On 19 Sep, 15:54, "Jack )"
wrote:
... I guess that sort of skill wouldn't be allowed in today's litigious world.

Jack

Totally OT, but at my school - coincidentally also in the Midlands and
with its own official climatological station - we suffered two
geography masters who could aim a board rubber with that level of
accuracy, and frequent forehead bruising was the result of mere
seconds of inattention in class ...

Worse was one of our chemistry masters, no names although I'm sure he
will have retired by now (perhaps 'retired hurt'), who kept firework-
type bangers in his pocket, lit them quietly in the ubiquitous bunsen
flame at the front of the lecture theatre without missing a word of
his lesson, let them burn almost to the end of the 'blue touch-paper',
then aimed them with equal accuracy at anyone who looked to be nodding
off in class. When one of these went off right in your face (very
funny to the rest of the class of course) you didn't snooze again
(probably because your eyelids took several weeks to grow back on).
The dry-cleaning bills were also pretty serious I think.

How no-one was ever killed in chemistry I do wonder. It was great fun
though (and I managed O and A-level, so I must have learned something
too ... )

Stephen Burt
Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire