re:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdryice.html
I read the report about dry ice, surprised that something so mundane made it to the daily top spot.
I remembered a news report from here in the Northwest from some years back and went looking for it on the internet. I found some quotes of it. It sounds a lot like an urban legend, but I could not find it on any of the urban legend web sites, and I do remember reading about it in the local paper.
One of the sites attributes the quote to the Portland Oregonian, November 12 1993. The Oregonian web site doesn’t have archives older than 2 weeks, so I could not confirm it.
Here’s the quote, with the web site’s snarky comments removed from Yucks Digest V3 #36 (shorts) :
The Oregonian, Friday, Nov. 12, 1993:
SILVERTON – Dick Kromminga, principal at Silverton High School,
said a pep rally stunt last week that burned four students won’t
ever be repeated.
The four suffered severe burns on their buttocks from sitting
on blocks of dry ice.
“We pulled a brain-deader, and we will make sure we don’t do
it again,” Kromminga said.
The girls were chosen by their classmates for a stunt last week
to see who could sit on the ice the longest. Dry ice, or solid
carbon dioxide, can be as cold as 112 degrees below zero.
The four were treated at Silverton Hospital.
Dr. Frank Lord said some of the girls may need skin grafts.
“The truth is, I’ve never seen any frostbite on this part of the
anatomy,” he said.
Kromminga said the ice-sitting skit was the idea of the school’s
cheerleaders and the pep assembly adviser.
Plans for skits normally are approved by the assistant principal
and activities coordinator, but that didn’t happen this time
because the assembly was held a day earlier than usual.
Kromminga said he didn’t think the pep assembly adviser mentioned
that the girls were going to sit on dry ice. “That might have
caught somebody’s attention,” he said.
The girls had been chosen by their respective classes as princesses
of the “touchdown court” with the winner to be crowned at a dance
after the Friday night football game.
The girls wore jeans and football jerseys. At the end of the
assembly, several of them said their buttocks felt numb and frozen.
No disciplinary action is planned. In the future, Kromminga said,
all pep assembly activities will be presented to his staff and
approved 24 hours before the event.