Teenager Deterrent

I'm a horrible speller.  I rely on my computer/internet spell checkers a lot!  The other day, I was writing out my shopping list.  Even though I was doing it with a pen and paper, I paused for a second after writing broccolli brocolli broccoli for the little red line to show up.

This all reminds me that there are some words I can't remember how to spell.  Top of the list:  DETERRENT.

Being a particularly "blonde" morning, deterrent sends me on a directly different mind track which of course leads to the kitchen.  I'm hungry, too, so it doesn't take much.

Wait... back to deterrent... a couple of years ago, I came up with a fool-proof teenager deterrent.  I was having a little trouble with a couple of the neighborhood boys.  One of them had set up a basketball net in our cul-de-sac.  Now, I'm all for exercise, blah blah blah, but these guys would let the stupid thing sit for days on end, and then, late on Saturday night, when Sunday is the only day that I can't oversleep, THAT'S WHEN THEY WOULD PLAY BASKETBALL.  I was so inspired to tell you this tale that I drew you a quick picture:

So there I was, about 11:30 on a Saturday night, and about eight teenage boys would start their game.  BOING BOING BOING (what sound does a basketball make?) and STOMP STOMP STOMP (I think all of them wore size 19 shoes).  

What to do?  I'm ready to go full grouchy-old-lady in the neighborhood, but I don't want to rush things.  So, I thought to myself, "How can I strategically remove these boys from my cul-de-sac?"  I didn't think my friend Renda could get her bulldozer here fast enough, and I don't know any supermodels.  I'm too proud to just call the police.  So I asked myself, "What else would move these teenage boys?"

I headed to the kitchen.

I flipped on the vent fan for the oven.

I whipped up a batch of brownies and started baking.  While I waited for them to get full scent, I sauteed some garlic and onions.  Ten minutes in the kitchen, fifteen minutes after they arrived on the cul-de-sac, the young men had vanished.  

DETERRENT -- From the Latin, deterrere, which means, "to frighten away."  You see, I realized that night that every teenage boy is deathly afraid of starving to death.