Speaking of chemistry -- on my last day of high school exams I had my physics exam. It was an open book test, so the teacher left to do other things. At the end, only four of us -- Dave, Bob, Warren, and myself -- were left.

The physics teacher also taught chemistry. And he left the door to the chemical storeroom unlocked. This is not a good idea when there are four bright minds around.

We took a 1 liter beaker and filled it with a mix of chemicals: powdered aluminum, potassium perchlorate, a dash of sulphur, a soupcon of barium nitrate for color, things like that. And a healthy bit of powdered magnesium, too.

So Dave set off to the (dry) creekbed in the park that bordered the schoolgrounds, a meter of magnesium ribbon in one hand in The Beaker in the other.

He dumped the contents of The Beaker in a dry hole in the limestone of the creekbed, stuck in the magnesium ribbon, lit it, and moved smartly away.

No explosion of course, because the mixture was unconfined. But we got a LOVELY mushroom cloud effect up to a couple hundred feet, the police sent a car or two around to investigate, and we finished high school if not with a bang the certainly not with a whimper.