Kick The Bucket Or Be Kicked

I love the SC Aquarium in Charleston. We go annually as part of our Kiawah trip. But last time I saw something that got my editorial knickers in a bunch.

There is a kid’s corner with a curious wall activity asking, “Which is the most dangerous?” Underneath are four pictures on plaques. Each plaque has a knob and a set of hinges. When you pull the knob, a number is revealed informing you how many people are injured per year by the object on the front.

Here are the four objects: shark, cat, beach chair, and toy bucket. What’s the most dangerous? If you guessed beach chair, I’m sorry, you’re out. Ditto cat. Likewise shark. The most dangerous item is the bucket. The numbers were, okay I can’t remember exactly, something like this: shark – 14, cat – 800, beach chair – (I totally forgot), and bucket – 1300, I think. Or was it 13,000?

Does that bother anybody? Wait, I see a hand-raised. What is it you ask? Oh right! Without a percentage, these numbers are worthless. How many sharks are there? How many buckets? To Wikipedia!

Chance of being attacked by shark: 1 in 11.5 million

Chance of being bitten by owned, not feral, cat in US: 1 in 226

Recall of Build-a-Bear toy beach chair: 8 injuries out of 269,700 chairs sold in US and Canada

Recall of child’s folding mini beach chair: 1 reported injury out of 100,000

Bucket Injuries: I’m not coming up with any numbers. I need a savvy web-searcher. Any volunteers?

Anyhoo, are buckets really dangerous? Or is it the people swinging them into each other’s heads? Or the water left inside that becomes a drowning hazard to a small child? I don’t know, but I gotta tell ya, if given the choice to swim with one of these four objects, I’m picking the bucket. What can I say, I like to live dangerously.