ah yes.......ether. While in phy school, one of my closest friends (no longer here - died @ age
36 from a stroke) tried to start his car with ether. He had his mother crank it over while he sprayed the ether down the carb. I was just walking up to see what he was doing & the engine back fired & died (lucky). The only problem was that a small spark had jumped up into the middle of his head. He had a large cloud of smoke coming from the top of his head & he didn't feel a thing. I guess he saw the look on my face & he turned and looked at his reflection in the window - we both panicked, put it out with a jacket or something & then while still down on the lawn we busted out laughing about how he looked like he was in some cartoon episode with the smoke billowing from his head. I guess it was mainly one of those nervous things you do after what could have been a tragedy but , thank god, was not. His mother got out of the car, called us something in Portugese & didn't speak to us for several days. My wife was behind me, & we laugh about this once or twice a year.