Why It Took So Long for Microwave Over to Catch On

Earlier this year — right around the time that Kellyanne Conway, President Trump's senior adviser, was telling us that microwave ovens could be spying on us — some friends and I rented a weekend house with no microwave oven. We didn't mind reheating leftovers on the stove, but we did talk about how unusual it was not to have one — though in hindsight I guess we were happy that no one was watching our every move. Still, I had microwaves on my mind when I realized that 2017 is the appliance's 50th anniversary.