Dynamite
An old guy I used to know got a job by lying. Lying about having experience with dynamite.

All started well enough, but then he was left in the boondocks with a crate of dynamite and some rocky ground where a road was supposed to go.

At lunch the supervisor turned up. The crate which was supposed to have lasted all week had lasted half the morning. He'd had a lot of fun though and didn't mind being paid up for the rest of the day and told to not bother turning up tomorrow.
(xixax, Fri 30 May 2014, 13:10, 11 replies)

can you just get a job playing with dynamite? that sounds awesome

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 30 May 2014, 14:31, closed)

TBH, if some crazy fucker was holding a stick of dynamite,
I'd probably give them a job, or anything else they want, until they're no longer in my vicinity with dynamite.
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Fri 30 May 2014, 15:07, closed)

pansy

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 30 May 2014, 15:15, closed)

I once found myself having a pint with some Australian guy in a pub
who boasted him and his mates used to throw dynamite at each other for a laugh. Having never worked with explosives I am still uncertain if he was bullshiting or not. It's never really crossed my mind to find out
( Harpago ¯\(°_o)/¯, Fri 30 May 2014, 15:41, closed)

Well, its a fucking stupid idea in general, to throw anything containing nitroglycerin.
That having been said, freshly manufactured dynamite is reasonably shock resistant and you might be ok.

However, the older it is, the more nitroglycerin will have "sweated" out to the surface. If that happens you shouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

In all likelyhood, if they actually did throw "dynamite" at each other, they were probably really throwing sticks of TNT or some other more stable explosive. TNT is often packaged to look like dynamite, and it does roughly the same thing, but it is an unrelated compound, and it yields about 20% less energy per kilo.
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Fri 30 May 2014, 16:03, closed)

Ah, I sort of figured the Stella may have jumbled up his words
I guess i've never dismissed it out of hand though because at the back of my mind I figured without anything blowing up, like rock, wood, etc, the force of the blast in an open space would be sort of loud but a bit tame, unless it was right next to you.
( Harpago ¯\(°_o)/¯, Fri 30 May 2014, 16:27, closed)

AC/DC are so full of shit, I shall write them a letter pointing out the error of their lyrics
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Fri 30 May 2014, 17:10, closed)

Presumably you can tell you've been handling old dynamite,
Because you have a banging headache from all the nitroglycerin seeping through your skin?
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 30 May 2014, 17:55, closed)

And the clouds of pink mist that used to be your limbs!

(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Fri 30 May 2014, 18:50, closed)

was he Wile E. Coyote?

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Fri 30 May 2014, 15:57, closed)

I once googled my (unusual) surname
Found I had an American distant relative, who was a professor in explosives. We exchanged emails and he told me about his tutorials. Cool as fuck.
(IHateSprouts is baking a huge pie shaped like an enormous pie, Fri 30 May 2014, 22:00, closed)