h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I know. I know.

Somehow, such disclaimers are just more likely to encourage the experimentation. It is much better to be informed of all the issues before discovering some silly oversight. You have done well with laying out a far safer technique than 'Try it till you get it right.'

Actually, there are other, relatively safe, flamable liquids that can be used but none of them, that I know of, look as good as kerosene in daylight.

Barton

It took me about 5 drafts of the entry just making sure I had it as unlikely to encourage people to injure themselves as possible, before I even put it into an unedited entry, and I just about got the balance right I think.

As for their being other liquids, I thought I would stick to what I knew from first hand experience as much as possible - I did hear from one reasonably reliable source (juggling information service I think) that before the new EC directive thingy came out there was one liquid marketed as special fire breathing fuel, and all it was was paraffin with a few extra impurities in it that were meant to make it taste more pleasant, and which were actually more dangerous than the paraffin...

Of course medicines are traditionally made to taste pretty horrible so that kids dont treat them as sweets... would be a stubborn child who wasnt discouraged by the taste of paraffin


vp