He was a genius not just because he had style, but because he transcended it. In this way most reviews began. But what the most perceptive failed to understand, even with obvious clues, is that he was taken hostage by his own creation. Endless hours of chopping up and rebuilding had led to years of careful refining. And then in the final moments of splendor, in an explosion of colorful glistening (sound), our hero was consumed by his own passion. His words had been a guide for bards, the strokes of his mental brush a path for cranium painters. The notes of his golden harp signaled the movements of symphonies unwritten, but now his will is tangled in the hairs of a horse, choking while stroking the broken strings of a viola.

You're probably thinking, "So what about the guy's toaster, and things like that, and what is his name?" Well, his name is Bridgett. And the toaster is the old-fashioned type, like what my grandmother had. You put the toast in vertically and it pops up. The cooking is even, especially with rye, and it's fine to butter the toast on the way in. Of course Bridge had designed the little pop-up, that's what he "did." He was best known for making the first top-brown-only which was difficult and confusing in the context of a vertical toaster. First of all, which is the top? And what do you mean by "only"? Anyway, the toaster oven was his idea too. He needed it to provide everything for the consumer, including communications, which is why the prototype had a phone built in. One morning while firing up a muted pumpernickel slab, the center browned and the phone rang. It was the head designer Woxett. He told Bridge that the new designs were over the top, and so were the old designs and Bridgett could not work there anymore.

As it turns out, he did keep working there, just not reinventing post-modernism anymore. Instead, he carried boxes from B1, or B2, to Mr. Handler's desk in Accounts Payable, up on 5. He wasn't the only one who had that task. Others had it. Farrett Leuc had it. It was shameful and non-unique, except that over the years others like Farrett, started to realize that Bridge had a special talent. His various methods of delivery were akin to none other than ballet. He had a robust and irreplaceable style, and furthermore he delivered from the heart. And in that way he transcended the style.