Professor Lipton's work as a professional, rather than an amateur, chemist
avails him surely of many insights. Professional discretion would likely
constrain him in the event that these insights included the following.

Those who would remain innocent, read no further.

X X X

I confessed online in 1991 my own rude, sorcerer's-apprentice experience
with hydrogen sulfide and ethanethiol ("ethyl mercaptan"). Some of you may
enjoy at least the come-uppance part (or the Lovecraft quote re Miltonic
Legions.) If so, read the four-article thread beginning:

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=51387%40prls.UUCP

More subtle and devious (and successful) was the ethyl-acetate gambit of a
shrewd friend during teen years. This solvent with its ripe-fruit smell, a
natural component in ripe fruit I think, and focus of Tom Stevenson's screed
against carbonic maceration in Beaujolais in his _New Sotheby's Wine
Encyclopedia_ ("the trade calls it `lollipop' wine and it is ideal for
anyone who does not actually enjoy the characteristics of real wine") has a
little-known undermining action on balloon rubber, and, well, BANG!
Moreover, olive oil (non-virgin) slows the effect. The shrewd friend found
that by adjusting the olive-oil content, he could sprinkle the solvent on
balloons and be safely distant when trouble struck. (Some friends of ours
sold balloons at a museum.) Deviously, a tiny squirt gun accomplished the
sprinkling. Discreetly. (Thus are launched great careers in science.)

Later we did other things, more devious still, mentioned on sci.electronics
in the 1980s, which I saved, though evidently absent from public archives.
(Maybe just as well.)

Max