If only Joseph McCarthy had known: clear evidence of Potsylvanian design influence lurking in good-old American Sears stores in the late 1950’s.

So strange, yet so fascinating. Here at the shop we just stare at it during lunch breaks, wondering how much vodka was consumed by the Kenmore design team’s Fearless Leader dreaming up the new look of next year’s line of stoves.  Is this a clock with a stove attached, or a stove with a really prominent garish clock? And the backsplash light panel: not exactly subtle, but nicely sized for looking at old-school x-rays.

If the looks aren’t Badenov to turn you off, there is so much here to appreciate. For openers, the cave-like oven size. Followed by a most wonderful, very versatile 3-way cooktop, with your choice of four or FIVE burners, or a handy middle griddle to make cute little blinchiki. The oven is controlled by a very unusually placed (and almost invisible) dial between the clock and the backsplash light. Comes complete with oven safety system spun-off from glorious Sputnik program, which (if the clock actually works, please God), allows one to set the oven to automatically turn on/off at chosen times. Finally, there’s those oven/broiler handles: so curvaceously sexy, dahlink, we hesitate to show them on this family-friendly website.

Not for every kitchen, for sure. But someone, somewhere, just can't exist without this stove.