| As you will soon see, Tim and I were causing mercury to rise LONG before Bruce Willis did! When we were kids and one of us were "sick", we would ALWAYS get our temperatures taken by a SKEPTICAL mother ESPECIALLY it it was on a school day and/or there was some laborious task assigned to one or both of us. She would come out shaking the thermometer (to reset it, I guess). After the mandatory 3 minutes "under the tongue", she would then hold it up to her eye level and turn it just right to read it (I NEVER could figure out how to read one of those things until MY kids were sick). If it read ANYTHING higher than 98.6 we "Beat the wrap"! She would then set the thermometer on the table next to us and go about her business of trying to keep sane for just 1 more day! Often we would pick up the thermometer and play with it by holding a lighted match under the bulb end and watching the "mercury rising" at an INCREDIBLE rate and burst out the top just like in a cartoon! COOL! We went through SEVERAL thermometers, needless to say, in those days. Speaking of mercury, I can't understand all the overreaction of even trace amounts of mercury these days. They totally clean buses and schools for the smallest traces found. We used to play with mercury in the science lab in high school. Tim and I would pour some out and roll it around the lab table and even dip our fingers into it (while the teacher was attentive elsewhere). We had absolutely NO lasting effects! I can count the number of times we did these things on my 10 fingers (7 on the right hand and 3 on the left). |
