... and how can you go back before you go forth.
I suspect the alarm thing harks back to guns that do "go off" (at a similar dB level). I had a smoke alarm that went "off" about 5AM last night and almost resulted in the afore mentioned gun fire.
I couldn't get the thing open to get the failing battery out and it was chirping about every 10 seconds, until I hit it with my 24oz ball peen hammer. The battery came right out after that.
