Remind me that I never will visit you, will ya?
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| MacGyver Online Forums > MacGyverisms > fun with vegetables |
| Posted by: laarell4241 26 February 2007 - 01:22 PM |
| Here's a sure fire way to thoroughly slime somebody. I don't know if mad cucumbers grow in the US, but this is something we did in Russia. Mad cucumber is a noxious vegetable or maybe fruit, who knows. What I do know is that the fruit of this weed, once ripe, explodes in a shower of slime and seeds. The slime is pretty hard to wash off, especially if you don't have running water. You take a chunk of an old pipe, tractor tailpipe works perfectly. Then take a bed spring (the coil type, like in couch pillows), a bunch of tape and a piston pull from an old hand pump. Feed the pump piston through the bed spring and secure. Feed everything through the tailpipe and secure on one end. It works kind of like a pinball shooter. Place the mad cucumber of proper ripeness down the barrel, aim and fire. You can make sights on the cannon from some twisted wire. The beauty of this cannon is that it works not just with mad cucumbers, but also with other fruit and vegetables. You simply use more or less force to launch your choice of projectile. Anyone else did anything fun with vegetables, besides cooking them, I mean? |
| Posted by: Astra 26 February 2007 - 02:18 PM |
| *backs away slightly* Remind me that I never will visit you, will ya? |
| Posted by: Old Fan 26 February 2007 - 05:26 PM |
I've found that nice round slices of cucumber make excellent eye pads to cool and sooth irritated, dry eyes - and when they've served their purpose, they can be added into a delicious salad (multi-tasking) so they don't go to waste. I don't know if that ranks as a MacGyverism... but it makes nice use of a very friendly - and good tasting vegetable.  |
| Posted by: MEP 26 February 2007 - 05:56 PM |
| *shakes head at Old Fan* I know some other uses for Cucumber but this is a PG site so I won't say them. |
| Posted by: MacNymph 27 February 2007 - 12:05 AM | ||
 Oh, lord have mercy. That was a loaded question and look who stepped up to the plate.  |
| Posted by: laarell4241 27 February 2007 - 06:58 AM | ||
I've done that with cucumber slices and it does feel really good. Another thing that works great for irritated eyes is green tea bags. Once you and your friend had your tea, just cool the tea bags off and put them over the eyes. Black tea bags would work too, but you can get brown raccoon eyes from those (at least I did). A good use for black tea bags is stopping blood. Don't know why it works, but it does. Once I'm done torturing tea bags, I open them up and spread the used tea leaves in my flower pots. My miniature rose bushes love that stuff. From teapot to your face to the flower pot. You know, reduce, reuse, recycle. |
| Posted by: laarell4241 27 February 2007 - 07:21 AM | ||
It was a purely defensive weapon against a couple of guys who just wouldn't get the message that raiding someone's apple crop was not exactly acceptable. I mean I could've launched bad green apples, but that would've likely caused serious bodily harm. This way only pride was injured. :-) Besides, that was 7th grade. I'm older and wiser now. :-) |
| Posted by: laarell4241 27 February 2007 - 07:27 AM | ||||
Well, not all of us have such dirty rotten minds, you know. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I meant setting traps with vegetables, or generating power or whatever. :-P |
| Posted by: Mac 27 February 2007 - 09:20 AM | ||
The tannin in them helps close up blood vessels. Won't work if an artery is spurting, but useful for little cuts or bleeding gums. You can fasten the tea bag to your body with duct tape.  Mac |
| Posted by: SAK 7 March 2007 - 12:02 AM |
| I'm allergic to cucumbers, so I have no use for them. I used to have a two-potato clock. I've used potatoes, apples, oranges, and lemons in it. I miss my two-potato clock.   |
| Posted by: Lothithil 7 March 2007 - 07:18 AM | ||
Do tomatoes really make the clock run fast?  |
| Posted by: Amy 7 March 2007 - 12:11 PM |
 I'm having flashbacks to hubby's potato canons! Very similar in concept to your cucumber launcher...but fueled by aquanet hairspray. Bad bad stuff... And to think we put that on our hair in the 80s.... |
| Posted by: MEP 7 March 2007 - 12:15 PM | ||
In my case Amy I put the stuff in my horses Mane. |
| Posted by: laarell4241 8 March 2007 - 05:42 AM | ||||
