Terrible ParentingMy parents used to lock my brother, sister and I in the car while they went to the pub for a "quick one" after work. This quick one might last several hours, during which they would send bottles of Indian Tonic Water to us by way of refreshment.
On one particularly cold evening, bored stupid, we lit a small bonfire on the back seat of the car using the cigarette lighter and the contents of the glove box. We owe our lives to passing winos. (BTW: Please no more Maddie or Jesus gags, they've been done.)
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Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Thu 16 Aug 2007, 9:47)
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Received wisdomI'm of an age now that I'm beginning to understand the difference between wisdom and knowledge, but sometimes received wisdom from older family members can be somewhat dubious.
A good few years ago, I was driving somewhere one night and for some reason my auntie was in the car. There was a display of aurorae, quite common in these parts. My auntie said "Oh look, there's the northern lights. Do you know what causes them?"
"Yes", I replied. "It's charged particles from the solar wind interacting with oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and other atoms in the outer atmosphere, causing radiative transitions as they relax to their ground states, and emitting the light we see as aurorae". (May not be a verbatim transcript)
"No", she replied, "It's light reflecting off the snow at the north pole. That's what your gran said".
"Aye, but gran didn't have a physics degree", I retorted.
I think we left it at that. I may have been an upstart but knowledge did win over dodgy wisdom that night.
OK, this isn't really on topic but it just came into my head. And it's not morbid like a lot of the others on here!
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K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 22 Aug 2007, 11:43,
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