Not Any Phone in a Storm

[Kat]

@Jake

Matt, not a good idea to use the word “Gaily”. (My middle name BTY), Galey)

blinks Why not?

Cecil, a lousy telephone reciever cannot, by Decibles, fuck up you ear. It would blow out long befor that. A spark, on the other hand surely could.

Are you differentiating between “lousy” and “non-lousy” here, or describing all receivers as “lousy” (i.e. they’d all blow out, or lousy ones would blow out and good ones would have a chance at fucking up your ear by decibels)?

[rfgdxm]

@Cecil Adams

The lightning-related injuries reported in the medical journals mostly involve the telephone - maybe because they produce more interesting medical problems, I dunno.

It has to do with the fact that when in the home, worst case scenario in a lightning strike involves holding something with a wire that the electricity from the lightning can travel through. This tends to be an unlikely scenario except in the case of using a non-cordless phone.

[rfgdxm]

@Oy!

BUt what about the shower? Cecil gave examples of wire conductors such as telephones/appliances, but not any of people actually getting struck by lightening because they were showering or bathing (obviously, I’m not talking about outdoor activites, but rather in the bathroom).

Does anyone know if that is actually a hazard?

Thanks.

Not much of one. Electricity tends to travel via the shortest path to ground. Plumbing is very well grounded, given that it enters the home from pipes in the ground.

[Ellen_Cherry]

This is the part about the column that intrigued me the most:

Quote:
A glob of ball lightning–a rare, poorly understood phenomenon that behaves like a mixture of electricity and fire

The anecdote about this phenomenon was incredible. In the fiction work Lonesome Dove, there is mention of lightning hopping along the horns of cattle, but I don’t remember if it was in the form of a ball. Maybe. Do we know any more about it, QED … or even … Cecil?

I agree that ball lightning is a fascinating phenomenon and may write a column about it.

pant pant pant

Only five years and a musing of mine has attracted the notice of The Great Cecil Adams!

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

More than that, Ellen, your post was the “trigger” question for Cecil’s column on “Does ball lightning really exist?”, appearing on our website and in Alternate Newspapers around the country!

Congrats!!

[Dogzilla]

You guys are so cool.