Several friends have recently posted videos of someone cooking corn on the cob using a microwave. In the videos we see someone cook the corn in its husk in the microwave, cut off the base of the ear, and then grab the ear by the tassle and shake the corn out of the husk. It looks quick, and it looks as if it saves a LOT of hassle with no need to husk the corn nor to clean the silks off the ears.
We tried it last night, and it works like a charm. We did three ears and set the microwave for 8 minutes. Next time I'll probably use only 7.5 minutes on our microwave for three ears. I'd say we had only two silk strands left on the three ears, and clean up was so much easier than it would otherwise have been. Furthermore there's no need to boil up a pot of water, saving electricity or gas from that and keeping the place cooler on a hot day.
The only drawback might be trying to do this for a large number of people.
Hmmm. I see I wrote about microwaving corn on the cob over 2 years ago. Clearly at that time I had no idea about this method (cutting off the base and shaking it out of the husk after it is cooked). That, or my short-term memory is suffering more than I thought.