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

Okay, a new warning from the Emergency Room doctors:

Blowguns and teenage boys do not mix.

Hm. Apparently, there's been a recent upsurge in blowgun-related injuries in the US. No, not on the receiving end: on the part of the operator.

The secret to good blowgun operation is NOT to inhale the dart.

http://news.yahoo.com/boy-inhales-blowgun-dart-112932844.html

Emergency doctors call this 'foreign body aspiration', which yahoo helpfully explains for the linguistically challenged. The reasons they've been seeing this a lot is twofold:

1. It's summer, and teens are bored-bored-bored.
2. There are instructions on the internet.

We suspect these homemade blowguns of being rather short. My dad said he used to make them as a boy, but his were only about a foot long and didn't pack much punch. At least, not as much as his hunting rifle, which he used to put food on the dinner table.

We recommend learning to make culturally authentic Cherokee blowguns. Average length, 6 feet. We suspect - mind you, it's only a guess - that it might be harder to accidentally inhale a dart from 6 feet away. Besides, you'd be imbibing some genuine traditional knowledge.

A man named Danny McCarter teaches this, according to the Cherokee Phoenix:

http://www.cherokeephoenix.org/Article/Index/4946

And avoid those internet instructions. One carries the warning:

'Blow darts can be dangerous, they go up to 70 mph and can hit potato chips out of a person's hand from a half a gym across.'

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Paper-Blowgun

If you want to be a hunter-gatherer, fine. But learn from an expert. Gather the right kind of thistle. Learn the language before you go stalking the wild potato crisp.

...longer makes for greater magnum effect...

dangerous things those wild potato crisps... good thing teenage boys know to stand half a gym away

when I was in the "kid" era of my life (still am) I had a blowgun along with plastic darts, with a slight differenceif I took the rubber tip off, I'd sharpened the ends to a nice point I loved playing with my mates

We went through a phase at school of going in with pockets full of dried pearl barley, when someone discovered it made perfect ammo for the empty barrel of a Bic biro.

And that poor teacher who decided to use rice as a prop to teach us an important lesson about global trade and social justice... He didn't know what he was letting himself in for.

a man after my own heart, we must have gone to the same school

This is why I prefer virtual teaching.

Back in my day some guys dared one boy into throwing a dart at a teachers leg. The boy succeeded. The dart got stuck in the teacher's wooden leg without him noticing it

You can't beat a good spud gun - the ammo can travel quite far. The potato crisp being destroyed by it's source.

3 match sticks - 1 needle - length of cotton and a small square of paper makes 1 good dart

here's one I did earlier

>>>-

and THEY do hurt teachersso did my rear end