things unknown
john November 4th, 2010
Hours after a chat with Lesly yesterday about how things are done in one office at work, I remembered a story about an actor who was known more for his body than his acting ability (I can’t remember the guy’s name, or even what films he was in) who came up with what he thought was a pretty good prank on set one day: he’d take a gun loaded with blanks and pretend to shoot himself.
I’m sure it’s not the case on the most shoestring-budgeted indie films, but on any Hollywood film involving guns, there’s a gun expert. The gun expert is there to advise the crew on how guns are used (“don’t yank the trigger; squeeze it”) and, more importantly, how they should never be used. He sees the actor pick up the gun and put it against his head, and he starts shouting “no no no!” and the actor, apparently thinking what a great prank it’ll be, pulls the trigger. Bang, slump, thump: dead.
What he didn’t know was that even a gun loaded with blanks, going off against the side of someone’s head, has enough concussive force to kill the person instantly.
All of which is to say that as a librarian, I should know better than to make assumptions, especially about fields in which I’ve never worked.
Thanks, Lesly.