Sodium + Magnesium / Butane = pain 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
This is an absolutely true story that i thought of while reading your new book, "Evolution in Action", anyone who went to the same school or lived in our West Kootenay, BC, Canada community would most likely know of it.
Back when I was in grade eight, (almost fifteen years ago), a boy who would have been a year older nearly blew/burned his family jewels off in an unfortunate mishap with some stolen science lab supplies. He had recently witnessed the classic high school demonstration of placing sodium in water, and had been suitably impressed with the violent reaction. By that point we were all familiar with the virtues of magnesium tape and appreciated the value of being well armed with a bic lighter, (we were all smoking a little bit too much hippie crack back in school, which may or may not have had bearing on the unfortunate teenagers flawed decision making process). Armed with enough info to get himself in trouble, and the often fatal curiosity of a teen, he stole some magnesium tape a some sodium from the back room of the science lab. Thieving is never a really an intelligent idea, but his real error was to simply stuff the magnesium and the sodium into the pocket of his skin tight jeans, (it was the 80's), which was a very darwinian manouver. Compounding the problem was the prescence of a disposable bic lighter. The bell rang at the end of the class, and the poor bugger headed into the hallway, he did not make it far before the moisture produced by his body started the sodium to react, which in turn lit the magnesium, (which burns at five thousand degrees or something unreal), and caused the lighter to explode. Everyone who was nearby commented on how his crotch just seemed to explode into a fireball. No one really knew what the hell to think, it took a while for the whole truth to come out because, I believe, he feared that he would be further punished for his flawed decision making process. I am not sure if this fits in as an honorable mention as the individual was probably only fifteen or so at the time, and although he had sever burns all over his crucial reproductive hardware, is the proud father of a new born baby, (not sure if it is a boy or girl). Anyhow I was reading your newest book and saw the personal account entitled "Elemental Mistake" and began to wonder if that was a flawed version of the events of that fateful day. As I recall, he had wrapped it in paper towel believing that it would stay dry and stable that way. Anyone who went to Mount Sentinel Senior Secondary, a small school of four hundred or so kids, outside of Nelson, in the West Kootenays, the province of British Columbia, the nation of Canada will definitely remember the day Nate cooked his 'nads. Submitted on 01/31/2003
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