And when I was learning all about latent heat of vaporization and latent heat of fusion (ice-to-liquid) in thermodynamics class, I remembered my own teakettle experience and the amazement I had had about the burn-inducing power of that invisible vapor.
I guess they could have set up a teapot in class and had each of us brush our forearms over the spout. I bet nobody would have ever forgot the meaning of “latent heat of vaporization”
Huh. I’d have thought the “dad’s skin comes peeling off when I slap him there” object lesson would have sunk in last time. Is the kid doing this intentionally, or just a really slow learner?
I’ll vote for just not thinking. Twice in the same evening I grabbed a friends arm to get his attention. Oh it worked all right - was the arm he’d landed on when he was knocked off his bike the previous day. After the first time I was really really careful until someone else told me something he just had to hear.
When he teases me about it now I tell him it was payback for the night he punched me in the mouth - after a wisdom tooth removal. (Accidental, possibly connected to the minisword fight that was going on with sword shaped toothpicks) Apparently we’re a violent group.
Both times, she was just being a spazz. Really, she is usually quite smart for eleven, unless I’m injured somehow - then she seems to have a knack for accidentally aggravating said injury. You name it - burn, bad back, broken toe - if it’s injured, she’ll smack it, jump on me, or step on my foot.
Then again, maybe she’s smarter than we all think, and she’s trying to off me for the life insurance. Hmmmm.
Never had a burn quite that bad, but I came close.
I was 14 or so, and mom asked me to make her some instant coffee. I fill the insulated mug, pop it in the microwave for–I dunno, infinity minutes–and take it out. No bubbles, but it looks hot enough.
I plop in a spoonful of coffee and instantly a fountain of boiling water erupts all over my hand. No sloughing off of skin, but I got some serious blisters out of that.
Fuck superheated water.
Actually, the US fleet generally pulls in (no pun intended) in Pattaya, but I’ve seen them scrambling through Phuket too.
My shortest job was at a fast food joint where I was expected to dump the grease. The scars lasted for years. OTOH, I burnt myself a few weeks ago with steam from boiling pasta. The latter is 40 years more vivid and recent and it wins.
Being hit by the welding tanks would have sucked, but what’s not mentioned by Cecil is that these tube ruptures also dumped who knows how many thousands of pounds of 2400 PSI, 700 F steam into the building.
My friend “the human lobster” mentioned in the column never really recovered from his steam burns, and eventually took early retirement due to being in continual pain.
Ow. I’m looking at the patch on my arm and feeling like a complete wussy. Sure, it’s pretty lobster-y colored, but it’s only a bit bigger than a quarter by now - I don’t know what I’d have done if my whole body were like this.
They were tiny, tiny little burns, but I had the scars for decades - I got some flaming marshmallow on my fingers while roasting them as a kid (roasting marshmallows, that is, not my fingers. Well, not most of my fingers - parts of them got a little roasted.) Let me tell you, marshmallow makes a bad burn, because the frickin’ stuff STICKS to you! Like, take a hot coal and tape it to your skin.
My sisters boyfriend was roasting marshmallows when he was about 7, when it caught on fire. He started waving it around to try to get it to go out, when it got flung off the stick and attached itself to his sweater. It burned through 2 layers of clothes, and left him with a scar about the size of your hand. He now has no bellybutton. Also, am I the only one that thought it was marshmellow?
Neosporin with lidocaine comes in both cream and ointment formulations; the cream is not petroleum-jelly based, and is water soluble. In addition, the spray (which is an antiseptic, not an antibiotic) is non-petroleum-jelly and is water soluble.
My mother was boiling water to start dinner when she was a girl and simultaneously looking after her younger siblings, got distracted, made a wrong move, and dumped a pot of boiling water all over her legs. Severe burns, her dress clinging to her legs didn’t help. Frantic call to her aunt, who advised ice water followed by butter.
It didn’t help. Extremely painful healing process and scars that have faded only after fifty years. After listening to this story every time I boiled water in my mother’s presence, I’m pretty hypervigilant. Not that this has stopped me from burning myself in moronic accidents.
You nailed that one right on the head. Silvadene is the stuff to use for burns. I’m allergic to triple antibiotic ointment, and silvadene works like a champ. I use it in the place of TAO.
I had to get a prescription from my doctor to get it, is it legal over the counter where you’re at?
When I was 12, I was possessed by an unquenchable curiosity to see how hot the red-hot part of a sparkler would be right after it fizzled. 
Totally ruined my fireworks that year
No lasting scar, though. I touched it with the pad of my index finger and I just looked, and nothing’s there. I do still have scars from when a trumpet player stepped on the back of my shoe while we were running laps around the parking lot, though. Skidded 10 feet and rashed the hell out of my wrists, knees, and underside of my forearms