Honorable Mention: Teacher FLY & Paperweight

Teacher FLY & Paperweight
2006 Honorable Mention
Confirmed True by Darwin

A teacher with a swinging tie lets fly at a housefly with his
paperweight, an old mortar shell...

(April 2004, California) One spring morning, when bug crawled across his desk, an adult education teacher gave 25 students an impromptu lesson in safety during his safety class. You see, Teach had an unusual paperweight: a 40-mm shell he had found on a hunting trip. Using opaque reasoning, he assumed that the ordnance must be inert. It made a unique conversation piece. But this particular ordnance was the teacher's ticking ticket to fame.

Back to the spring morning when a bug crawled across his desk. Should he squash it with a tissue? Sweep it out the door? Leave it to pursue its happy existence, and continue with his lesson? No, the teacher picked another alternative. He hefted the "inert" artillery shell and slammed it onto the short-lived insect.

The impact set off the primer, and the resulting explosion caused burns and shrapnel lacerations on his hand, forearm, and torso. No one else in the classroom was hurt. To the teacher's further consolation, his actions did succeed in one respect. That bug was eliminated.

Sumbitted over 50 times:
pending20060405-054005, pending20060405-234318
Darwin asks, What class was he teaching?

Teacher FLY & Paperweight 2006 Honorable Mention Confirmed True by Darwin

Teacher FLY & Paperweight
2006 Honorable Mention
Confirmed True by Darwin