It happened very rarely, but every now and then the tables could be turned....
When I was really young, my parents bought my sister and me each a mechanical alarm clock - the kind with the two bells on top. I took mine up to my room, and about half an hour later my mother came in to find me sitting on the floor, surrounded by tiny clock parts. I was just learning to use a screwdriver. She gulped a few times, said nothing, then turned and walked out.

Another half hour after that, she came in again to find me sitting on the floor, playing with a complete alarm clock - and it worked! She was absolutely amazed. Stunned. She told all her friends about her genius son who stripped an alarm clock down to its tiniest little spring then put it all properly back together again, and it kept perfect time.

What she didn't know was that once I'd taken the thing apart I realized there was no way in hell I could figure out how to get all those pieces to fit back together... so I went over to the next room and took my sister's clock.

To this day she doesn't realize the stunt - and it served me very well when I wanted to take apart the vacuum cleaner, the stereo, and anything else I could get my hands on. I had open reign on the household machinery.

I learned my lesson though - after the clock I made sure I laid all the bits and pieces out in order so I knew how they went back!
(arvana, Thu 15 Jan 2004, 6:37, Reply)