On February 13, 2004, Sledd Studios said “goodbye” to longtime foodwarmer and friend, Mike, the Sledd Studios microwave oven. “Although it was a big surprise at the time,” says Mike’s best friend and employer, John Sledd, “he really was getting up there in age. We should have seen it coming.”

Mike was a microwave of the old school. Sporting a dial instead of a keypad, he responded with a single, lively, bell-spawned “DING” at the end of his cooking cycle, instead of the more obnoxious and repetitive “beep beep beep”s of his more contemporary colleagues.

“Mike simply stopped working one day while defrosting a group of Cod fillets” says Sledd. “One minute he was there, humming along as usual and then there was just silence. It was so eerie how there was still time left on his dial but nothing was happening.”

It was so eerie how there was still time left on his dial but nothing was happening.

Goodbye, Mike. We love you, man.