I got this email from Reader Tom:

Hey Zina,

Regarding your July 4th entry...I was at a party last night where they had a bunch of fireworks, particularly mortars. If you haven't seen these, they consist of a cardboard 2.5" by 15" long tube sticking out of a wooden base. You drop a shell down the tube and light the fuse (each shell has its own long fuse) and get back. A charge on the shell fires the shell about 100' in the air and then the shell explodes with nice pretty colors. Never were the instructions, "Place on ground. Light fuse. Get away." more applicable.

These guys got bored with that and started holding the tubes. One big guy tried holding the tube with one hand out at arm's reach and the recoil ripped the tube right out of his hand. The shell went about half as high. When the shell explodes, the burst is ~40' across, sometimes bigger. Another guy had a missfire and the shell exploded while he was holding the mortar tube. He was yelling, "I'm okay, I'm okay!" Meanwhile his crotch was on fire....as in flames. They tackled him and rolled him on the ground to put it out. I saw him up close later and he had a roughly 4" gash on one arm and like 10 holes in his clothes and scorch marks all over. Alcohol was probably sparing him from a lot of pain...probably sucks today.

-Tom