Imagine the Shock!

I’m more than a little nervous at the moment because walking through next week will be a bit like paddling in a river when you don’t know where the crocodiles are. But I just remembered something I found amusing, so I thought I might as well post it just to demonstrate to myself and others that at least one small part of me is still functioning (these are difficult times, you understand.)

When we were having the electrical storms last week I was surprised to see regular flashes of lightning without any accompanying thunder. Being suitably intrigued, I googled ‘silent lightning’ and discovered that the phenomenon has something to do with the sound waves being refracted when they meet air of greatly differing density. It’s also called ‘heat lightning’ apparently. But that isn’t the funny bit.

The funny bit came when I was reading the list of questions posed by other enquirers, and found one which asked:

Is it safe to go to the toilet during a thunderstorm?

Well, I do realise that water and electricity are enthusiastic bedfellows, but nevertheless… I don’t suppose I need to describe the sort of scenarios which flashed into the sort of juvenile mind which still giggles at lavatorial humour.