"STRANGE" home electrical problem -- pop and spark -- sometimes

Ok, at the start, I thought that was shaping up to be a Calvin's-dad sort of explanation. But honestly? Your dad told it almost straight.

 

Ants LOVE electricity. They sometimes get into the contacts on air conditioner compressors and keep the contacts from touching. I once had a light switch quit working. I took off the cover plate and the whole box was packed with ants.

That's actually a pretty good way to picture it.

 

Sort of reminds me of ...

 

Reminds me of a 1967 era computer I once troubleshot. FPP was a extra cost option and an entire cabinet made using transistors. Compile of a huge program asking use the FPP would suddenly produce addresses that made no sense. Examined a dump. Just happened to have a listing of the compiler in the trunk of my Alfa and the computer had a stop where you are function I could exercise and I happened to find the FP instruction that was failing.

Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end...