Twist-tie meets high voltage 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
This is a personal account.
When I was fourteen, I had a fascination with rechargeable batteries and, naturally, battery chargers. One thing I wondered in particular was whether I could get a funny jolt off the prongs of the 9-volt slot on the charger. I found the ideal conductor for my experiment in the form of a garbage bag twist-tie with the outer paper covering removed. I stuck the ends of the unwrapped twist-tie into the 9-volt slot and felt ... nothing. I could tell there was current passing through the wire because the "charging" light next to the slot came on, but there was no sensation from the tie whatsoever -- not even a tingle.
Now here's the stupid part.
Throwing caution to the wind, or perhaps emboldened by having survived a whopping 9 volts of power, I immediately proceeded to take the twist-tie over to the 120-volt electrical outlet near the kitchen sink -- yes, the one normally reserved for plugging in blenders, toasters, or anything else EXCEPT a twist-tie attached to a lunatic fourteen-year-old with a completely unwarranted sense of invulnerability -- and jammed both ends of the tie into the top slot.
I can't remember if I actually saw the arc of electricity passing through the twist-tie or if I just imagined it. I do clearly remember the tie exploding in a shower of sparks all over the kitchen counter, and I also clearly remember the top portion of the outlet instantly turning a nice shade of black. Checking out my hand, I saw that my thumb and first two fingers were covered with tiny arcs of orange and black residue from the exploding tie. A few moments of closer scrutiny, however, revealed that the "residue" on each finger was actually whatever sorry mess was left of the skin which had been in contact with the tie in its last blazing moment of existence.
When my fingers began to throb I felt obliged to confess my crime to my mother, who promptly called her neighbor, a short-wave radio enthusiast, for advice in treating the burns. He told her that I should simply immerse my fingers in cool water until the throbbing stopped, and he was also kind enough to tell her that the only reason I wasn't dead was that the outlet's current had passed completely through the wire and not at all through me. Had I stuck only one end of the twist-tie into the electrical outlet, or better yet, had I been so ingenious to stick two twist-ties -- one in each hand -- into the outlet, you would likely not be reading this comic illustration of that well-known and, unfortunately, often-tested premise -- "I'm a teenager, and consequently nothing can hurt me." Submitted on 07/22/2002
Submitted by:
Mike Partyka
Reference:
1986
Copyright © 2002 DarwinAwards.com
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