>This morning as I buttered an English muffin for my breakfast, I heard a most
>dreadful scream!  I startled, and the knife fell from my hand.  I looked down
>and saw that my muffin had scurried away to the far end of the kitchen counter.
>Later I was about to pop some bread into the toaster for a sandwich, and again,
>the same intense scream of pain erupted!  The slice jumped from my hand and
flew
>clear across the room!
>
>I suspect yeast.  ;)

Anne, yeast is certainly a possibility in these cases of "bread pain", but
other considerations are:

In the case of the English muffin there could be a cultural or heritage
aversion to the spread you were using.  Was it true butter, or an altered
spread.  The running to the far corner of the counter is the factor that
leads me to this consideration. It smacks of rejection.

The toast reaction sounds, IMHO, like a fear response--an emotional
component. Note that this response was more extreme, at least in distance.
And this scream occurred BEFORE you put it into the toaster.

Patricia Gima