Mostly Harmless

In a heroic effort to save my own life this morning I dumped almost an entire bag of expired Dole Classic Iceberg Salad into the sink’s garbage disposal. (This is in lieu of just letting it rot in the garbage and stink up the joint, or, apparently, just eating it before it expired.)

In my haste a bit too much salad (nee, lettuce) was rammed through the disposal and didn’t get finely chopped (I’m guessing)and formed a fairly impressive clog in the drain pipe. Running the disposal after this only managed to force water from the left basin to the right basin. (Aha!)

After upwards of a minute of amusing myself pumping the water from one basin to the other and then watching it flow back and level out (see: Archimedes) I decided to harness the mighty hydraulic power at my disposal (ROTFLMAO!) to clear the drain.

For this trick you will need: (a) one sink drain plug or small plastic bowl, (2) a sink at least 1/2 full of water, and (c)one garbage disposal, properly installed.

• Step One: Insert the drain plug and hold itfirmly in the drain (opposite of the disposal, of course).Alternately use a small bowl, upside down over the drain.
• Step Two: Flip the switch and hold on!

As you will see, a large volume of water will move very quickly from Point A to Point B*. Point A is the basin that has the disposal, Point B is either the other sink basin, or the drainpipe, depending on how well you’ve sealed the opposite drain and the stubbornness of the clog. It may be necessary to shut off the disposal and let the waters recede (see: Noah) and give it another go.

So there you have it. (Well _I_ thought it was amusing.)

* This is called "bandwidth" and depends on the size of your "pipe."