Dear Cuisinart,

While your 10-cup automatic grind and brew coffee maker makes a mean cup of joe, I thought I might share something with you in hopes you'll rethink how this product functions and maybe make a few changes.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done this, in fact, I know I'm not because my husband has done it as well.

We're both relatively intelligent people who can learn how to use a coffee maker without much instruction. Perhaps it's because our child is still young, and likes to get up early or wake up in the middle of the night, and we have to get up early, and I have a slight case of insomnia around 2AM every morning, and naps are very few and far between, that we have problems with your fabulously and elegantly styled coffee maker.

What keeps happening, you ask?

Well. I'll tell you. Either I forget to put the filter in the filter basket or I forget to put the thermal carafe (as you describe it, I personally like to call it the "coffee pot") back in its little cubby hole of a space so the coffee can drip into it. Both will cause a coffee grind water overflow

And then what happens, you ask?

Oh, I think you know, you clever maker of fine kitchen equipment. Because how could you not. My already old and ugly counter top becomes a wading pool for coffee grounds, coffee eventually drips over the edge and onto the floor, mainly in the tiny space between the counter and the refrigerator, making it REALLY hard to clean, as you can imagine.

Not only does this flood occur, but it puts me in quite a precarious position. Because usually the cord is sitting in the flood of coffee, and I, being human, tend to not even think about it, reach over, and pull the plug from the wall. Have I ever been electrocuted? No. By the grace of whatever, I have not. But some day? Some day it just may happen.

So this is what I propose, Cuisinart, and I don't even expect a cut in the shear brilliance of my idea if you do take my suggestion and run with it: Why don't you build in internal alarm that tells the flipping coffee maker that the dummy who is trying to make coffee, who is sitting in a completely different room, trying to work while dreaming of a nice, hot cup of joe, didn't put the coffee pot down or a filter in, so therefor, an automatic shut down occurs and no harm is done to the dummy's counter tops, floor and sanity.

Just a suggestion. I can't imagine it would be hard to do. And if just saving one's sanity isn't a good enough reason for you, think about the lawsuit some numb nut will file against your company for being electrocuted because they were too stupid to put the coffee pot or filter where it belongs, even though your coffee maker instructions clearly advise of doing so.

I'm just saying.

Sincerely,

Nut Nut