Seven of Fifty-two: Rock'n'roll Myth Busted

Danger: 1/10

Excitement: 5/10

Satisfaction: 5/10

To be repeated: 8/10

Firstly, a big thanks to my brother for sending me the excellent book ‘Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)’. I’m proud to say that my kids had already survived a number of the things listed in the book.

In honour of this fine publication, this afternoon my boys and I ticked off another thing from the list, and simulataneously debunked a myth I have been wondering about for a long time:

• Dangerous Thing: Dismantle an electrical appliance.
• Myth: TV’s implode when you kick them in. I don’t know where I heard that. Maybe it was one of the rock’n’roll myths I heard as an impressionable teen. Regardless, who wouldn’t want to find out if that was true?

So, first the boys and I carefully pulled an old TV apart, just to see what was inside. As I suspected the TV was full of wires and computer chips and stuff. I would liked to have shown the boys how it worked but I was only able to point to the on off switch, and a spring. The rest was a mystery to me, really. Maybe if the tele was working and the light wasn’t fading we would have put it back together again.

But it wasn’t and it was, so we chucked stones and hard objects that can be thrown by tuddlers at the screen until it smashed. And that was fun, too.

Incidentally, TVs do not implode when you hit them with a paving stone. Now I know.

(The other question I have always wondered about was why wee seems to do a 90 degree twist and then another 90 degree twist back on its way to the toilet. Maybe that’s a guy thing. Maybe someone can tell me if the same thing happens when women wee. If anyone knows the answer, feel free to leave a comment below.)