In recent news, this past weekend, a 17 year old boy lit a cigarrette while pumping gas at a local gas station here in Austin. A fourteen year old girl was hospitalized with burns on her hands, but overall, everything was alright. No big explosions like in the movies, just a whole lot of dumb.
It’s not really a rant, I just felt like posting this little tribute to common sense. Oi.
Be fair. He was only 17, and that’s not exactly the age of wisdom.
I’m reminded of a story my dad told me, about putting gas in a lawn mower when he was 14, while smoking (yeah I know) and of course it set the mower on fire. He wasn’t hurt and nobody else was around, so it can just be put down to juvenile dumbness.
I lit a ciggy once while pumping gas–completely by habit without even thinking about it. When I realized what I’d done (it took all of 3.5 seconds) I was so embarassed that I did one of those sneaky-sneaky looks around to see if anyone had noticed while I ground it out beneath my boot.
:o
bella
Oh, hell, my husband was trying to figure out why the dryer wasn’t working…he disconnected the cord from the dryer, but neglected to unplug it from the socket…then he grabbed the end…
We blew the fuse of our brand new house we had moved into just TWO days prior…I had to spend $100 to get the electrician out to take a look at it.
On the other hand, it probably would have cost twice that at the stylist to get hubby that swanky Don King hair-do.
Once, while pumping gas, I began to shoot signal flares in random directions. Then, I started lighting sparklers and roman candles with a zippo carefully positioned between my butt-cheeks.
What else would you expect from someone who has taken up smoking knowing what we do about it now?
YOu do realize, don’t you, that back in the ‘old days’ when service stations routinely pumped your gas for you, the gas jockey almost always (IME) had a cigarrette going?.
Ditto here!
(get ready for a sweeping generalization:) Smokers are fuckin’ idiots!
Jesus was in a coma.
Hell, up here in New York - I think it was Schenectady - some guy decided to check how much gas he’d pumped in… at night… by LIGHTING A FUCKING MATCH and bending over so the flame would illuminate it!
Didn’t know you were a muslim. 
In a related story, I used to work with a couple.
In one 24 hour period, she shoved a knife into a pluged in toaster to retrieve a slice of toast, and he tried to wrap some exposed wires with tin-foil.
We started a petition to have all their small appliances taken away…
I smoke so I don’t like the fact that people call us idiots.
I started smoking at 15, it was still cool then even though health warnings were that it was bad. But now I am full blown addicted.
Call me an idiot and I will call you an idiot in return for the fact that it’s damn addictive. Yeah, I want to quit and have tried but it’s damn hard.
So kiss my ass.
This just shows that anyone can die in a tragic gasoline fight accident.
After using a match to check if the gas tank is full, the canonical act of stupidity is probably sticking a fork into a plugged toaster.
Harvard University, college dining hall. The guy ahead of me is toasting a bagel that gets jammed in the toaster. What do you think he then immediately tries to do? Had he not been stopped, he would have been, for one brief moment, literally the brightest man on campus.
One of the many reasons I don’t get impressed by where people went to college.
Amazingly enough, a recent scientific study determined that 17 year old humans do indeed have sentience! Yes, they even have brains, which can be put to use, if so desired!
That doesn’t sound like any 17-year-old that I’ve ever known, including myself at that age, so …
CITE!?!? 
Well, when I was seventeen, I was a year away from running for Parliament for the NDP in Quebec. So, all things considered, I think Manduck’s right.
Which is why Crate & Barrel makes wooden tongs
If 17 is “hardly the age of wisdom,” then it’s kinda scary to remember 16 is the legal driving age in the US.
I just want to mention that at 17, I knew gas and fire didn’t mix.