I don't think that would be true. If the speed at which the clock was running depended on the acidity of the vegetable, then the clock would be running much faster on lemons than on potatoes. I will assume in your experience it didn't. Now, tomatoes are more acidic than potatoes, but not as acidic as lemons. So based on that observation, the clock shouldn't run fast. Of course, we can always conduct a set of experiments with different vegetables and fruit and then write a paper about it. How about "Electrolytic Properties Of Vegetable Matter As Applied To Operation Of Electronic Timing Devices"? We could probably get it published too.  I'm sorry, I'm writing a paper right now, not about vegetables and electric currents but still, the squirelly mindset. |
| Posted by: laarell4241 8 March 2007 - 05:48 AM | ||||
I seem to be allergic to the stuff. The only use I've ever had for hairspray though was to spray pastel and charcoal drawings with it. Works great to make the chalk stick and not get smeared, otherwise pretty soon you have a big mess instead of a picture. When I was in art school we had a huge can of the stuff that we sprayed our work with in the hallway. It smelled horrible, like perfume from hades and made everybody's eyes water. |
| Posted by: Lothithil 8 March 2007 - 07:07 AM | ||||||
You sound so serious! I'm sure the paper you're writing will be just perfect! No, seriously, yer killin' me! |
| Posted by: laarell4241 8 March 2007 - 09:47 AM | ||
That's what happens when you do physics for a living.  You mind tends to wonder around and it's pretty darn impossible to leave the work at work. Besides, how else are you going to get a box of sewing pins you spilled out of the carpet? Me doesn't think, me just goes to stash of junk and gets big nail, wire, duct tape and batteries.  |
| Posted by: j12752 11 July 2007 - 04:52 AM | ||||
yikes!!! a loaded statement at best |
| Posted by: Issus 20 March 2008 - 04:07 PM | ||
How exactly do you make a two patato clock. Explain it in an idiot proof way, i'm kinda slow when following instructions. I usually don't bother when assembling something. |
| Posted by: SAK 22 March 2008 - 01:03 AM |
| It came as a kit, with a clock face in the middle, wires coming out, and holes for the two potatoes. Here are some how-to sites: http://www.unit5.org/christjs/Potato%20Battery.htm http://www.ehow.com/how_18637_make-potato-clock.html My two potato clock looked like the one shown here:  Hope this helps, Issus! |
| Posted by: Issus 22 March 2008 - 10:30 AM |
| Thanks for the info!! Now I know what I need. And that is a start. |
| Posted by: Murdoc12 22 March 2009 - 10:13 AM | ||
Thanks, I like yer self-awareness.  |
| Posted by: Keyan 19 May 2009 - 06:31 PM | ||
no offense, but that's kinda gross to use them again.   |
| Posted by: MacGyverOnline 19 May 2009 - 06:52 PM | ||||
Only if someone else is eating them  |
| Posted by: Pepino1309 9 August 2009 - 09:26 PM |
| Speaking of nasty fruit, ever step on the fallen fruits of a female Ginkgo Biloba? The smell is comparable to that of excrement. The female trees are not often planted for this very reason. Apparently, the fruit is edible, but I don't know how anyone could entertain the thought of eating something that smelled so nasty. |
| Posted by: MacGirl 1 June 2012 - 01:00 PM |
| Hmm... wonder if cucumber slices would help soothe sunburn? I do know of a plant that grows wild around here that does... it's called jewelweed, or spotted-touch-me-not. (The latter name is not because it's poisonous, but from the fact that if you touch the ripe seed pods, the things will fly open and the seeds will be launched a couple of feet.) Anyway, jewelweed juice is supposed to be good for minor skin irritations: sunburn, insect bites/stings, etc. Cucumbers might do the same... I'll have to try it next time I get sunburned (being an extremely fair-skinned Scandinavian girl, it'll happen sooner or later, no matter how careful I am!  ) |
| Posted by: KiwiTek 1 June 2012 - 04:00 PM |
| Apparently cucumber does help with sunburn it's "naturally hydrating and moisturizing to the skin" although I think Aloe juice (directly from the plant) works much better as it aids in the healing as well as soothing. |
| Posted by: MacGirl 1 June 2012 - 05:47 PM |
| You're probably right, Kiwi, but I was thinking cucumber might work in a pinch, until you can get your hands on some aloe gel, if you don't happen to have any around. |