Sometimes I sense that to put real confidence in my memory I have to get to the end of all rememberings. That seems to say that I forego remembering. And now that strikes me as an accurate description of what it is to have confidence in one's memory.
          --Stanley Cavell, The Claim of Reason

I remember -- my memory jogged by Paul -- testing batteries on my tongue. Nine volt batteries were convenient because both terminals were on the same side. But they stung badly if they were live. Then I discovered that you could put saliva on one finger and touch one terminal to your tongue and one to your finger and you'd get a pleasant, attenuated current. I avoided thinking about what it was flowing through (me!) and whether this was dangerous. You could also test lower voltage batteries this way, whose terminals you couldn't get on your tongue simultaneously, but the current was then very subtle. When battery testers came in I stopped doing this at all. But the 9 volt current actually was slightly pleasurable.

I also remember repeating the really neat science experiment that we did in seventh grade where we sent a current through slightly acidified water and watched hydrogen and oxygen bubbles stream up from the two terminals we'd put into the water, to be captured by test tubes. Mr. Weinberg then combined the two test-tubes (one with twice the gas the other had--two hydrogens per oxygen), and lit a match. There was a little explosion and...water! At home I just put a nine-volt battery into a bowl of water with vinegar added and put test tubes over the terminals. It worked like a charm. But don't try this at home!

posted by william 7:42 AM
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