Debunking Humor...

[JMartJr]

 

[Gary C]

View attachment 91418

That was my first career choice. Terribly disappointed to discover it was fictional.

 

[Mendel]

That was my first career choice. Terribly disappointed to discover it was fictional.

Shoulda gone with "mad software mogul".
(John McAfee being the prototype, but there are others.)
Technically, that's mad computer scientist.

 

[Ann K]

Shoulda gone with "mad software mogul".
(John McAfee being the prototype, but there are others.)
Technically, that's mad computer scientist.

When my grandson was about ten or eleven, he had a "mad scientist" themed birthday party. My son in law brought home a number of lab coats for them all to wear, miscellaneous flasks with colored solutions, and a Van de Graaff generator that the department was throwing out. A hair-raisingly good time was had by all!

 

[Todd Feinman]

When I was 11 or 12 I was busy making flash powder with friends. A dangerous thing, but different times.

 

[Ann K]

When I was 11 or 12 I was busy making flash powder with friends. A dangerous thing, but different times.

I think that was about his age when my son got hold of some ammunition (source unknown), whacked a bullet with a hammer, and frightened himself when it went off and ricocheted off the basement walls. (I never heard the details of the story at the time because "Don't tell mom!") That's also about the age when he nearly set the garage on fire. I'm amazed so many kids actually made it to adulthood!

 

[Todd Feinman]

I think that was about his age when my son got hold of some ammunition (source unknown), whacked a bullet with a hammer, and frightened himself when it went off and ricocheted off the basement walls. (I never heard the details of the story at the time because "Don't tell mom!") That's also about the age when he nearly set the garage on fire. I'm amazed so many kids actually made it to adulthood!

OMG! I did that too when I was a little kid!
I was living at my great grandparents house (born 1900), and I got a bullet and hit it repeatedly with a hammer till it went off. I also rafted at a nearby waterway where many kids drowned and got whipped with a belt for it.

Darwin Awards all 'round!!!

 

[MonkeeSage]

OMG! I did that too when I was a little kid!
I was living at my great grandparents house (born 1900), and I got a bullet and hit it repeatedly with a hammer till it went off. I also rafted at a nearby waterway where many kids drowned and got whipped with a belt for it.

Darwin Awards all 'round!!!

We did that too with an unfired shotgun shell we found in a field. Being young dumb males, our first thought was clamp it in vice grips and hit it with a hammer until it explodes. Thankfully it didn't actually go off. After plan A failed we cut it open and tried to burn the gunpowder, but it was wet so it just fizzled.

 

[JMartJr]

When I was 11 or 12 I was busy making flash powder with friends. A dangerous thing, but different times.

Did you, by any chance, buy your chemicals from the chemical supply company Bob Lazar used to run?

ADDED EVEN BEFORE POSTING (I'm maybe getting better!): I see he still does own it, United Nuclear Equipment and Supplies. Coolest company name ever. Tell me YOU would not enjoy watching for the reaction of the delivery driver as they bring you a package from "United Nuclear." You can also get signed UFO posters and stuff from him. I have an urge to get one, but hate to help monetize what I believe to be telling untruths for money, to try to stay within the bounds of politeness...

 

[Todd Feinman]

Did you, by any chance, buy your chemicals from the chemical supply company Bob Lazar used to run?

ADDED EVEN BEFORE POSTING (I'm maybe getting better!): I see he still does own it, United Nuclear Equipment and Supplies. Coolest company name ever. Tell me YOU would not enjoy watching for the reaction of the delivery driver as they bring you a package from "United Nuclear." You can also get signed UFO posters and stuff from him. I have an urge to get one, but hate to help monetize what I believe to be telling untruths for money, to try to stay within the bounds of politeness...

That would be fun to have a UFO poster from him, though!
We had magnesium powder aluminum powder, potassium nitrate and perchlorate. Used to make rockets with sugar potassium nitrate and a bit of magnesium powder. Used aluminum foil to contain nose charge, which would also ignite the aluminum foil. Of course a friend and I had an accident with the stuff. He has a lot of scars, I emerged pretty unscathed but couldn't hear for about ten minutes.

 

[RTM]

When I was an idiot teenager the tool of choice was something we called a banger.
It was a piece of metal (possibly re-bar) about four to six inches long with a hole drilled into it's center about two thirds of the way. A very strong nail (point removed and flattened) or a bolt had a piece of string attached to the head with the other end of the string being tied to bottom of the piece of metal (opposite of where the hole was drilled).
Into the hole went as much scraped heads of matches as possible, as the bolt or nail then had to go into the hole (a bit like how the powder in cannons were compressed).
You then held the piece of string in the middle and swung it quite firmly against a wall so the head of the nail or bolt was forced down the hole into the match heads; much dog barking, ear ringing and burn marks on walls ensued.

 

[Ann K]

I've missed out on a good many of those adventures; are they almost all "boy" tricks? I do know a certain number of exploring principles, though. Don't climb up anything you can't get back down, and don't climb down anything you can't get back up. Always explore a waterway up-stream, because then you end up back at your car when you return; the reverse may not be true. And stay out of the quicksand. Confession: I found out all those things the hard way.

My daughter is the daring member of the family, having done geology field work on both Baffin and Bylot islands (helicopter drops you off, pilot says "See you in August."), a couple of excursions in the Sahara, northern mainland Canada where the trip was cut short by a marauding grizzly, at ten thousand feet in the Andes, and three weeks in Australia's Outback - I think she's due back today. But as far as I know she has never set the garage on fire...

 

[JMartJr]

That would be fun to have a UFO poster from him, though!
We had magnesium powder aluminum powder, potassium nitrate and perchlorate. Used to make rockets with sugar potassium nitrate and a bit of magnesium powder. Used aluminum foil to contain nose charge, which would also ignite the aluminum foil. Of course a friend and I had an accident with the stuff. He has a lot of scars, I emerged pretty unscathed but couldn't hear for about ten minutes.

When I was an idiot teenager the tool of choice was something we called a banger.
It was a piece of metal (possibly re-bar) about four to six inches long with a hole drilled into it's center about two thirds of the way. A very strong nail (point removed and flattened) or a bolt had a piece of string attached to the head with the other end of the string being tied to bottom of the piece of metal (opposite of where the hole was drilled).
Into the hole went as much scraped heads of matches as possible, as the bolt or nail then had to go into the hole (a bit like how the powder in cannons were compressed).
You then held the piece of string in the middle and swung it quite firmly against a wall so the head of the nail or bolt was forced down the hole into the match heads; much dog barking, ear ringing and burn marks on walls ensued.

I feel like my potato canon is not going to let me pay in yall's league...