jmcquown wrote:

> Plastic bags from the dry cleaner
> "are not toys". When did anyone think they were?

Well, my dad did, once.

He was trying to make a home-made hot air balloon but every bag he tried
was too heavy for the very minimal lift provided by a household candle.
So it occurred to him that the extremely lightweight plastic of a
drycleaner's bag might be just the ticket.

And it actually worked pretty well, at first. The American Cleaners
blimp got airborn, made it about 50 feet up looking like some sort of
aerial man o'war, then descended gently onto the neighbors roof, where
the candle tipped over but continued to burn.

Dad had to scramble to grab a ladder from the garage so he could climb
up there and put it out, then he had to explain to Ray Sarzinski what he
was doing on his roof. Fortunately, Ray was familiar with my dad's
experiments and a frequent accomplice, especially for the ones that went
"bang" - the miniature cannon springs to mind (important safety note -
when firing a cannon, miniature or otherwise, either secure it to
something extremely heavy and immobile, or get the hell out from behind
the thing as the recoil is wicked).

So Ray was cool about it, but disappointed that the flight could not be
repeated for his edification as the candle had melted a hole in the bag.