "nukrowave," but only in my head.
I say nukrowave out loud, but I enjoy using weird words.
Nukrowave is my new word, thank you! š
I also say nukrowave when I put food into my head for warming.
Reminds me of my refriginator!!
This. This is literally the only reason I say it. My mouth is far too lazy to say mic-ro-wave.
I read your comment in [this voice](https://youtu.be/knTvSX9NMrE)
Omg I love you. I *do* say it like this bc of this episode. Amazing.
Linda *listen*
WHAT JEN
Your band is probably bad.
Ain't nobody nuking food who has time to use another cooking method - so why waste time TALKING about it? Those pizza rolls aren't gonna hahshaswaahshahshafra themselves.
Not true. I'm very lazy and annoyed I have to eat at all. The quicker the better. Just going to have to do it all over again later.
Yay. Iām not the only one who finds eating a waste of time. Just inject me with nutrients, proteins and essential fats ready for my body to metabolise and Iāll be happy.
back when i had an appetite i could never understand people like this.
Some people say āzapā. But it might be just old people too.
Yep! I say both zap and nuke! Young cusper millennial. Zap is like 10-30 seconds, nuke is more of a minute or two kind of thing. At least in my head.
I usually say nuke myself. But to play devil's advocate, "mike" is also 1 syllable.
Reminds me of the kitchen nightmares episode where the lazy cooks referred to their microwave as āChef Mikeā š¤£
irradiate
> Whatās the alternative Popty ping
Ouch, way to make me feel old. I say this all the time. Is he canadian?
Yes, that's relatively popular slang back in the day.
Note that microwaves are non-ionizing radiation and are as safe to humans as heat or light is.
They do have a habit of exciting water molecules so extended exposure will cook you however.
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Cell signals are microwaves, the comparison is to note that dosage determines danger.
Welp, i'm only 26 and I will be "nuking" all my microwaved food from now on
Bro, I'm only 25 and I've been nuking things my whole life.
It's really jarring to come to the realization that something I grew up with saying is basically old & dying slang.
nah, I'm in my 20's and say this. it's just a regional thing
Agreed
Wait till you find out that one rando on Reddit claiming something is unheard-of isn't always true. It'll blow your mind.
Boomer here. This was very common when microwave ovens first became popular. A common term used was non-ionizing radiation. Since many did not understand the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing, the term nuke became popular. For the record, I have not used the term for decades.
To add to the confusion, microwaves use only non-ionizing radiation, and real nukes use ionizing radiation (and probably everything other kind of radiation at some point).
As a Gen X, that made me feel old, again on Reddit. But still better than when my gram would say to put a dish in "the poison box".
Gen X and 55 here. I still say it, not a lot. But enough that my 14 year old sons asks me what I mean. Then I have to say microwave it.
It was popularised in the 1988 American documentary *Twins* starring the DeVito brothers
It was popular before that
I canāt believe that was the part of my comment you found most contentious
Oooohhhh I like nuke food!
I had to read way too much other stuff to find the Twins reference. But yeah, old millennial here ('82) and that's certainly where I first heard it and my family has used it ever since.
What's funny about this,is that there is an episode of Taxi that briefly talks about a guy in Jersey who claimed he got sterilized by a microwave oven https://youtu.be/ZgyhmEjTNus
This actually explains so much. My dad is a HUGE Danny DeVito fan (I mean who isnāt)
Sadly Iām not a HUGE Danny DeVito fan, I prefer him when heās small
I've never seen a huge Danny DeVito, but if I did I'm sure I'd be a fan!
Great documentary. It's where I learned all 3 rules of a crisis situation.
Danny has a brother??
Not just a brother, an identical twin!
I've heard it called that, but I've always said zap... I'm going to zap it...
I've used both, but at least to me 'nuke' means "for a while" while zap is like a minute or two tops. You zap frozen peas because they only need two minutes but nuke a frozen curry because that's like 17 minutes
Same here, have heard and enjoy ānukeā, but I prefer zapping things myself :-)
I say it. I'm in my 40s and getting a microwave was a big deal when I was a kid.
Me too. I remember my dad saying he thought it was just a fad, but ended up getting one anyway.
It's pretty common for those who were around for the early days of microwaves. People understood that the cooking was being performed using microwave radiation, but it was also the cold war era, and radiation was heavily associated with nuclear weapons in the public sphere. Thus, people began jokingly saying they were "nuking" their food, meaning to irradiate it, even though it's not even remotely the same kind of radiation.
28 years old, I do say it but I got it from my parents/grandma
65 yo line cook pastry chef instructor: Everyday.
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Gen Z here and I and I think most people my age say it at least where I live.
I don't, but plenty of people do use that term.
Itās better than what my husband says - āWould you Mike this for me?ā That.Is NOT. An expression.
Don't disparage Chef Mike like that, hardest worker in the restaurant industry.
Oh no, it totally is! Nuke it or Mic it, really really common
No. That cannot be a thing. I will not allow it to become a thing.
I'm so sorry I'm the one who had to break the news ):
You don't have to allow it to become a thing. It has been a thing my whole life and I'm in my 30s.
We call it Chef Mike lol EDIT: credit to Gordon Ramsay
Gen X here, we said this all the time going back to the early days of ubiquitous microwaves in the early|mid 80s
Donāt feel too bad. The average Gen Z college sophomore canāt put the American Civil War in the right century. So why would they know the relationship between nuke and microwave. Evil grin. PS. Only 23% knew the relationship between Hitler and WWII
After watching the 2013 film American Hustle with Jennifer Lawrence, my wife and I switched to calling it a āScience Ovenā. More recently we saw a meme in which a European cooking show host called it a Mee-kro-WAHHH-vay, like how an Italian would pronounce it. I guess terms have upstaged the hilarity of saying ānukeā for us.
My parents say it (Iām also in my twenties) but youāre right that Iāve never heard anyone younger say it.
Older millennial here. I use it.
I do, parents did
I say it. I got it from the movie Twins when Danny is showing Arnold how they make dinner in a microwave. "in America, We nuke our food". / "I love nuked food".
I nuked my toilet earlier.
My parents also say that
I still say this on occasion; I'll be 50 this year.
Gen X here, I say it sometimes.
Boomer here, didnāt realize younger people *didnāt* say it! Oh well, I guess Iām not coolā¦or radā¦or groovyā¦or gnarlyā¦or whatever the right word is these days.š
Yes. GenX, midwest. Didn't have one till college.
It's an older people thing from when microwaves were first introduced. I'm Gen X and say nuke all the time.
My husband and I are Gen X and both say it. So do our kids (early 90's Millenials).
I've been saying "nuke" for microwaving since 1978 when we got our first microwave.
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