Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

Interesting story about a Cuban boy in Brooklyn who helped highly orthodox Jews turn on their stoves and other such forbidden activities on Shabbat. I wonder if today highly observant folk need a shabbos goy to turn the knob on their stoves or press the buttons on their microwaves. From the Wikipedia article, it sounds like you're not really supposed to work around it by outright asking them to do it for you, though from that article, it seems as long as they benefit some, it's OK to imply what you want them to do.
The image of a guy turning on all the stoves and taking a perfunctory sip or bite from every finished dish 30 minutes or however long it takes for the food to prepare later would be kind of funny to see.

Yeah, in Jewish communities in middle Eastern countries, they used to get Muslim neighbors to light fires and cook food and things too (maybe some people still do? not sure). Cool story, thanks for the link!

And Shana Tova, everyone!