When the robot on Lost In Space issued his classic warning to Will Robinson, you knew something bad was about to happen. His verbal signal of pending danger demanded immediate action to avoid catastrophic consequences. When your household smoke alarm begins to shriek in the middle of the night, you better jump out of bed & investigate immediately. When the same smoke alarm sounds while preparing a skillet full of sausages in the kitchen, however, you run over to it & fan it with a towel or plate to clear the unit’s sensor of the offending smoke. To me, it means that the smoke alarm is functioning (a nice thing to know) and that dinner will be on the table soon (also a nice thing to know)!
This evening, my smoke alarm went off while cooking, so the device was sufficiently fanned & dinner’s prep was completed. This smoke alarm sounds 3 A-flats in a row, high, shrill & repeated until the smoke is cleared. My son Peter has perfect pitch, and immediately mentally recorded the tone & pitch of the alarm. Once the smoke was cleared, the alarm kept going off – from the couch, the kitchen, the staircase. It was Peter, singing his newly learned song (all evening)!
It could be worse – I could have a hip-hop smoke alarm installed.
an interesting read! I’ll add you to my blogroll, if you don’t mind
Cheers~! and… blogging’s definitely better than reed-making 
Perfect pitch, huh? Lots of fun for you ahead. But meanwhile, be grateful you don’t have to affix Peter to the ceiling and wait for him to smell smoke!
–Q