psychic - science fiction short story of a house of misfits with talking toaster?

I'm pretty sure I read it in an anthology or in Analog magazine. The characters include a man who fixes holes in the universe, a talking toaster, and a few other 'misfits', and a woman who sort of keeps track of them all. There's a visit by a guy who I think has some mental powers of persuasion, and he ends up breaking the toaster (I think).

The main character is a young man with a psychic ability to control people, and he stumbles across the house of 'misfits' which include a child firestarter, an old man (Mr. Santiago?) who somehow is responsible for holding the universe together, and a shapeshifter named Toby who takes the form of whoever the person nearest to it loves the most. He stays there for a while and helps them out, but the woman who runs the place is disturbed when he uses his psychic abilities to convince a cashier he's paid for groceries.

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Both the elves and the dwarves were famous for their metal work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what is the difference between what they made, and which one had the better skill of making amours and swords? Answer James Christopher's answer sums up the second part of your question well, but as to the difference in what they made, a little more detail is needed. Once the Elves learned to forge with steel, the shape of the sword changed, now being able to take on the form of a great broadsword or a light and agile curved sword. Additionally, they took great pride in decorating their swords. As we see in the Lord of the Rings , some swords like Sting had magical properties such as glowing blue when orcs are near. As far as the use of Mithril, lotr.wikia has two contradictory passages: Thus, Elven blades became renowned as great weapons, capable of performing deeds beyond the skill of their handlers and were even more glorious when the use of Mithril was allowed to the Elves. ...

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