Do people actually hurt themselves running with scissors?

Comments on Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
#1

I never questioned the severity of this piece of piece of advice when growing up because I have a cousin who lost an eye doing just that when she was very young. She was (and still is last time I checked) 2 years younger than me, so this wasn’t some distant story, this happened during our childhood, so as kids we were like, “damn, this shit’s for real!”

Several years later, their house burned down because guess what her little brother was doing? Yup, they taught us not only the importance of proper scissor transport procedures, but also that if you really must play with matches, for the love of God do it in the backyard, or better yet the driveway where a neighbor might see you and yell at you for being a stupid kid, but definitely not inside your parents’ dark walk-in closet, but seriously don’t play with matches.

#2

People trip over objects or turn and bump into something. Obviously any kind of sharp object can be dangerous when in motion. Just look at that gym teacher that killed himself demonstrating the javelin to his students. Likewise, my friend found out that you can fire off a bullet by slapping it with a hammer and we then found out how physics work because that bullet bounced off of everything in the garage.

#3

I still remember my first-grade teacher teaching us always to carry scissors by the blade, never the handle. Do it to this day.

#4

And for the trifecta – my mother had a friend who broke her back and was paralized (falling down stairs) tripping on her shoe laces.
For goodness sake kids: No running with scissors. No playing with matches. And do up your shoe laces!

#5

Anent “A Christmas Story”, Ralphie made the mistake of using a sheet-metal backstop.

#6

Seems to me this would make it more dangerous, as you’d have the sharp end pointed at you!

#7

:confused: Not at all. You hold the blade parts – which aren’t sharp, because the scissors are closed and the outer edge dull – and then if you fall, it’s the handle poking you in the chest.

#8

Like this. Hand wrapped around the closed blades, blades down, handle up. If you fall this way, you’re likely to drop the scissors (fine) or fall flat on them (also fine).

#9

Allright; with your hand raised, that makes some sense. I was imagining it held more like waist-high, in which case the pointed end might gut you if you fell or ran into something/someone…

#10

Yeah, that’s it.

#11

The real danger is if you’re running holding the scissors in an operating grip; thumb in one hole, index finger in the other hole, and the business end pointing upward.

#12

I’ve got a bigger hand: I hold the scissors pointing down, as I would a knife, with my fingers around the outiside of the handle. gripped lightly with the thumb. But I’m not a school teacher. I think “just hold onto the blades” would be easier to teach.

#13

One of my brothers had a pair of scissors driven through the roof of his mouth by my other brother. The older one was using the scissors on the top bunk and the younger one stood up from the lower bunk and struck them with the top of his head, with spectacular results. So no lying down with scissors maybe.

#14

When I was about six years old, i was playing in my bedroom with my older sister and younger brother. I was on the bed, looked down, and I noticed a clump of brown hair on the floor. I looked up, and saw that my brother had chopped off his bangs. This was back in the 1960s when we all sported that JFK look with the bangs combed over to the left and hair parted on the right side. My brother was now there bangless with a pair of scissors in his hands.

My sister saw the shocked look on my face and followed my eyes to my brother’s now exceedingly high hair line.

“What on earth did you do!”, she asked my brother.

He meekly replied “I was thinking with the scissors.”

My brother, in the era of let it all hang down! had to get a buzz cut. It took months for his hair to grow back.

I don’t know about the dangers of running with scissors, but I am well acquainted with the dangers of thinking with them.